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Editor’s Note, May 2010
Dear Colleagues,
This month the world celebrates International Museum Day. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has selected the theme ‘Museums for Social Harmony’ as the focus for Museum Day and for their annual conference. It has prepared some thought-provoking documents on the critical role that museums have to play in this regard. In the month that our museums celebrate International Museum Day it seems appropriate to highlight positive developments in the sector, to examine ways in which museums are breathing new life into their collections and displays and to raise some critical questions!
Picking up on the broader issue of museums, our AP Blog reflects on museums that deal with the memory of conflict, using archival material as the basis for their displays. And, just for fun we’ve taken a look at some wacky and wonderful museums too.
We’ve also included news items on the opening of the Workers’ Museum; new exhibitions at Museum Africa and Iziko South African National Gallery, and a conference on audience development in Vienna. We report on the Budget Speech made by Minister of Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana early this month and raise a few questions about the mandate of the Department of Arts and Culture, especially in relation to social cohesion.
In South Africa, May also marks National Archives and Heraldry Awareness Week. We are pleased to report that two South African collections have been submitted for inclusion on the International Memory of the World Register. We encourage everyone with an interest in archives to attend a conference hosted by the South African Society of Archivists in association with UNISA and the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa in July. We report on the “discovery” of letters written by Nelson Mandela and other documents at the University of Fort Hare, the subsequent “closure” of this archive and the questions that this raises for archivists.
The heritage sector is rapidly coming to terms with new media and technologies. This month Harriet Deacon tells us why Twitter is important; we join archivists around the world in wondering what happens to social media records; marvel at the extraordinary 3D laser scans used by Hans Reuther and his research team to document cultural heritage sites and landscapes and wonder at the impact that the Internet of Things may have on museum practice.
It’s good to know that our legislators have been hard at work. This month we ask you to join us in preparing comments on the Protection of Information Bill for a submission we will be making in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. We also draw your attention to the Department of Arts and Culture’s
2010 legislative programme, the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill and the review of the Constitution and encourage you to participate in whatever way you can!
On the subject of participation, we’re glad to note the initiatives by museum educators in the Western Cape and by the Mapungubwe Action Group. It’s good to see people getting together to act on issues of common concern.
Several of you have asked us about the outcome of the “Letters for Lulu ” campaign. As you may remember, in Heritage Month (September 2009) the Archival Platform launched this campaign (in the spirit of a similar campaign run by former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, called “Tips for Trevor”), to help identify challenges and opportunities in the heritage and archive sector. In the letters received, professional organisations and institutions such as the South African Historical Society and the South African Historical Archive raised concerns about the state of our archives. Young professionals in the sector commented in their letters about the dearth of funding for individuals in the sector, the need to promote oral history, the importance of digitising collections and the need for a review of existing policies on copying materials in archives.
These letters were handed over to the DAC on December 8, 2009. Five months later we are disappointed to note that we have not yet received a response from the MMinister. We were encouraged to receive a call from an official in March, asking for the AP’s postal address and have emailed and phoned various officials in an attempt to try to track down the response – which we understand has been prepared – but have not caught sight of it yet. We look forward to receiving our communication from the Minister and reiterate our commitment to working in partnership with stakeholders, including government, to address problems raised by our readers.
Following up on another issue, we were interested to note the statement by National Heritage Council CEO Sonwabile Mancotya on the issue of struggle songs and offer you a few more days to participate in our online poll, “Heritage or Hate Speech?”
Finally, Mbongiseni Buthelezi introduces a new Archival Platform initiative, One Land: Countless Histories – Ancestral Stories, through which we hope to engage with practitioners, individuals, families and professional and grassroots organisations that are involved in family history.
With best wishes,
Jo-Anne Duggan
Director: Archival Platform
