The Tribal Archive has finished digitising four hundred and twelve reels of audio recorded between 1961 and 1994, along with a further two hundred and sixty cassettes. The material is now catalogued, backed up in three places, and readable on equipment the Nation owns.
None of it has been published and none of it is online. Access runs through the archive access policy adopted by Council in 2021, which distinguishes between material open to any citizen, material open to family, and material that is closed.
“Digitising a recording and publishing a recording are two different decisions,” the Archivist said. “We have made the first one. The second one belongs to Council and to the families.”
Phase two covers photographs and paper records and begins in October. Citizens who hold family recordings and would like them digitised can bring them to the archive during open hours. The original always goes home with the family.