Editor’s note, March 2010

So far, 2010 seems to have been characterised by crisis in the archive/heritage sector.

Take recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the collapse of a minaret in the World Heritage city of Meknes, Morocco, and floods at Machu Picchu in Peru. Finally, we have the growing controversy around our own Minister of Arts and Culture’s walk-out of a lesbian art exhibition last August, which has stimulated discussion about the nature of art and pornography and the consequences of censorship and homophobia. And finally, mining activity near Mapungubwe and in the Cape Winelands may result in the destruction of cultural landscapes which could have yielded valuable information about our collective past.

On the Archival platform, things have also been moving (in a good way). Our new Director, Jo-Anne Duggan, introduces herself this month in the AP blog, and the acting Director, Harriet Deacon, says goodbye (sort of).

Our guest blogs this month discuss the exhibition walk-out (Gabeba Baderoon), speak about the use of weapons to make art in Mozambique (Amy Schwartzott) and reflect on heritage learnerships (Juanita Pastor-Makhurane).

We also ask you to participate in the sector by contributing to a NHC survey on access to heritage resources, a survey about Lottery funding, and the Durban Sings oral history project.

We received a number of excellent submissions from young professionals, blogs and meeting reports for our recent competition. Sebinane Lekoekoe’s blog on his course at UWC was elected the winner by the AP panel of judges, and receives the R1000 prize. The competition for the best book review has been held over because only one submission was received. Please send us your book reviews to receive a book prize from the UCT Archives and Public Culture research programme.