With each passing year, analog media such as tapes are degrading, and becoming increasingly unplayable and irretrievable despite our best restoration efforts. PARADISEC are racing against time to locate, digitise, and secure these culturally significant records. The PARADISEC collection represents oral traditions, dictionaries, songs and texts from over 1,200 languages, largely from the linguistically and culturally rich region of the Pacific.
The PARADISEC podcast, “Toksave – Culture Talks”, is one of our current projects that supports connection between First Nations community members and their valuable cultural heritage. Amongst the tangible benefits of preserving this cultural heritage are:
cultural pride and (re)vitalisation of language and practices
contribution to reconciliation, through sharing Indigenous stories and experiences more widely
Podcast interviewees have shared:
Johnny Obed weaves his basket metaphor at the Toksave Podcast launch, February 2021
“it was really very moving [to hear the stories of the elders]” Emily Ford
“it’s unlocking the archives to allow a more personal approach to accessing that information and knowledge in a new way.” Payi Linda Ford
“I really felt a strong connection listening to these stories [from the archive]… I’ve learnt so much about myself, and it’s helped me open up a new dialog with my family. I’m proud to share [the podcast episode], and thankful for what PARADISEC has done for me.” Prash Krishnan
"Our stories, what we are doing in the archives, are there, living. I’ve got my basket, we’re still weaving… We hear the stories from everywhere coming in, [and] I’m excited! Because together, finally, our little stories have become living, and they are there for our future generations as well. I’m overjoyed!” John Obed
PARADISEC strives to maintain its position at the cutting edge of archiving infrastructure and data management technologies. In this 'Big Data' world we live in, these technologies are a critical element of current systems, and will be so into the future.
We work closely with many partners to optimize our systems and processes, and to ensure we can deliver our important data and services to relevant users in an efficient and secure manner.
Our Technology partners include: Intersect; Research Data Australia; QCIF; Nectar
We work within a broad range of professional standards, including those governed by: Core Trust Seal; World Data System; Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
We are currently working with a team across multiple universities to rebuild the PARADISEC catalog with RO-Crate, to take the public face of our archive into the future on a more stable, user-friendly and functional platform.
Technology can be an especially resource intensive area of our work, which is why your support will be crucial in maximizing our impact.
At PARADISEC we proudly work together with our international partners to maximize the impact of our project. Our collection is inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, and we are currently undetaking a two year project, True Echoes, in collaboration with the British Library.
In particular, we work closely with cultural and educational institutions throughout the Pacific Islands, including the Insititute for Papua New Guinea Studies, Solomon Islands National Museum, Vanutu Kaljoral Senta, University of French Polynesia, and more.
We are always looking for new international partners, and your support can help us to broaden our reach, in order to better serve our community of users, whether they are engaging with PARADISEC for purposes of research, education, or cultural preservation and enrichment.
Your impact
Without PARADISEC’s intervention, many irreplacable records may be lost very soon, taking with them a wealth of cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. The technical advancements we have built upon since 2003, valuable both in the field of digital archiving as well as the digital humanities space, require continued funding and support.
If you wish to make an impact with your philanthropy by supporting PARADISEC’s projects and operations, please reach out to our team: admin@paradisec.org.au
Acknowledgement of donors will be made in the catalog entry and in other mutually agreeable forms.
PARADISEC (Inc) is a deductible gift recipient*, which means that any donations over $2 can be claimed as a tax deduction. You will receive an automatic receipt from Paypal but please contact us if you need an additional receipt for tax purposes. ABN 26 070 515 971
Donating funds to PARADISEC
Click here to donate via PayPal.
We are interested in hearing from any potential donor who would consider underwriting a project for a period of time to allow us to devote our efforts to preserving these unique records rather than spending much of our time writing funding applications or reports.
We hope to hear from donors who would be willing to underwrite PARADISEC’s activities as shown on the Paradisec Projects page. Acknowledgement of donors will be made in the catalog entry and in other mutually agreeable forms.
PARADISEC (Inc) is a deductible gift recipient*, which means that any donations over $2 can be claimed as a tax deduction. You will receive an automatic receipt from Paypal but please contact us if you need an additional receipt for tax purposes.
Thank you very much for your support of our work!
Volunteer
If your employer matches donations using Benevity, we are listed there as an eligible recipient, see the PARADISEC Benevity page.
Please contact us if you would like to volunteer your time – whether a little or a lot – to assist with PARADISEC’s projects. Thank you!
Past volunteers and donors
PARADISEC has been fortunate to have a team of dedicated supporters. We acknowledge the following volunteers who have helped in various ways to improve our collections.
2014: Andrew Tanner (organising the Blench collection of Afroasiatic and Niger-Congo records) 2013: Rosey Billington, Lauren Gawne, Jill Vaughan, Aidan Wilson (PARADISEC conference volunteers) 2012: Béatrice Bijon, Colin La Flamme, Rachel Orzech 2009: Shoko Kubotera 2005-2008: Peter Newton (organising the collections of Arthur Capell) 2007: Ashisha Cunningham
Donors
We thank the following donors whose support has enabled further work on PARADISEC collections:
