A new studio built by the National Film and Sound Archive for the Strehlow Research Centre within the Museum of Central Australia, Alice Springs, has opened. 

The facility will provide traditional owners of central Australian communities with digital access to the film and audio recordings contained in the Strehlow collection of film, audio, maps, photographs, genealogies, diaries and sacred objects.

The collection contains more than 400 reels of 16mm film and more than 1000 audio recordings representing more than 800 ceremonial acts and 150 hours of language, stories and songs and was amassed by the late Prof TGH Strehlow, who spent more than four decades recording the ceremonial customs and traditions of Central Australian Aboriginal communities from 1932 through to the mid-’70s.

Film and audio recordings were deposited with the NFSA in 1990 and are kept in restricted environmentally controlled vaults in Canberra to limit deterioration. The NFSA’s digitisation of these audio-visual recordings, and its subsequent building of the studio in Alice Springs, are the results of a traditional, owner-led co-designed partnership.

As a significant part of the collection relates to “Men’s-Only” sacred and secret ceremonies and the archive worked closely with senior men to develop an appropriate set of protocols to ensure the cultural safety of the material while it was being transported, preserved and digitised at the NFSA, which also provided training to Aboriginal heritage officers from the Strehlow Research Centre in audio-visual conservation, preservation, digitisation, archiving and digital access.

“The use of technology is critical to preserve cultural practices from a variety of language groups in Central Australia, deepening our connection to Country,” Patrick McIntyre, the NFSA’s CEO said.