$12 MILLION TO PRESERVE INDIGENOUS CULTURAL
HERITAGE
10 May 2005 MINBUD 36/05
Australia’s recorded Indigenous heritage will be
preserved for future generations through an Australian Government
grant of $12 million to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
The funding will allow films, photographs, video and
audio recordings held by the Institute to be transferred to digital
format. The project will enable a further 30% of the collection to
be digitised.
The Institute holds the world’s most extensive
collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audio visual
materials.
Much of the priceless collection, including rare and
fragile recordings of language, music, narratives and cultural
activities, has been collected by researchers over the Institute’s
40-year history.
‘Vinegar syndrome’, an ageing condition
characterised by a vinegar smell, warping and wrinkling is causing
films and tapes to deteriorate. The loss of these materials would be
highly damaging to Australia’s cultural heritage.
Digitisation of the collection will allow
preservation of irreplaceable documents, including papers recording
the daily life from the 1940s in Snake Bay Settlement on Melville
Island, now re-named Milikapti.
This funding will enable the use of leading edge
technology to preserve the materials for storage in the Institute’s
state-of-the-art archival facilities, and increase their
accessibility by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and
national and international scholars and researchers.
AIATSIS is Australia’s premier institution for
information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Some of the Institute’s recent preservations can be
viewed at
www.aiatsis.gov.au
Media Contacts:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Yaron Finkelstein 0414 927 663
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Virginia Cook 0412 971 323
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