Collecting Profile - Indigenous

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To be read in conjunction with the overarching principles and general principles for reference material or heritage material as relevant.

Purpose

Whilst the term `Indigenous’ can be used to describe native or original people of any country, our current priority for collecting Indigenous material is the care, preservation and access to Western Australian Indigenous documentary heritage, with Indigenous relating specifically to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Our collecting provides resources for use by both Indigenous people and all Western Australians with an interest in gaining an understanding of Indigenous culture and the impacts of events on Western Australian Indigenous people. We collect to ensure the stories and perspectives of Indigenous people are represented in our collections.

Collecting intent

We collect all published material relevant to or about Western Australian Indigenous people.

Coverage

Resources relevant to Indigenous music, family history, and children’s literature are core to our collecting in each of these broader collecting areas. We collect other Western Australian Indigenous resources as a focus within the heritage collections.

Our current Indigenous collection has a strong bias in records of the perspectives of non Indigenous Australians about Indigenous life, as historically they were the primary creators of documentary records. 

Our collecting will focus on balancing this with the perspectives of Indigenous people, particularly those about, by or relevant to Western Australian Indigenous people. Collecting will be in line with appropriate cultural protocols.

We endeavour to take opportunities that encourage Western Australian Indigenous people to create or enhance documentary records of their culture.

We acknowledge that Indigenous materials of a culturally sensitive nature may have unique access restrictions. Material of this nature is collected with respect to agreed access restrictions to ensure long term preservation and care. Where possible, our aim is to also facilitate the repatriation of these resources to the Indigenous community to which they belong.

Collaboration

Our collection complements material in the State Records Office and Indigenous collections within universities such as the library of the Centre for Indigenous Studies at Curtin University.

Format

Materials in all formats are collected however, we recognise oral and visual formats (including film) are important as a reflection of the Indigenous culture of sharing stories through the spoken word or pictures.

Duplication

We collect original language materials as well as direct translations of significant Western Australian resources into Indigenous languages.

Language

We collect English as well as Indigenous languages relevant to Western Australian Indigenous people

Budget emphasis

Heritage Indigenous resources have budget priority.