About 80 people have come to the port city of Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth, for the annual state language conference, which aims to preserve and promote Indigenous languages.

There are about 200 Aboriginal languages across Australia, but many of them exist only in the memories of a few elders, and there are fears that when those elders die, the languages will be lost forever.

The focus of the conference this year is on teaching and incorporating Indigenous languages into school curriculums and through the wider community.

Conference co-ordinator Paige Finci says there's been an ongoing effort to make recordings of some of the languages.

"We'll record those and we'll develop databases, and from that we're able to develop resources, be they linguistic or resources for the community and schools, and that helps with language education."