201244 dwyer, donna data management and automated mapping - protecting sacred sites in the northern...

8/2/2019 201244 Dwyer, Donna Data Management and Automated Mapping - Protecting Sacred Sites in the Northern Territory

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Data Management and Automated Mapping

Protecting Sacred Sites in the Northern Territory

AAPA

What is a Sacred Site?

The NT Aboriginal Sacred Sites

Act

AAPA Data

Automated Mapping Project


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The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority

The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) is anindependent statutory organisation

established under the Northern Territory

Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act, and is responsible

for overseeing the protection of Aboriginal

sacred sites on land and sea across the whole

of Australias Northern Territory.


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What is a Sacred Site?

a site that is sacred to Aboriginals or is otherwise of significanceaccording to Aboriginal tradition

In the Northern Territory most sacred sites are Dreaming sites.

Dreamtime ancestors travelled across the landscape giving it form andgiving Aboriginal people their traditional law.

Their activities took p

hysical form

in landscape features.


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Sacred sites take many forms

Not all sacred sites are registered.

All sacred sites are protected by Territory law whether

registered or not.

Hills, rock outcrops, waterholes, trees, reefs,

ochre sources, etc. may be Dreaming sites.

The Authority has also been asked to protect

some ceremony grounds and mortuary areas.


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NORTHERN TERRITORY ABORIGINAL SACRED

SITES ACT 1989

to effect a practical balance between the recognized need to preserve andenhance Aboriginal cultural tradition..and the aspirations of the Aboriginal and

all other peoples of the Territory for their economic, cultural and social

advancement

It is an offence under the Act to

enter onto a sacred site

carry out works on or use a sacred site

desecrate a sacred site

The Act is administered by the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.

The Act binds the Crown..in all its other capacities.


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Functions of AAPA under the

N.T. Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act

Establish and maintain a Register of Sacred Sites.

Process Authority Certificate applications for works

proposed anywhere in the Territory.

Maintain a Register of Authority Certificates.

Prosecute for breaches of the Act.


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AAPA Data

Strange concept mapping a culture

Aboriginal association with the land

implies an inherent spatial aspect to

protecting culture

We can utilise this to represent

aspect of the Aboriginal culture in a

visual / map form

11,000 + Sites in the AAPA Database


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AAPA Data - Sensitivity

The AAPA are holding sacred site

data in trust for custodians and

using it to protect sacred sites

New sites are generally recorded in

response to an application for an

Authority Certificate - custodians

divulge information when it is

needed to protect a sacred sites


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AAPA Data Limitations

Incomplete dataset

Only claim full coverage in areas covered by Authority Certificates

Sites often appear in our records if they are susceptible to

damage

Regardless of differing levels of site information and accuracy

classed using site status, all are protected under our Act

Different boundary types


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Automating our Mapping

Heavy increase in services meant we had to tighten up our systems

This included our research database as well as our mapping systems

Project was undertaken to automate our common mapping products

Authority Certificates, Requests for Information and Site

Registration


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Automating our Mapping - Situation

Database : Oracle 11g

Mapping Software Mapinfo 11.0

Using some old mapbasic scripts to update data and create

layouts

Manually providing data to external agencies using mapinfo sql


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Automating our Mapping - Changes

Using FME began the process of creating scripts to updatedata from internal and external databases and set them to run

automatically each night.

Once this was successful we delved deeper into FME and

started creating scripts to automate our mapping.

This was highly successful and implemented within a year.

Non GIS staff are now responsible for creating lots of our

products with sign off by our SLIO


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Automating our Mapping - Future

Data Integrity Using scripts to highlight data issues in our

database

Web mapping view of data for all staff

Mobile Mapping

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