Pacific&RegionalArchive for DigitalSources in EndangeredCultures

Large language models for small languages Of the 7,000 languages in the world today, most have little presence on the internet. What records there are in these languages are often religious translations from large languages and so, while b…

New blog from Nick Thieberger describing ongoing research by PARADISEC and collaborators on ASR (speech-to-text) of Pacific languages to create tools for supporting communities and workers! www.paradisec.org.au/blog/2025/10...

16.10.2025 04:08 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

LD&A – Language Documentation & Archiving Conference

PARADISEC and ELAR are excited to announce the third Language Documentation and Archiving conference, to take place in Berlin, Germany and online from 9-11 September 2026.
Abstract submission open now, until 1 March 2026.
More information at langdoc.org.

16.10.2025 03:53 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Canberra singing group brings 'lost' Pacific music back to life - ABC Pacific For the past 20 years, PARADISEC has digitised music recordings which date back decades and feature more than 1300 Pacific languages.

PARADISEC digitises Pacific music recordings dating back decades in more than 1300 languages. www.abc.net.au/pacific/prog... via @ABCaustralia

02.10.2025 21:50 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Archived sound and creative engagements with Papua New Guinean cultural heritage in Australia For people in the region of Oceania and Indigenous Australia, histories have long been held in oral and embodied forms. Pacific historians have pointed to the ‘vast store of lived and relived exper...

Our new article on songs that hold histories & people from the diaspora interacting with archives today:
with Deveni Temu, Steven Gagau and Jodie Kell 'Archived sound and creative engagements with PNG cultural heritage in Australia' www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
@paradisec.bsky.social

02.10.2025 02:39 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Introduction Simple Steps for Archiving Language Documentation Collections

A reminder about a useful resource for learning about archiving language materials:
archivingforthefuture.teachable.com/courses/test...

11.03.2025 10:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The Insider Archivist: Collecting Music Recordings from East New Britain (ENB) In 2024, I initiated the “ENB Digitisation and Preservation Project” aiming to collect old analogue tape recordings from my community in East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. As a staff…

The Insider Archivist: Collecting Music Recordings from East New Britain, PNG (via @paradisecblog) www.paradisec.org.au/blog/2025/03...

06.03.2025 03:37 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

conference programme here unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/p...

25.02.2025 04:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

PARADISEC Director Nick Thieberger speaking in Paris at the UNESCO Language Technologies for All conference on “The importance of digital language & music archives for language & cultural continuity, an example from the Pacific & Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures”

25.02.2025 03:11 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 1

AI doesn't have to involve big tech companies competing for data dominance. Cooperative governance offers an alternative model, as described in this (not yet peer-reviewed) paper from READ-COOP scholarly director, @melissaterras.bsky.social.

open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-1...

13.02.2025 10:50 — 👍 11    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 0

Other collections on display highlighting the Australia-Pacific connections are the Queensland South Sea Islander Indentured Labour Records 1863-1908 and Funafuti: The Edgeworth David 1897 Expedition Documents (Australia and Tuvalu).

12.02.2025 21:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Poster for the Pasifika Collections in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register, 6 February-11 May, ACT Heritage Library

Guest speaker Deveni Temu

Ros Russell of UNESCO Australia Memory of the World Registry speaking from podium about the collections on exhibit.

Glass case showing a few representative items from the five collections highlighted.

Pasifika Collections in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register launch was last night, featuring Deveni Temu speaking about his connections to items held in @paradisec.bsky.social, PAMBU, & FE Williams Collections of Photos of Papua. Exhibit on display at ACT Heritage Library til 11 May.

12.02.2025 21:19 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 1

Digital Preservation Masterclass: A Celebration of Good Practice, Innovation and Collaboration - Digital Preservation Coalition

PARADISEC Director Nick Thieberger will present in the DPC webinar series, on 12 March. Registration link below 👇

www.dpconline.org/events/event...

12.02.2025 01:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

How we’re recovering priceless audio and lost languages from old decaying tapes A sophisticated machine called the LM-3032 Tape Restorator is helping give new life to decaying, decades-old cassettes.

PARADISEC’s Nick Thieberger on our new cassette tape lubricator
theconversation.com/how-were-rec...

11.02.2025 00:48 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0