Records of Pacific Languages: Where Are They and Who Can See Them?

Abstract

Australian researchers have a long tradition of working in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea. University-based linguists in particular have been travelling since the 1960s to remote parts of the region to learn some of the nearly 2,000 languages spoken there. Most of these languages continue to be spoken, in defiance of the colonial monolingual enterprise that considers them an impediment to progress. A language may provide a source of identity, but multilingualism, the ability to speak or understand other languages, is normal, and is valued. Despite this value, rising rates of migration and urbanisation are contributing to the decline in use of local languages. This increases the urgency of creating records for future reference, and of preserving existing records where they exist. Since early this century our project, PARADISEC (Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), has been locating tape recordings made in the region by Australian linguists, musicologists, and anthropologists, but held in Australia. PARADISEC is a collaboration between three Australian universities: the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and The Australian National University. We have been working to find relevant analogue records and to digitise them, putting them into an online system that makes them discoverable, joining increasing numbers of born digital field recordings. Depositors specify what kind of access and use can be made of the materials; we always aim to make items as accessible as possible, but we also use a takedown principle in case we are advised of inappropriate content.