The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is offering two remote media and archive workers the opportunity to travel to the NFSA in Canberra to receive professional training.

The program is made possible through a partnership with the Indigenous Remote Communications Association (IRCA).

The Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowship program will be offered for the first time this year, allowing its recipients to experience and learn from the experts responsible for the development and preservation of Australia’s national audiovisual collection.

The program builds on the previous work of the NFSA, IRCA and other stakeholders, in the development of a national remote archiving strategy.

“The aim of the Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowship is to build and connect people working in country and at the NFSA,” says NFSA Indigenous Connections Curator Peter White.

“This connection will create a greater appreciation of the benefits of shared learnings towards the management and preservation of cultural collections.

“These shared learnings will also be extended to our sister national institutions, with the opportunity to visit other national cultural Institutions during the period of the Fellowship.”

IRCA’s General Manager Daniel Featherstone said: “There are a large number of community-produced audiovisual collections across remote Australia desperately in need of preservation.

“The Remote Media Archiving Strategy is aimed at building the capacity and skills of Indigenous organisations to locally manage these collections.

“This fantastic initiative will build on skills workshops IRCA recently delivered in partnership with NFSA to help preserve this important social and cultural heritage.”

Applications for the Indigenous Remote Archival Fellowship will open on 17 August 2015, with entry forms accessible here.