Practice Guide for Databasing Local Cultural Knowledge. Tablelands Country Traditional Custodians and the Building Aboriginal Knowledge Partnerships on the Atherton Tablelands Project Team for and on behalf of the Rainforest Aboriginal peoples of the Wet Tropics biocultural region of Tropical North Queensland

This Practice Guide for Databasing Local Cultural Knowledge provides practical guidance for Indigenous Traditional Custodian groups seeking to identify, organise, and manage their local cultural knowledge in ways that respect cultural authority, traditional law and custom, and community governance. The guide responds to a persistent gap between the recognition of Indigenous knowledge as valuable and the availability of culturally appropriate tools and processes for communities to control, stabilise, and apply that knowledge for their own purposes.The document positions local cultural knowledge as collectively held, place-based, and governed by Indigenous decision-making systems rather than as neutral data. It emphasises that databasing cultural knowledge is not a technical exercise alone, but a cultural governance process requiring clear authority, consent, and accountability. Throughout the guide, the primacy of Traditional Custodian endorsement, Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and respect for cultural restrictions is foregrounded.The guide outlines a staged and pragmatic approach to databasing that begins with clarifying purpose and governance before moving to sourcing, categorising, and managing cultural information. It recognises that much relevant material already exists in publicly available sources and collecting institutions, yet remains fragmented, difficult to locate, or described through non-Indigenous frameworks. The guide therefore supports Indigenous-led efforts to re-identify, contextualise, and curate this material in ways that align with community priorities.Attention is given to practical considerations such as metadata, access controls, review cycles, and the distinction between different types of cultural information, including restricted, sensitive, and shareable knowledge. The guide also addresses resourcing and capacity challenges faced by small and under-resourced Traditional Custodian groups, advocating for scalable systems that can grow over time and be adapted to different community contexts.Importantly, the guide situates databasing within broader aspirations for cultural continuity, governance, education, land and sea management, and economic participation, including tourism and interpretation. By providing a culturally grounded framework for managing local cultural knowledge, the guide supports Indigenous self-determination and strengthens the foundations for ethical partnerships with government, industry, researchers, and cultural institutions.Overall, the document serves as both a practical manual and a governance framework, offering Indigenous communities a defensible, culturally safe pathway for bringing their local cultural knowledge “to hand” while retaining control over how that knowledge is stored, interpreted, and used.