Mukurtu Midwest
Mukurtu (pronounced MOOK-oo-too) Midwest is a regional hub that provides support and training in Mukurtu CMS to tribal and non-tribal cultural heritage institutions in Wisconsin and the western Great Lakes states. The Midwest Hub was established at WiLS in 2017 in partnership with the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University and the iSchool at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the IMLS-funded Mukurtu Hubs & Spokes initiative.
WiLS’ relationships with Wisconsin’s Native Nations have been built on mutual respect and humility, with Indigenous needs and goals for their cultural heritage at the center of these efforts.
Mukurtu is developed by the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University. It is a free, open-source content management system designed to support the unique needs of Indigenous libraries, archives, and museums. Mukurtu’s cultural protocol-based and community-driven platform empowers communities to create their own digital systems of cultural preservation and access in relevant and ethically-minded ways.
WiLS provides the following services for Mukurtu Midwest:
- Training in Mukurtu CMS
- IT support in Mukurtu, around installation needs, updates, and user maintenance
- Partnerships with new information professionals in Wisconsin higher-level learning, such as:
- Training for students in Mukurtu
- Support and mentorship for service learning projects using Mukurtu
Recent or Current Projects
Mukurtu Hubs and Spokes: A Sustainable National Platform for Community Archiving
The Mukurtu Midwest Hub was established at WiLS in 2017 in partnership with the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University (WSU) with the IMLS-funded Mukurtu Hubs & Spokes initiative.
The grant formed regional hubs of support and training in Mukurtu for tribal and non-tribal cultural heritage institutions. Hubs also collected user stories from community members and provided feedback to WSU to further the development of Mukurtu.
Initial Hubs included Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Native Northeast Research Collaborative, Yale Divinity School, University of Oregon Libraries, and WiLS. The project also went international with the addition of an Australia Hub.
Presentations and Publications
WiLSWorld Short Presentation on Mukurtu and the Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Mukurtu project with Mukurtu Midwest Hub Manager, Erin F.H. Hughes and former TLAM student, Andrea Cudworth
Ho-Chunk Nation Digital Library project celebrates its third year of work by Ardith Van Riper
The First Steps to a Digital Archive by Andrea Cudworth, Midwest Mukurtu Hub Project Assistant, 2018
WiLSWorld 2018, Lighting Talks: Innovations in Digital Projects
Midwest Archives Conference, 2018, Beyond Institutional Boundaries: Community Archives and Representational Belonging
Mukurtu: Ethically Minded and Socially Empowering Digital Archiving by Erin F.H. Hughes