2025 Digitisation Centre of Western Australia Symposium

2025 Digitisation Centre of Western Australia Symposium

Welcome to the 2025 Digitisation Centre of Western Australia Symposium!

We acknowledge the Whadjuk People of the Noongar Nation as the Traditional Owners of this land on which the DCWA Symposium is held. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, as well as to emerging leaders. We recognise their continuing connection to land, water and culture throughout Western Australia. It is a great privilege to meet and learn on Country.

The Digitisation Centre of Western Australia DCWA was established with the goal of digitising collections of national and international significance held by organisations around the state.

This Symposium aims to continue to develop and enhance research synergies and opportunities in relation to the important cultural materials that have been digitised by the Centre to date. We warmly welcome interested researchers from across WA to participate in this important dialogue and look forward to a day of discussion and collegiality.

The DCWA emerges from an innovative collaboration between the Western Australian universities, the State Library of Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum.

Info: Helena Grehan is Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Research Fellow at the Western Australian
Academy of Performing Arts, at Edith Cowan University. She is a key member of the Digitisation
Centre of WA and currently leads the ARC Linkage Grant: ‘Life After Digitisation: Future-
proofing Western Australia’s Vulnerable Cultural Heritage.’ This grant is a collaboration
between ECU, UWA, four of Western Australia’s Aboriginal Language Centres, The Western
Australian Museum, and Arts and Culture Trust. She is the Editor of Performance Research
and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2023.

Info: Janet has been the DCWA Coordinator since January 2023. Prior to her current role, she worked in the private sector in Canberra digitising historic paper-based and photographic collections from local institutions. She has a master's degree in Museum and Heritage Studies with a specialisation in cultural heritage management (ANU - 2021).

Info: Panellists—including the collection curators and research partner—will reflect on how digital integration enables migrant stories to expand and evolve across generations and internationally, keeping open the possibility of adding new insights over time.

Info: Sharon Woodgate-Outram is the Senior Library Officer, Special Collections in the Geoffrey Bolton Library at Murdoch University. With a focus on the digitisation and preservation of rare and unique materials, they play a pivotal role in making invaluable resources accessible. Their work involves coordinating digital initiatives, overseeing the careful handling of historical documents, and collaborating with academic staff to support research and learning.

During the past 5 years as a partner of the Digitisation Centre of Western Australia, Murdoch University Special Collections has digitised paper, audio, video, 16mm films and transmissive materials from 16 different collections. This presentation will provide the trials and tribulations encountered processing the Irene Greenwood Collection.

Info: Clint Bracknell is a Nyungar song-maker and Professor at the University of Western Australia. He investigates connections between music, language, and landscapes while working on projects to improve Indigenous community access to cultural heritage collections. Clint co-translated world-first Indigenous language works in film and theatre, leads development of the Mayakeniny resource website, and creates Nyungar music under the name Maatakitj. He co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia (2024), holds a PhD on Nyungar song traditions, and has composed for Australian stage productions over the past two decades. Clint co-produced and co-presented the ABC Radio National Podcast Song with No Boss and served as Chair of the AIATSIS Council until 2025. He is a member of Creative Australia’s First Nations Board and an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Info: Alex Stephenson is a PhD candidate within the broader Life after Digitisation: Future-Proofing WA’s Vulnerable Cultural Heritage ARC Linkage project, which is digitising collections of language materials held at 4 Aboriginal Language Centres in Western Australia. Alex works with 3 of those language centres – Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language and Culture Centre, Kimberley Language Resource Centre, and Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre – where he explores post-digitisation futures. In particular, how the perspectives of language centre communities and their representatives can inform processes for the storage, management, and sharing of these language collections in appropriate and context-specific ways.

Info: Details coming soon.

Info: Jessica Marantelli is a professional in museum and heritage management, currently serving as the Coordinator of Museum Services for the City of Subiaco and previously as the Heritage Officer for Perth College. In these roles, she focuses on collection management, conservation, archiving, and making collections accessible for research and public viewing.

Info: Chloe has been the Senior Librarian (Copyright) at UWA since 2016 (interspersed with a few parental leave breaks). She provides copyright support to the UWA community, helping researchers, academics, and students navigate copyright in their research, teaching, and learning. Chloe also works closely with the UWA Collected team, providing guidance on copyright status, ownership, and permissions for digitised collections.

Info: Andrew Kelly, Digital Preservation Manager, State Library of Western Australia
Over the last four years, Andrew has lead SLWA's digital preservation practices, managing the long term preservation and access of the State's unique digital cultural heritage collections. With 25 years of experience working with library systems and technology, they bridge the gap between legacy systems and software, and new and emerging technologies.

Info: Details coming soon.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

State Library Theatre, 25 Francis Street, Perth, Australia

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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