Projects

Active Projects

The Digitisation and Preservation Program is the key to our work. Material that we collect and digitise grows Galamarrma providing safe and respectful access for educators, students, community and family.

We digitise, return, and use the records and information revealed through our efforts to recognise and preserve community, cultural, linguistic and education related knowledge and make these accessible in a respectful way. Working with others, we facilitate learning, development, preservation and celebration.

Our current work program includes:

Aboriginal Language Champions Posters Project

Together with the Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Northern Territory (ATESOL), Friends of Bilingual Learning, Library & Archives Northern Territory, Charles Darwin University, NT Department of Education & Training, and Batchelor Institute Press we are producing a set of Language Champion Posters. These posters are being developed by volunteers and produced with the support of Batchelor Institute.

See the current set of Aboriginal Language Champions Posters in Galamarrma.

Use the Download Link on the "item" tab to access a copy of a poster.

Deadly Aboriginal Educators Posters Project

See it! Be it! A second series of posters Deadly Aboriginal Educators is being produced in collaboration with Batchelor Institute Press, Library & Archives Northern Territory, Charles Darwin University and the NT Department of Education & Training. The posters are to recognise and celebrate the life and work of strong Aboriginal educators who are (or were) role models in their own and the wider community. By creating a poster, their stories are preserved, easily shared and visible. Northern Territory Education Mob is producing these with Graphic Designer Sarah Martin.

See the current set of Deadly Aboriginal Educator Posters in Galamarrma.

Use the Download Link on the "item" tab to access a copy of a poster.

2026 Batchelor Institute CALL (Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics) Collection Digitisation Project

The CALL Collection is a unique archive of texts, audio, video and eBooks about Australia’s First Nations languages, particularly, but not exclusively from the Northern Territory. The material was created and collected over the past 50 years by communities, students and staff. The expensive task of digitising the collection began in 2017. Digitising enables the material to be preserved and make the collection more accessible. NTEM is pleased to be able to assist in the digitisation of many more documents through a grant to Batchelor Institute from the National Library of Australia.

2026- Batchelor Institute Image Collection Project

As part of our Partnership Agreement with Batchelor Institute, we are working with ex and current Batchelor staff and students to identify the people places and events in a digitised collection of over 6 500 images that reflect Batchelor’s history. This work is being undertaken by conducting a series of sessions working directly to Galamarrma.

2026- Charles Darwin University Library - Cecil Neilson Collection and Jim Gallacher Collections Digitisation

The opportunity to collaborate with the Charles Darwin University Library to house, catalogue and digitise the two amazing collections is a welcome addition to our program of work. Spanning over forty years, Cecil's extensive collection is a treasure trove of material about Bilingual Education, English as a Second Language teaching and learning and Homeland Centre Education.

Jim Gallacher was a pioneer educator and known to many as coauthor of what is known as Watts Gallacher Report, the first substantive report into Aboriginal Education published [NE1-0000936] in 1964, the recommendations from which provided policy direction for all aspects of Aboriginal Education for many years to come.

2025- Gunbalanya School Centenary and Keeping Culture Initiative

Funded as part of the Gunbalanya School Centenary Celebrations, working with the Gunbalanya Independent Public School, this multiyear project includes working with present and past school staff to:

facilitate the creation of a Gunbalanya instance of the Keeping Culture software (the software that runs Galamarrma), including loading of digital content from the former Gunbalanya Community Stories software kept safe by Library & Archives Northern Territory.
tidy up the Gunbalanya collection in Galamarrma
identify, locate and contact former educators encouraging them to donate their private collection for digitisation and return and write a memoir
focus our digitising efforts on collections relating to Gunbalanya
negotiate enhancements to the Keeping Culture software to enable a direct transfer of material in NTEMs Gunbalanya collection on Galamarrma to the Gunbalanya version to happen seamlessly
research and created 14 pictorial timelines that tell a story of the community and school
made approximately 50 Kunwinjku Talking Books from the former bilingual program and refreshed versions by Bininj Kunwok Regional Language & Culture Centre We built on the lessons learnt from creating the Tiwi Talking Books. The books were produced in multiple formats and deposited with Trove, Territory Stories and Galamarrma.

Posters on display at the gunbalanya centenary

Display of Pictorial Timeline Posters at the Gunbalanya Centenary Celebrations day. [Photo courtesy of Wendy Kennedy]

See the current set of materials in the Gunbalanya Community Collection.

[Photograph - Mural on the school wall inspired by Maree Evans, students, families and teachers, 2016 Photographer - Sue Reaburn]

See the Publications page for details on the formats available for the Kunwinjku talking books and how to access them.

2025-2027 Northern Territory History Grant

A successful grant bid to produce bilingual digital multimedia material about the early history of making the Groote Eylandt communities is in progress. This project builds on the foundation created by the previous Truth Telling Grant. The work is being facilitated by a Reference Group which includes representation from family members of the Stolen Generations who were taken to Emerald River, the Church Missionary Society, Anindilyakwa Land Council and Northern Territory Education Mob members with relevant expertise. Stories are emerging about the people, places and events that shaped the history of the different communities.

[The Northern Territory History Grant program is a Northern Territory Government initiative administered by Library & Archives Northern Territory. ]

2024- Stolen Generations Resources and Digital Return Project

Funding from the Northern Territory Government (Treaty, Healing and Reconciliation Grants Program 2023-24) supported the digitisation, colocation and digital return of over 12 500 multimedia items relating to the Stolen Generations in the Northern Territory. This work could not have been done without the cooperation and support of staff in many of the libraries, archives, and universities throughout Australia and beyond. A comprehensive report was written outlining many of the issues and challenges experienced through the life of the project in order to record and share the lessons learned.

There is still much more to be done. Lead by the Northern Territory Education Mob the partners in have agreed to self fund the continuation of the work to:

identify and returned even more material
ensure ICIP and usage rights are clarified to make as much of the material available publicly as possible
undertake digital return
create new material where capacity allows

The material is being managed on Galamarrma. While the digital return and use permissions remain a work in progress, many of the images remain as ‘restricted’. Careful, steady progress continues. Face to face sessions supported by collaborators Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, Northern Territory Education Mob and Library & Archives Northern Territory continue to feature in this important work.

2026- Willowra School Bilingual Celebration

In preparation for Willowra Schools 50 years celebration of Bilingual Education, documents, cassettes, cds, floppy discs, videos and the like were sent to the Northern Territory Education Mob. Much of hard copy has been digitised and both hard and ecopy returned and used in the schools 2026 celebration. As much of the digitisation needs format changes to occur in real time it is slow work.

In addition former educators have shared their personal collections (hard and ecopy) which have also been digitally returned to Willowra and added to Galamarrma where our volunteers are working to add the ‘who, what, when and where’ to each item.

See the current set of materials in the Willowra Community Collection.

[Photographs - Aerial view of Willowra - Photographer Ludo Kuipers]

2021- Patikajali Museum

The museum at Wurrumiyanga houses a very significant collection of the contact heritage of the community. In addition to its amazing artifacts, it holds an archive of material such as photos, negatives, audio and cassette tapes. With the support of Library & Archives Northern Territory and Northern Territory Education Mob volunteers, over a number of years these have been rehoused, catalogued digitised and returned. While there remains a large piece of work to identify duplicates before they can be added to Galamarrma, they are available at the Patikakali Museum.

Completed Projects

Preserving Tiwi Language and Culture Project

A project to record books in the Tiwi language was funded by the Commonwealth Indigenous Languages and Arts Program (ILA) and managed by the Catholic Education Office Northern Territory. Other collaborators were Patakijiyali Tiwi Museum and Library & Archives Northern Territory. Use was made of the Tiwi ebooks from the former bilingual program at Murrupurtiyawanuwu, part of the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LAAL) collection now held at Library & Archives Northern Territory. Other books which were part of Library & Archives Northern Territory and personal collections were also digitised by the Northern Territory Education Mob. The books were read by strong Tiwi language speakers and recorded. The recordings and digitised versions of the books were used to create two new versions of each book - an interactive ebook and a movie version. The products (books, movies and audio recordings) are available through Galamarrma.

100 ebooks were produced. In addition to the collaborators having a copy, the interactive ebook, audio recordings and movies of the books have been deposited with the Library & Archives Northern Territory for long term preservation and access through Territory Stories. The interactive ebook versions have also been deposited with Trove.

See the Publications page for details on the formats available for the Tiwi talking books and how to access them.

Areyonga School 50 Years of Bilingual Education

In preparation for Areyonga school celebrating 50 years of bilingual education in 2023, the school sent up a significant amount of material the Northern Territory Education Mob to digitise. This large piece of work was undertaken and the hard copy and a digital copy of all the material was returned to the school. All material digitised has been added to Galamarrma and with the school’s permission been given to Ara Iritja which also uses the Keeping Culture software. Former school teachers also generously donated their collections. Some wanted their original back, others did not and these were brokered to Library & Archives Northern Territory for safekeeping along with a preservation digital copy.

See the Areyonga School collection in Galamarrma

[Photograph - Five men outside school]

Shepherdson College Celebration

The year 2020 was the 50th year of the official opening of Shepherdson College. However the school actually started under a tree in 1942 when the Methodist Mission transferred the people and equipment away from Milingimbi which had been taken over as a RAAF base during World War 1. Both were celebrated. Northern Territory Education Mob created 15 stories using powerpoint as they were easy to edit. Current and former teachers assisted by sharing their personal collection which Northern Territory Education Mob digitised. All material digitised was returned to the donor with a digital copy as well as a digital copy provided to the school. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) also provided a number of collections which former Shepherdson School teachers had donated to them . Bäpa Sheppy’s images were also digitised and shared by the State Library of South Australia. Almost 9,000 images, 350 books, over 50 movies and nearly 20 audios are now on Galamarrma as part of the Elcho Island Community Collection and held at the school.

An A3 calendar which included school and staff artwork, images from various donors and contained current and historical important dates was created by the school and provided to every household.

See the current set of materials in the Elcho Island Community Collection .

[Photograph - from Shepherdson College Collection]

Kormilda College 50 year Celebration

In 2017 NTEM worked with Kormilda College staff (past and present) to create a photographic exhibition of over 100 poster highlighting the people events and activities that made Kormilda College. An historical timeline that told of its humble beginnings in 1967 and its progress to 2017 celebrated the achievement of the students who attended and a testimony to the staff as it closed at the end of 2017. Over 4 000 images and 200 document including the very popular year books are now preserved in Galamarrma

See the set of materials in the Kormilda College Photographic Exhibition 2017 collection

See the set of materials in the Kormilda College Community Collection

[Photograph - Kormilda with Magpie Geese]