Here's an excerpt from an article discussing Indian Artwork online.
Glenn
Protection and The Internet
Steve Cisler
Apple Library
sac@apple.com
October 14, 1993
copyright 1993 Steve Cisler.
<This essay is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.apple.com in the
alug/communet directory in ascii. These files may be put on educational
and non-profit BBSes, gophers, and anonymous ftp sites. All other online
services
and publishers must contact the author. First published in The Apple
Library Users Group Newsletter, Fall 1993>
Many cultures express concern about cultural disintegration by trying to
keep out alien influences: rock music, foreign languages, other
political ideas, alternative ways for men and women to relate to each
other, poetry, This will be done by stressing the negative points of the
outside influence and the strengths of the home culture. Because more
traditional and sometimes authoritarian groups (countries, companies,
Indian nations, and religions) have a growing presence on the Internet,
they will be looking for ways of filtering what their users see and use
as access is extended.
We are working with some Indian tribes to put historical photographs and
artwork online to share with others. One museum curator showed me some
photographs repatriated from the Smithsonian to the tribe. "Actually,
these will only be available to initiated males over 14 years old." The
photographs of the sacred dances (and the dances themselves) must be
protected. So there is a constant tension between the Indians wish to
make information available and to protect sacred information.
I hope the few issues that I have raised will generate discussion in the
library community because we have strong ideals of openness that are not
always well understood in a new environment like the Internet. If our
role as guides, editors, and electronic librarians is valid, we will
have to repeatedly confront these challenges.