We joined the True Echoes project, led by the British Library, which is engaging a range of international partners in reconnecting Indigenous communities with historical audio records of the sung and spoken cultures of Australia and Oceania. It involves the exchange of recordings, metadata and knowledge related to collections of Oceanic recorded sound. We are working to create metadata for a 1889 wax cylinder collection held by the British Library, of great importance to us because they are currently the earliest known recordings of Torres Strait Islander song and oral stories.
Working from digital copies, our process will provide a case study for digital metadata mapping and transformation, and the basis for a shared approach among the project’s international partners. Future steps will involve the Torres Strait Islander community, developing and fostering the Torres Strait Islander cultural memory held within AIATSIS.