News
In this news section you will find Archival Platform announcements. You can also download Archival Platform newsletters.
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Archival Platform February 2010 Newsletter
Download the Archival Platform February Newsletter here.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Dear colleagues
Now that some of those 2010 resolutions have been broken, there should be room for you to make some more.
Professional organisations can play an important role in our sector. It’s time to bite the bullet and consider your professional memberships for the next year.
This month’s Archival Platform blog talks about how professionals in the archive and heritage sector can communicate, collaborate and advocate more effectively in 2010.
In our guest blog, correspondent Uthando Baduza suggests that institutions like museums should address current socio-economic challenges.
In our second guest blog, Thomas Gstraunthaler reports on a recent conference about the economics of heritage in South Africa.
In our news section, we bring you breaking news about an initiative to form a National Trust in South Africa and we ask you to comment on the draft report on the supply of and demand for skills in the libraries and archives sector recently released by the Department of Arts and Culture. We also report on problems with 2010 funding for the arts sector in South Africa, announce a new exhibition on South Africa after apartheid at Luthuli Museum and congratulate Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum on its recent award.
In our resources section, Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya reports on discussions about critically analysing various sources of indigenous knowledge that took place at a recent workshop of the Archives and Public Culture Programme at the University of Cape Town. This is complemented by an interview with Antonio Arantes, available in English and Portuguese, which focuses on the politics around drug-related indigenous knowledge in Brazil.
Tell us in our online poll what you would like to see more of on the Archival Platform this year.
Watch this space: we’ll soon be announcing our new Director!
With best wishes
Harriet Deacon
Acting Director, Archival Platform
POLL
What would you most like to see on the Archival Platform website this year?
ARCHIVAL PLATFORM BLOG
Unite and organise
Perhaps we should listen to President Jacob Zuma’s call for artists to “unite and give government an organised structure to work with”, and apply it to the archive and heritage sector.
GUEST BLOGS
How should we continue to remember forced removals?
Uthando Baduza suggests that institutions like museums should address current socio-economic challenges.
Rediscovering Minerva: heritage and economics
Thomas Gstraunthaler reports on the first South African conference on cultural organisations in times of economic crisis.
NEWS
Mandela archive available online
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Doxa Productions and the Visual History Archive have launched a free online portal that contains archival documents and photographs, as well as raw and edited news footage and other audio-visual material related to Nelson Mandela’s release on 11 February 1990.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/mandela/
National Trust taking form
Efforts by the Conservation Trust to establish a National Trust to protect heritage assets in South Africa are making good progress, with a founding conference planned for August 2010, reports Mike Moriarty.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/national_trust/
Arts and Culture Department calls for comment
The Department of Arts and Culture has released two documents for comment by stakeholders: a draft report on the supply of and demand for skills in the libraries and archives sector and a first draft of the South African Community Library and Information Services Bill. Both documents are available on our website:
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/skills_in_archives/
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/community_library_bill/
R150-million 2010 arts funding fails to materialise
The Mail & Guardian reports that “prominent figures in the South African arts field are questioning what has happened to R150-million promised by the Arts and Culture Department for projects related to the Fifa World Cup”.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/2010_funding/
Heritage network responds to the Haiti disaster
The Blue Shield, a network of heritage organisations, has expressed its solidarity with the population of Haiti for the loss of lives and destruction caused by the 12 January earthquake.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/haiti_disaster/
Photographic exhibition opens at Luthuli Museum
Fifteen years after the birth of South Africa’s democracy, the effects of apartheid still run deep, as photographer Cedric Nunn shows in this exhibition of post-1994 photographs at the Luthuli Museum in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/luthuli_museum/
Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum gets top honours
The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, the only museum in a Western Cape township, has been named the 2009 Museum of the Year by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/lwandle/
Sara Baartman sculptures no longer on sale
Ceramic sculptures of Sara Baartman’s body on sale at a lifestyle boutique in Johannesburg have been removed from shelves. The Ministry of Arts and Culture has released a statement expressing disapproval of the sale of the Baartman ornaments.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/ornaments_of_sara/
Fire damages historic Overstrand buildings
A number of fascinating buildings in the Western Cape’s Overstrand area that date from the 18th and 19th centuries and tell the story of early colonial settlement in the area were severely damaged by fire over the festive season.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/overstrand_fire/
World history in 100 objects
The British Museum has launched a project called “A History of the World in 100 Objects”, an attempt to challenge older ways of seeing world history as a “clash of civilizations”.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/100_objects/
Online network for critical analysts of heritage and tourism sector
The Network of Researchers on Heritagisations (critical heritage discourse) provides critical analysis of heritage objects and practices within disciplines as varied as history, political sciences, geography and anthropology.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/heritagisations/
OPPORTUNITIES
PhD scholarship in South African photography
Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship in South African photography at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The scholarship includes research expenses in South Africa.
For more information, contact Professor Patricia Hayes at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 15 February 2010.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/photography/
Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
The Skoll Awards support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time, including social cohesion, and already has a track record of three years or more. The closing date for applications is 17 February 2010.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/skoll_awards/
Sanlam offers history bursary
South African financial services provider Sanlam is offering a full bursary to a student in history to complete a master’s dissertation on an aspect of the history of the company.
For more information, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Business acumen for artists
The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business offers to teach artists everything they need to know about basic business, from how to manage their finances and market themselves more effectively and critically to how to negotiate decisively when pitching a product and pricing an idea.
www.gsb.uct.ac.za/gsbwebb/EMEBrochure.asp?intpagenr=619
Edinburgh University offers postgraduate scholarships
The Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, now in its fifth decade, is offering several postgraduate scholarships for students from Africa.
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/postgraduate/
Fellowships for African women
Fellowships are on offer for African women from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia who are working in agricultural research and development and have completed a bachelors, masters or doctoral degree in selected disciplines.
www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/resource/award.asp
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in sub-Saharan African history
The Lewis & Clark College Department of History invites applications for a one-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in sub-Saharan African history, starting in the fall semester of 2010.
http://h-net.org/jobs/display_job.php?jobID=40045
CONFERENCES and MEETINGS
Call for Papers: Museums in Action: To 2010 and Beyond
September/October 2010
KwaZulu-Natal
The South African Museums Association’s 74th National Conference and annual general meeting will be held in late September or early October 2010.
Abstracts are due by 17 March 2010.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/museums_in_action/
Conference: Milestones: Commemorating Southern African History
23-25 July 2010
North-West University, Potchefstroom
Please note the change of date of the Historical Association of South Africa Biennial Conference.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/milestones/
Conference: ICOM-CC 16th Triennial Conference
19-23 September 2011
Lisbon, Portugal
The Call for Papers and Posters and related informational documents for the ICOM-CC 16th Triennial Conference has been posted to the conference website (http://www.icom-cc2011.org) – abstracts are due 15 March 2010.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/triennial_conference/
Conference: Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights in the Age of Globalization
15-20 July 2010
Mombasa, Kenya
The International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa hosts this conference on “Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights in the Age of Globalization”.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/indigenous/
Conference: Preserving African Cultural Heritage
1-7 November 2010
Dakar, Senegal
The joint conference of the 13th Pan-African Association of Prehistory and Assimilated Disciplines and the 20th conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists will be hosted by the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire and the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/preserving_african_cultural/
Colloquium: The Meanings of Sara Baartman
1 March 2010
Penn State University, US
The colloquium features some of the foremost South African and US scholars on Sara Baartman’s contemporary significance.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/baartman_colloquium/
Conference: Atlantic World Literacies: Before and After Contact
7-9 October 2010
North Carolina, US
This conference will explore how different kinds of literacy developed all around the Atlantic Rim before the Columbian era; consider the roles of writing, communication and sign systems in the era of discovery, colonisation and conquest; and examine how trans-Atlantic encounters and collisions birthed new literacies and literatures and transformed existing ones.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/atlantic_world_literacies/
Conference: Tourism and Seductions of Difference: A Critical Tourism Studies Conference
10-12 September 2010
Lisbon, Portugal
The conference builds on previous events organised by the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change at Leeds Metropolitan University and will mark the establishment of the Tourism-Contact-Culture Research Network as an international group of university researchers interested in critical tourism research.
www.archivalplatform.org/conferences/entry/seductions_of_difference/
Conference: Choices in Conservation: Practice versus Research
21 and 23 April 2010
Copenhagen, Denmark
This interim meeting of the International Council of Museums Committee for Conservation’s Graphic Documents Working Group is dedicated to the broad theme of the application and dissemination of recent scientific research and practice in the conservation field of graphic documents.
www.kb.dk/da/kb/nb/bev/icom-cc_interim_meeting.html
Meeting report: Creativity and Talent in an Urban Environment
Creative Cape Town co-ordinator Zayd Minty reports on a Barcelona conference entitled “Creativity and Talent in an Urban Environment”, which explored the question, “What does a city need in order to keep its valuable ‘knowledge and creative sector’ workers?”
www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/creativity_and_talent/
Meeting report: Archives and Public Culture Workshop
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya reports on discussions about critically analysing various sources of indigenous knowledge that took place at a recent workshop of the Archives and Public Culture Programme at the University of Cape Town.
www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/indigenous_knowledge/
Meeting report: Archives and Records Management Conference
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya reports on the Archival Platfrom session at the Archives and Records Management Conference in Mpumalanga in December 2009.
www.archivalplatform.org/projects/resources/archives_and_records/
RESOURCES
Book review: Archives Power: Memory, Accountability and Social Justice
An online book review session discusses the book Archives Power by Randall C Jimerson (2009).
Policy and research in South Africa
The Policy>Action Network (P>AN) is hosted by the Policy Analysis Unit at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
Book review: Ambiguities of Witnessing
Ksenia Robbe reviews Mark Sanders’ Ambiguities of Witnessing: Law and Literature in the Time of a Truth Commission (2007) for H-NET.
Dialogue: Documenting Violations: Choosing the Right Approach
This online dialogue ran from 27 January to 2 February 2010 and is full of interesting observations on human rights archiving.
Interview with Antonio Arantes: Ayahuasca – From Dangerous Drug to National Heritage
In this piece, Professor Antonio Arantes discusses the 2008 request by Brazilian ayahuasca groups to be recognised as part of the immaterial cultural heritage of Brazil. This piece was published in the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2009, Volume 28.
Digital archiving in Australia
This website and blog is a place for people to learn more about the New South Wales government’s digital recordkeeping strategy and share information about their own activities, projects and experiences regarding digital recordkeeping.
WHAT IS THE ARCHIVAL PLATFORM?
The Archival Platform is a strategic research, networking and advocacy initiative. We aim to promote collaboration and information sharing within the broad archive sector – including archives, museums and heritage, tangible and intangible – enabling effective dialogue between government, academics, practitioners and the public. Key areas of focus for the Platform in the medium term will include the economics of heritage, digitisation and use of digital tools in archives and heritage management, and heritage education.
Our networking efforts will reach out beyond South Africa, to elsewhere in Africa and other continents to expand this debate.
Entries for this newsletter come from lists such as South African History Online, the Southern African NGO Network, International Council on Museums and Sites (ICOMOS), Australia Icomos, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Council of Museums (ICOM), Icom-SA, the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM), H-Net, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa (OCPA), Unesco Forum, the Getty Conservation Bulletin and your contributions.
Feel free to pass the newsletter on, and let me know if you don’t want to be on the list.
The Archival Platform is funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the University of Cape Town.
