Newsletter #15
November 2017
We haven't sent a newsletter since July 2016, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy! At a recent meeting of our key partners, we reviewed what's been happening throughout the last year or so, and thought we'd share some details with you all.
OVER 5000 ITEMS
As at November 2017 we have 3386 items publicly accessible online, which includes 166 multimedia items (audio recordings, ebooks, etc). We have another 500 items still in progress (already digitised and awaiting OCRing, checking, etc), not to mention another approximately 1500 items which are ready to go, but we haven't yet found people to give permission for them to be publicly accessible. This is an ongoing challenge for the project.
The archive has materials in 50 languages (not including English) from 41 locations across the Northern Territory. There are still some gaps we'd love to fill.
Did you know? If you have materials that might be appropriate to include in the Living Archive, you can let us know using our Offer of Materials.
It's been quiet lately because of our four chief investigators, one has fully retired and one has semi-retired, our project manager is working on a PhD, and our digitisation expert has moved to Canberra. But the work continues, collecting, digitising and uploading items to the archive, finding people to give permission, and maintaining a profile in both research and social media.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
In 2018 we're looking at revamping our home page for better integration between the 'news' page and the actual archive accessed through the map. We're also working on a sustainability strategy to ensure the ongoing life of the archive beyond the funding cycle. This includes creating a backup copy of all the files and metadata which is stored at AIATSIS. We'll also work on repatriating the digital files back to the communities of origin, and negotiate how they'd like to manage any materials that haven't been made public yet.
Did you know? There is a FEEDBACK button at the bottom of every page in the archive, so you can tell us about any ideas, problems or suggestions about the site or the materials.
We've also been exploring some different ways of using the materials in the Living Archive for other purposes, such as teaching and learning Indigenous languages. This has led to the development of a Digital Language Shell to enable language groups to teach online. We've worked with the Bininj Kunwok Language Project from West Arnhem Land on a Kunwinjku course, using some of the readers from the Living Archive. We had a great response from some volunteer learners, and other groups have expressed interest in using the shell to share their own languages. You can read more about it here.
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IN THE NEWS
Our project manager was interviewed about the project for ABC Darwin - you can read the full story here. There was also a follow-up interview with Talkblack Radio in Cairns that was broadcast on National Indigenous Radio Service.
The team was proud to have a chapter in the excellent book "History of Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory" edited by one of our chief investigators Professor Brian Devlin with other colleagues. At the launch of the book in Darwin, Professor Tom Calma even gave a shout out to the Living Archive project, which he'd also launched back in 2014.
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OUT AND ABOUT
We've had wonderful opportunities to share about the project at various events and locations over the last year including:
- CoEDL SHAPE Corpus Workshop, Melbourne, May 2017
- CDU's NAIDOC Summit, August 2017 #OurLanguagesMatter
- Garma Festival, August 2017
- Australian Council for Adult Literacy conference, Darwin, September 2017
- Puliima conference, Cairns, October 2017
- Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities National colloquium, Adelaide, November 2017
Did you know? You can read about our Research publications, and other references to our project on our website?
Keep up with all our news by following us on social media - we have Facebook and Twitter pages, and you can subscribe to our feed to get new blog posts sent directly to you.
Feel free to share this newsletter with others who may be interested, and keep in touch with all our activities! Read old newsletters or sign up for new ones here.
And we love hearing from our users and supporters, so drop us a line! livingarchive@cdu.edu.au
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