Alexander B1,2, Sacal Bonequi M1, Foley B1, Sefton P1, McLellan R1
1University Of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 2Australian Research Data Commons, Brisbane, Australia
Biography:
Blanche is an Indigenous professional and doctoral candidate whose research examines Indigenous Data Sovereignty within the context of remote community water and energy sector development. Her professional background encompasses community engagement, application development, and cybersecurity including data classification, data loss prevention, and cryptography alongside Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). Most recently, she has contributed to enhancing the security posture of large-scale organisations within a consultancy setting. Currently undertaking an internship with ARDC's HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons and LDaCA, Blanche applies her interdisciplinary technical expertise and cultural grounding to advance Indigenous governance frameworks, facilitate community-led co-design of data solutions, and advocate for the self-determination of First Nations and marginalised peoples.
Moises Sacal is a software developer and technical lead working on research data infrastructure. He currently works with the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA), where he helps build systems for managing, sharing, and preserving language data. His background includes roles at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in software development, systems engineering, and DevOps. He has also collaborated with environmental scientists on monitoring and data collection projects. His interests lie in building technology that supports research communities and the long-term stewardship, accessibility, and reuse of data.
Abstract:
Language collections comprise many different materials across diverse formats. The safe-keeping of both Indigenous language data and oral history collections requires approaches that support the long-term preservation of these materials and enable them to be shared, understood and used by community members today. This presentation explores how using RO-Crates can support these complementary goals.
Through examples drawn from current Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) projects, we demonstrate how community language collections, recordings, documents and cultural materials described using RO-Crate data packages can be presented through lightweight static web interfaces generated using open-source tools. This approach enables a single source of truth in the RO-Crate metadata while supporting discovery, navigation, and engagement by community members, researchers and collection custodians.
Linked-data packaging standards have been implemented to support Indigenous data stewardship and language revitalisation objectives, while maintaining compatibility with broader research data ecosystems. The work enables culturally appropriate access pathways and sustainable community-facing digital collections. Case studies include initiatives to continue cultural knowledge that have been developed in partnership with Indigenous communities, alongside oral history collections.
We conclude that using RO-Crates provide a practical framework for describing, sharing and maintaining language collections by connecting data, digital resources and community-oriented interfaces.
