Developing a Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages

The fluctuating fortunes of Northern Territory bilingual education programs in Australian languages and English have put at risk thousands of books developed for these programs in remote schools. In an effort to preserve such a rich cultural and linguistic heritage, the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages project is establishing an open access, online repository comprising digital versions of these materials. Using web technologies to store and access the resources makes them accessible to the communities of origin, the wider academic community, and the general public. The process of creating, populating, and implementing such an archive has posed many interesting technical, cultural and linguistic challenges, some of which are explored in this paper. 1. INTRODUCTION. During the era of bilingual education in the Northern Territory (1973 ‐ 2000s), many books were produced at school-based Literature Production Centres in more than 25 languages. These materials, which are both widely dispersed and endangered, contain interesting and significant stories in Indigenous Australian languages, many with beautiful illustrations. As a result of policy and other changes, many of the materials produced for these programs are no longer in use, and in many places have been lost, damaged or, occasionally, deliberately destroyed. The goal of the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages project 1 is to create a digital repository of this endangered literature and, with permission from the language authorities (usually original authors and illustrators or their descendants), to make the materials available to community members, researchers, and other interested parties through a searchable, online repository. The aim is to create a living archive with strong connections to the communities of origin. The process of creating the archive has involved identifying and sourcing the books, scanning and digitizing them, and storing them safely. Once permission was obtained, the digital copies and any other related materials were then uploaded to the online archive so people could access them readily. The creation, population, and implementation of such an archive has posed a number of interesting challenges, as the project team endeavored to follow best practices in language archiving and to create a functional and user-friendly interface, while being culturally sensitive and responsive to community wishes. This paper discusses some of these technical, cultural, and logistical challenges and outlines what solutions were identified to resolve each of these sometimes-conflicting goals.