K2fly Ltd (ASX:K2F) is part of a new partnership formed to deliver a new system for Aboriginal rock art and cultural heritage management in the sandstone country of southeast Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland.
The company has contracted with Griffith University and its project stakeholders and will work with its long-term cultural heritage partner The Keeping Place, to deliver the solution.
Rich body of rock art
This new cultural heritage solution will include mapping ancient rock art on Cape York Peninsula where the Laura Sandstone Basin hosts one of the richest bodies of rock art in Australia and the world.
It documents the lifeways of generations of Aboriginal Australians from their original settlement, through major environmental changes, to European invasion.
This vast area, much of which is now jointly managed as National Parks by Traditional Owners, remains virtually unexplored archaeologically.
The joint project aims to record this unique rock art so that its testimony remains for future generations.
This work will provide a framework for the area’s sustainable management and findings will have profound implications for understanding of the cultural behaviour and dispersal of the earliest modern humans to colonise Australia.
Cloud-based solution
The Keeping Place, an Indigenous-owned social enterprise and not for profit company, was created for native title organisations, Indigenous ranger programs and organisations operating within the Indigenous information and land management sector within Australia.
It is a cloud-based solution to digitally protect and share cultural knowledge and is also a complete business tool, helping Traditional Owner groups protect their rights and interests in land.
All data deriving from this project will have varying levels of permission.
The project is set up so that these permissions will be negotiated up front as part of the consultation process.
This will include ways and forms in which communities (including the different Aboriginal groups) would like their cultural information to be managed, used, and returned to them.
Steering Committee to meet
The inaugural Steering Committee meeting for the project will be held this month and the project will run for five years.
It will involve six universities, working with eight industry partners, which include six discrete Aboriginal corporations, a State Government agency and a private business.
The K2fly Board acknowledges its importance to traditional owners and stakeholder groups in cultural heritage.
READ: K2fly general meeting backs company’s ESG growth plans with green light for Decipher acquisition
Earlier this week, K2fly shareholders gave the green light at a general meeting to acquire the ‘Decipher for Mining’ business from CSBP Limited, a subsidiary of Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) (OTCMKTS:WFAFF) (FRA:WF3).
This acquisition will support the company’s ESG strategy, which also incorporates the work of The Keeping Place.