Archival Platform December Newsletter

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EDITOR’S NOTE

This month we report back on our “Letters for Lulu” campaign. Perhaps it was the result of the November rush for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw, but we didn’t get an audience with the Honourable Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana in time for the December break. Instead, we presented the letters to Vusithemba Ndima, Acting Deputy Director General of Cultural Heritage, at the consultation for the draft policy on living heritage. We have published the letters from professional institutions, plus our covering letter, on our website.

We celebrate the festive season with blogs on family history and the interface between science and art. We have an online poll and commentary on the difficulties of memorialisation around South African Defence Force conscription. We also have a special feature on intangible heritage – with a blog and meeting report – to mark the public participation process around the new national draft policy on living heritage.

Remember that we are offering book and cash prizes to young professionals who submit blogs, book reviews and other relevant reports for publication on the Platform. This month we feature one of the entries, from Sebinane Lekoekoe. Please send submissions of about 1 000 words plus a picture, if possible, to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 15 February 2010.

We wish you all the very best over the holiday season, and strength to meet the challenges and opportunities posed by 2010!

Best wishes

Dr Harriet Deacon
Director, Archival Platform
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

ARCHIVAL PLATFORM BLOG

South Africa’s role in the Unesco Convention on Intangible Heritage

South Africa was one of the 120 countries who voted for the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage to be adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2003 – but we will be one of the last to ratify it. We should participate more in what could become global, continental and sub-regional initiatives to democratise and decolonise the notion of heritage.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/south_africa_unesco_convention/

GUEST BLOGS

Family history: an idea, a wound or just details?

Mbongiseni Buthelezi looks at the personal ways in which people engage with the past and asks two questions: What does family history mean to contemporary South Africans? And where and how do we locate it?

http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/family_history/

Subtle thresholds: a few intentions

Fritha Langerman discusses her latest exhibition at the Iziko South African Museum, Subtle Thresholds, which explores the representational taxonomies of disease.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/subtle_thresholds/

Diary of a recent graduate

Sebinane Lekoekoe reflects on his experience of completing a postgraduate diploma in museum and heritage studies at the University of the Western Cape and discusses how he intends to use these newly acquired skills to promote heritage in Lesotho.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/diary_recent_graduate/

NEWS

“Letters for Lulu” delivered
On Tuesday, 8 December 2009, Director of the Archival Platform Dr Harriet Deacon handed six letters highlighting problems in the South African heritage and archives sector to Acting Deputy Director General of Cultural Heritage, Vusithemba Ndima.

The letters, addressed to Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana, emphasised issues such as a lack of strategic thinking about the sector, underfunding and understaffing of archives, and an inconsistent approach among officials to applying heritage laws and digitising heritage records.

The letters were submitted by professionals and organisations in the heritage and archives sector as part of the Archival Platform’s “Letters for Lulu” campaign, a constructive engagement with the ministry in the spirit of former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s “Tips for Trevor” campaign.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/press_release_letters_for_lulu/

Call to action for South Africa’s artists

On 17 November 2009, President Jacob Zuma met with performing artists at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. Zuma encouraged artists to speak up and organise: “For our young democracy to continue to grow, our artists must play their constructive, critical role in informing society and invoking debate … Working together we can do more to achieve these goals. However, we will achieve them more if artists unite and give government an organised structure to work with.”

The Archival Platform welcomes this initiative, as we are trying to do just this in the archive and heritage sector – improve communication among ourselves, encourage debate, engage with government and highlight the value of the sector within broader society.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/zuma_meets/

Whose anthem is it anyway?

The reaction to reggae artist Ras Dumisani’s rendition of the South African anthem at the rugby test match between the Springboks and the French national side has ranged from outrage to amusement. It is clear that South Africans feel strongly about their national anthem. Is this because it is part of our national heritage and, if so, should we be regulating the way it is sung?

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/whose_anthem_is_it_anyway/

Developers ordered to demolish illegal resorts at iSimangaliso

The Durban High Court has ordered at least four developers accused of building unauthorised holiday resorts on KwaZulu-Natal’s World Heritage Site, the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park (previously known as St Lucia), to demolish them and rehabilitate the area.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/illegal_resorts_isimangaliso/

Archives and library training workshops set for early 2010

From May to October 2009, Department of Arts and Culture-commissioned interviews were conducted with staff of universities and universities of technology who are involved in training, employers in the library information services, archival and records management sectors and professional bodies. During January and February 2010, a series of stakeholder workshops will be arranged to discuss and verify the findings and to test possible recommendations. Stakeholders are invited to attend these workshops.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/archives_and_library_training/

Heritage agency releases archaeology reports on DVD

Version 1.0 of the South African Heritage Resource Agency’s archaeology, palaeontology and meteorite unit’s Report Mapping Project is available on DVD. The DVD provides a bibliography and maps of the project areas of the Archaeology and Palaeontology Impact Assessment (Phase 1) Reports, currently on ¬file at the heritage agency.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/sahra_dvd_archaeology_reports/

Rusty Padlock Awards presented for poor PAIA performance

On 17 November 2009, the Open Democracy Advice Centre presented the annual Rusty Padlock Awards. These “awards” mark consistently poor performers in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act in the public sector. The “winner” of this year’s Rusty Padlock Award was the Department of Health.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/rusty_padlock/

Unheard stories of our liberation struggle

In presenting his paper, “Mystery and machination in the archive”, to the Nordic Documentation Project Concluding Workshop on 27 November 2009, Nelson Mandela Foundation Head of Memory Verne Harris asked why some voices continue to remain absent from our historical record.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/unheard_stories_liberation/

Darwin and the Cape exhibition launches

Darwin and the Cape, which runs at Cape Town’s Iziko South African Museum until April 2010, provides an overview of Charles Darwin’s life, his contribution to biology and his relationship with the Cape, and makes use of specimens from the Iziko collections.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/darwin_exhibition/

ICOMOS Malta meeting highlights released

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has released a special edition of its newsletter to share the highlights of the most recent meetings of the executive and advisory committee and the scientific council, which were held in Valletta, Malta from 5 to 10 October 2009.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/icomos_highlights_malta/

District Six Museum turns 15

Cape Town’s District Six Museum celebrated its 15th birthday on 10 December 2009. Congratulations!

OPPORTUNITIES

Prizes and book vouchers for Archival Platform submissions

In celebration of 2010, we will be offering students and young professionals prizes of R1 000 for the best blog or meeting report for the Platform, and book prizes for the best book review posted on the Platform. Submissions received until 15 February 2010 will be posted on the website and the winners will be announced at the end of February.

Send your 1 000-word submissions (with a picture) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Nominate your candidates for the ICOM executive council now!

The deadline for the submission of complete candidacy files for the next International Council of Museums (ICOM) executive council election is 31 December 2009.

More information is available on

Humanities fellowship in Pennsylvania

The Center for the Humanities at Temple University in Pennsylvania, in the US, is looking for talented new voices in interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. To this end, the centre is inviting applications for its external humanities fellowship programme for .

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/humanities_fellowship/

Arts and humanities research fellowships in Dublin

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, invites applications from across the entire range of arts and humanities research for 12 stipendiary and 7 non-stipendiary visiting research fellowships. Applications are especially encouraged in the following areas: children’s literature, art, the creative arts, creativity and the city, digital humanities, medical humanities and South Asian studies.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/research_fellowships_arts_humanities/

CONFERENCES and MEETINGS

Conference: Heritage Matters
15-17 December 2009
Accra, Ghana

Five panels will provide a forum for historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and other scholars to discuss their work with a wider audience. The six workshops are practical in orientation and offer a forum for professionals of the heritage industry, journalists, archivists, librarians and tourism agents to talk about the mechanics of their work. The panel discussions and workshops are open to the public.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/heritage_matters/

Conference: The Task of the Curator
14 May 2010
California, US

Museum and curatorial studies at University of California, Santa Cruz brings together museum professionals and scholars from a variety of disciplines to study the poetics and politics of display. “The Task of the Curator” will explore the roles of curators in relation to how objects are displayed in museums and galleries, considering a variety of disciplinary and professional perspectives.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/the_task_of_the_curator/

Meeting report: camera use in state archives

The use of private cameras in South African archives is a complicated issue that has been the subject of heated debate since regulations were first implemented at the Western Cape Archives in 2008. The Archival Platform organised a meeting on 1 December 2009 to discuss the issue from a professional standpoint. It was attended by the manager of the Western Cape Archives, other archivists, researchers, representatives from genealogical societies and other interested stakeholders, and a lawyer specialising in intellectual property.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/camera_use/

Meeting report: Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Southern Africa

Harriet Deacon and Thokozani Mhlambi attended a meeting in Namibia from 17 to 18 November 2009 to discuss the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/report_safeguarding_ich/

RESOURCES

Map: ICOM-SA museums and heritage-related institutions

This excellent resource shows the location of most museums and heritage institutions in South Africa.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/icom-sa_map

Paper: Two Hills and Three Walls of Remembrance

Gary Baines provides a rich and detailed analysis of the controversies around memorialisation of South African Defence Force conscripts. He argues that the crux of the Freedom Park fracas is an ideological contest over the meaning of the border war/liberation struggle. If one person’s “terrorist” is another’s “freedom fighter”, then the white minority’s “border war” was the black majority’s “liberation struggle”. This debate is playing out once again in the contestation over Freedom Park’s Wall of Names.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/SADF_remembrance/

Virtual exhibition: End Conscription Campaign

All the photographs and posters included in this South African History Archive (SAHA) exhibition can be browsed in the gallery section, while all articles, correspondence, newsletters and other documents are accessible through the library.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/virtual_exhibition_ecc/

Report: At Arm’s Length – The Relationship Between Research and Policy in Arts and Culture

The report, by Harriet Deacon, examines the various ways in which the South African Department of Arts and Culture and some of its provincial counterparts have conceived of and used research in the formulation of arts and culture policy in South Africa since 1994.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/at_arms_length/

SAHA collection: the political papers of Zackie Achmat, Jack Lewis and the Treatment Action Campaign

To mark World AIDS Day 2009, SAHA has added a new collection, donated by anti-apartheid activists and Treatment Action Campaign founders Jack Lewis and Zackie Achmat, to its holdings. Comprised of mostly documents, audiovisual and electronic material and some posters, it is also cross-referenced with related collections at the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archives.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/new_tac_collection/

SAHA collection: Sunday Times Heritage Project
To mark its centenary in 2006, the Sunday Times committed itself to uncover South Africa’s heritage resources through a number of projects known as the Sunday Times Heritage Project (AL3282). SAHA has become custodian of these records, which document the processes involved in the many events and projects that constitute the project.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/sunday_times_heritage/

UNESCO publication: Witnesses to History – Documents on Repatriation

This new compendium provides an outline of the historical, philosophical and ethical aspects of the return of cultural objects (eg cultural objects displaced during war or in colonial contexts), cites past and present cases and analyses legal issues.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/witnesses_to_history/

Annual report: Department of Arts and Culture

The national Department of Arts and Culture’s annual report is available online.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/dac_annual_report/