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Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

On-Country Digitisation Initiative

Action description: 

An initiative to visit communities on-Country, to provide skills training and community-led preservation of local historic Indigenous content held on at-risk audio-visual media.

Activities will be led by AIATSIS, in partnership with First Nations Media Australia (FNMA), the First Nations broadcasting and media sector peak body. The AIATSIS Central Australia digitisation facility in Alice Springs will act as a hub for the project, with mobile digitisation teams working with Communities through consultation and providing collection assessment; conservation and preservation via digitisation; and offering Community members skills training in collection care and accessing the digitised materials.

The initiative will assist in the preservation of content held by Remote Indigenous Media Organisations (RIMOs) and Indigenous community broadcasters, given they have known volumes of significant information, stories and knowledge stored on at-risk audio-visual media.

Once digitised the material remains the property of the community-based organisations, however they will be encouraged to consider making the digitised content available for inclusion in the AIATSIS collection, and/or made publicly accessible via other pathways such as Trove or IndigiTube.

Priority reform: 
Priority Reform Four
Outcome: 
Outcome 16
Outcome 17
Status: 
Existing
Is this Indigenous specific?: 
Yes
Indicators: 
Number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people employed in media (disaggregated by income levels)
Responsible Ministers: 
Minister for Indigenous Australians
Resourcing: 
$3.8 million
Delivery timeframe: 
Expected completion by June 2025
Agency: 
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
National Indigenous Australians Agency