Conference & Workshop 23 & 24 November 2026:
“GLAM Databases and First Nations Sovereignty in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”
Call for Papers
Generative artificial intelligence has intensified longstanding questions concerning the governance of digitised cultural heritage. Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) increasingly make collections available through digital infrastructures that promote preservation, research and public access. At the same time, digitised images, catalogue records, metadata and other cultural materials may be scraped, aggregated and incorporated into AI training datasets or other computational systems.
These developments raise significant questions concerning First Nations cultural authority, Indigenous data sovereignty, intellectual property, cultural heritage governance, metadata, access protocols and institutional responsibility.
In collaboration with the Indigenous Knowledge Forum, the GLAM Databases and First Nations Sovereignty in the Age of Artificial Intelligence project, supported by the UNSW–UTS Trustworthy Digital Society initiative, invites proposals for papers addressing these and related issues. Possible topics include:
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First Nations cultural authority and Indigenous data sovereignty;
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Intellectual property and digitised cultural heritage;
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Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property;
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GLAM collection governance;
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Metadata, provenance and cultural protocols;
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Access, openness and culturally appropriate restrictions;
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AI training datasets and cultural heritage;
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Rights-management technologies;
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Local Contexts, Traditional Knowledge Labels and related initiatives;
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Institutional stewardship and accountability;
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Comparative and international approaches;
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Legal and policy reform; and
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Technical or governance approaches to responsible digital collections.
Proposals engaging with legal, technical, cultural, institutional, policy or interdisciplinary perspectives are welcome. You are invited to submit a brief abstract of up to 300 words by 16 November 2026 to indicate your intention to present a paper at the GLAM Forum Conference. Abstracts should include the speaker’s name and institutional/organisational affiliation and be sent to Professor Natalie Stoianoff via email at natalie.stoianoff@uts.edu.au and please copy neva.collings@unsw.edu.au.
GLAM Forum Conference and Workshop 2026 Co-Convenors:
Professor Natalie P. Stoianoff & A/Professor Alexandra George
Organising Committee:
Dr Neva Collings, Professor Andrew Mowbray, Professor Lucas Lixinski, A/Professor George Tian,
Dr Marie Geissler, Dr Louise Buckingham & Shuwen Xu
Venue:
Faculty of Law
University of Technology Sydney
Building 2, Level 16
Broadway & Jones Street entrance | Broadway 2007
Further details and the final program will be available soon.