Language & Culture

PAW-rluju-ka mardarni nyurru-warnu patu Pitiyawu ngulalu-palu ngurrju-manu Kamparrurlu. Nyampuju ngulajuka nganpa martu-purru nguna nganimpaku Warlpiri-ki, Pintupi-ki manu Anmatjirri-ki Archive-la.

The Warlpiri Media Archive is a collection of analogue video productions made by Warlpiri Media between 1983 and the late 1990s. It has been maintained since 1983 as a vital record of the Jukurrpa and languages of Warlpiri, Anmatyerr and Pintubi people.

PAW is widely accredited as being the first community organisation to develop and facilitate video production in remote Aboriginal communities. As a result, PAW has a rare and unique collection of videotapes (VHS) produced during the period 1983-2001. From 2001 PAW’s productions were shot in digital, and productions from 2001 are stored on a RAID storage system and accessed through our CatDV system.

PAW estimate that there are over 1000 tapes in the Archive collection, consisting of WMA News presented by Warlpiri speakers, recorded ceremonies, Yuendumu School Country Visits, 15 years of Yuendumu Sports Weekends and 13 episodes of the Warlpiri language children Manyu Wana. The archive also contains still photographs and audio recordings, often donated to the archive.

The archive is stored at the Yuendumu offices of PAW Media under the cultural custodianship of the Archive Office. The 400 most significant items from the collection are also stored at the National Film and Sound Archive. These items are those produced during the early years of PAW. During those early years, the researcher Dr Eric Michaels undertook an Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies fellowship at Yuendumu with the title “Assess the Impact of Commercial Television on Remote Aboriginal Communities”. A video was produced outlining the findings of the fellowship, which remain relevant to PAW’s work today.

PAW Media is working through an ongoing digitisation process for its archive to strengthen the collection’s longevity and to enable better cataloguing and user access over a large RAID network stored in the video room. Focusing on digitising selected VHS titles onto our RAID storage system and has so far completed over 100 videos. Some of these video files are included in the weekly Community TV playlist. Many photographic prints have also been scanned at high resolution and stored digitally. PAW Media aims to continue to upgrade its this process to preserve this significant collection.