The Archival Platform is a non-profit initiative, established under the auspices of the University of Cape Town and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to play a catalytic role in the way in which practitioners, theorists and the general public think about the archive and the ways in which archiving is practised in South Africa.
On one hand, the Archival Platform is intended to draw attention to the political and social role of archives in deepening democracy, encouraging the exercise of active citizenship, and facilitating the work of building social cohesion in a historically fractured society. On the other, it is intended to address the specific concerns of the sector- the practical challenges of digitisation, poor communication and coordination, uneven or inadequate funding and training opportunities.
The reach of the Archival Platform encompasses not only the physical records of the country’s history, but also the memory, cultural practices and places that tell the story of the past. At the heart of Archival Platform’s activity is a concern with the archive, the record of the past: the choices and decisions that are made about what is preserved and what it not; the systems that are used to safeguard the archive; the mechanisms through which decisions about what is accessible and what is restricted are made; the ways in which the archive is curated or brought into the public domain and; the purpose to which it is put.
In pursuit of its activities, the Archival Platform engages with researchers, record keepers, government employees, cultural workers, heritage professionals and practitioners, memory activists and theorists, archive creators and users, public and private institutions, as well as with organisations and communities.
The key objectives of the Archival Platform are to:
• Raise public awareness of the role and value of the archive, particularly in relation to social justice, the processes of reconciliation, redress and social cohesion and the exercise of democratic government;
• Provide a mechanism through which new ideas and information can be shared and debated;
• Facilitate organised, effective public engagement and intervention in the public interest wherever questions of archive are involved and;
• Break down inhibiting barriers and encourage cross sectoral interaction;
• Play a role in developing pro-active citizens empowered to draw on archive as a resource for interrogating the past, shaping the present and imagining the future.
The Archival Platform achieves its objectives through a strategy that involves networking, advocacy and research and the development of tightly focused, high profile public interventions.
The Archival Platform Team includes: Carolyn Hamilton, Verne Harris and Noel Solani, the inaugural Steering Committee who assist us in realising the broad vision for the Archival Platform, as defined in Archives at the Crossroads 2007, the report in which the concept of the Archival Platform was first mooted; Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya, the AP Deputy Director; Mbongiseni Buthelezi, Coordinator of the Ancestral Stories initiative; Thokozani Mhlabi and Utando Baduza, our correspondents, who keep their eyes and ears – and minds - open for new developments and contacts across the country, and to offer insightful opinion pieces; Harriet Deacon, the former director who remains onboard as our international correspondent and Twitter Queen; Colleen Petersen and Marcelle Faure of the Social Anthropology Department, University of Cape Town who offer the AP a very efficient administrative support.
Director, Archival Platform
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