LDaCA’s Community Language Workshops bring together Indigenous communities, language workers and organisations to explore how digital language materials can be cared for, accessed and managed in ways that reflect local priorities.

Through workshops, yarning sessions and ongoing engagement, LDaCA is working with communities to understand their needs for storing, describing, accessing and sharing language materials. This work responds to strong community interest in locally controlled archives and the need for sustainable alternatives to fragmented or proprietary systems that can limit access and portability.

Rather than applying a single approach, the workshops support ongoing, community-led co-design. Communities can identify their own priorities, cultural protocols, governance structures and access requirements, helping shape both the technology and the social structures needed to care for their materials.

Insights from this engagement are informing LDaCA’s broader work to develop sustainable, community-controlled infrastructure for Indigenous language materials. The aim is to strengthen communities’ ability to make decisions about their data while supporting appropriate access, portability and long-term management.