What is NATSIEW?
NATSIEW is an educational portal or gateway site. Suitable resources are harvested, catalogued and indexed to a set of keywords. It is mainly through these keywords that visitors access the resources.
Resources: 1824
Keywords: 803 (See a list of the NATSIEW keywords)
Version 3
Phase one
The first phase of this current version of NATSIEW went 'live' on October 20, 2004. It introduced a completely revised home page with much new 'homegrown' content.
Phase two
The new topics section was launched February 28, 2005. Some topics have been restructured, new topics introduced and keywords are now grouped under subheadings. There are now seven topics:
| TOPIC | SUBTOPICS | |
| Traditional life | Belief practices Belief practices - traditional law Food and medicine Food, animal Food, plant Habitation and shelter | Language Scientific study Social organisation Social practices Traditional knowledge and beliefs Travel and communication |
| History | Conflict and resistance Contact history Government policy Occupations | Personal histories Pre-contact history Scientific study The Church Torres Strait History |
| Art and artefact | Art Artefact production Clothing and adornment Literature | Music Performing Tools, weapons, implements Watercraft |
| Contemporary life and issues | Citizenship and franchise | Health - Other issues Health - Risk factors Health - Substance misuse Identity Land, Resources and Business Law and justice Law and justice - Incarceration Law and justice - Stolen generation Racism - Expressions Racism - Impacts Self Governance Sport |
| Education and training | Aboriginal learners | Partnerships Pedagogy Curriculums and frameworks Languages Professionalism/Quality teaching Research School/Site structure and operation Sectors |
| Organisations | Cultural Education and training Indigenous Issues | Media |
| Resource type | Document type | Sources - Audio material Sources - Books Sources - Miscellaneous Sources - Visual material |
Phase three
For introduction in 2006 phase three will see the addition of two new topics: Language groups and To Australian life.
Audience
While NATSIEW is aimed specifically at educators and those training to be educators it contains much of interest to those outside the education professions.
Purpose
NATSIEW's purpose is to catalogue as comprehensively as possible, Internet resources related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with a special emphasis on education.
NATSIEW is broadly concerned with two issues:
- Learning about Indigenous Australia and
- the learning of Indigenous Australians.
As a consequence NATSIEW catalogs resources that:
- Provide insights into the Indigenous learner and support Indigenous studies and perspectives.
- Reflect the scope and diversity of Indigenous Australia as represented on the Internet
- promote human rights and equal opportunity and
- promote critical thinking in the use of the Internet, particularly in regards the evaluation of Australian Indigenous content.
Resource management
Cataloguing
The catalogue 'cards' or records contain the following information:
- Resource name
- Resource provider
- Contact address
- Content summary
- Keywords
- Geographical relevancy
- Internet address.
Resource selection
NATSIEW aims to index as widely and comprehensively as possible. Offensive or ill-informed sites are not included. However we acknowledge that it is not possible to manage such a large and dynamic collection of resources centrally. NATSIEW promotes empowerment at the user level in assessing the accuracy and appropriateness of material encountered through NATSIEW and elsewhere on the Internet by familiarity with the Murra Guidelines for the Evaluation of Indigenous Content on the WWW and the Selection Criteria for the Evaluation of Aboriginal Studies and Torres Strait Islander Studies Resources.
Resource maintenance and security
- Resource links and internal links are validated monthly.
- Backups of data are made weekly.
- Backups and copies of the site are stored on a secure server of the Department for Education, Training and Employment, South Australia and on computers of the development team.
- NATSIEW is protected by the corporate firewall and virus protection of the Department for Education, Training and Employment, South Australia.
Operational management
Responsibility for NATSIEW resides with the Senior Officers National Network of Indigenous Education (SONNIE). Operational management passes biannually between the Aboriginal Education groups of all states and territories. Currently NATSIEW is managed by Aboriginal Education, Department of Education, Training and Employment (South Australia).
NATSIEW gratefully acknowledges the hosting and technical support of NATSIEW by the Department for Education, Training and Employment (South Australia).
Project leader: Steve Walsh
Research and content support (volunteer): Hannah Walsh
Technical support: Lee Jones.
History
Funding for NATSIEW's development was provided the Department for Education, Training and Youth Affairs and the Department for Education, Training and Employment, South Australia.
Aron Hausler and Steve Wigg (of Runtime Development, Adelaide) and Lee Jones (of Shadow Media Design) did the technical work and Steve Walsh and Steve Marks managed the team.
A reference group comprising a majority of Indigenous people oversaw development.
The prototype was launched in September 1998 and version 2 became available in March 1999. Version 3 went online October 20, 2004.