ABSTRACT
The year 2011 saw the birth of the Monash Country Lines Archive (MCLA) programme that reassessed existing academic processes in Indigenous Australian language preservation and community engagement. Working on the premise that Indigenous Australian communities already have the infrastructure to continue and preserve their language through intergenerational learning, MCLA decided to support this system of learning instead of changing it or introducing something new. The author explores the Importance of Learning Indigenous Languages through his friendship and kinship relationships with the li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu. MCLA Strategies looks at how the MCLA programme was built. Whilst MLCA is an academic programme, Faulkhead writes on how this does not need to be in opposition to the rights of Indigenous peoples in the protection of their cultural and intellectual property. The MCLA programme also addresses the long-term preservation of Indigenous language, culture, and narratives in digital and multimedia forms as an act of decolonization of the archive.
