The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) has partnered with the Indigenous Remote Communications Association (IRCA), to offer two remote media and archive workers the opportunity to travel to the NFSA in Canberra to receive professional training.

The Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowship program will be offered for the first time in 2015. It will allow the recipients to experience and learn from the experts responsible for the development and preservation of Australia’s national audiovisual collection. The program builds upon the work of the NFSA, IRCA and other stakeholders, in the development of a national remote archiving strategy.

NFSA Indigenous Connections Curator Peter White said: ‘The aim of the Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowshipis to build and connect people working in country and at the NFSA. This connection will create a greater appreciation of the benefits of shared learnings towards the management and preservation of cultural collections.’

White added: ‘These shared learnings will also be extended to our sister national institutions, with the opportunity to visit other national cultural Institutions during the period of the Fellowship.’

IRCA’s General Manager Daniel Featherstone said: ‘There are a large number of community-produced audiovisual collections across remote Australia desperately in need of preservation. The Remote Media Archiving Strategy is aimed at building the capacity and skills of Indigenous organisations to locally manage these collections. This fantastic initiative will build on skills workshops IRCA recently delivered in partnership with NFSAto help preserve this important social and cultural heritage.’

Applications for the Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowship will open on 17 August 2015. The two successful candidates will be announced at the 17th National Remote Indigenous Media Festival in Lajamanu, NT, on 2 October.