The Eastern States Languages Working Group coordinated a forum to address key points contained in the National Indigenous Languages Policy relating to the preservation of Language materials. The forum was held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney on Friday the 21st May.
The National Policy notes the role of national collecting institutions in preserving and making accessible materials relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. As such the Forum brought together representatives of major National, State and Territory collecting institutions to recommend strategies relevant to the development of a National Indigenous Language Materials Collection Policy, with the aim of ensuring effective and appropriate management of language materials into the future.
The attendees were asked to work together to draft a set of issues for consideration and discussion under each of the following headings:
o Auditing and identification of resources
o Access to collections
o Aboriginal Knowledge
o Growing Collections
The group then drafted a set of strategies and actions which will continue to be developed into a draft framework for management of Indigenous Language Materials Collections.
The forum was a great success with representatives from each of the major Indigenous Languages collecting institutions attending. The attendees expressed a keen desire to work together in addressing the outlined issues into the future.
Discussion points, recommendations, action lists and the list of those who attended is available for download for those with further interest.