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Archival Platform January 2011 newsletter
EDITOR’S NOTE
It’s a new year and we’re hoping that you’re feeling energised and inspired to take on whatever challenges 2011 brings.
Our Archival Platform posts this month focus on three important issues. Jo-Anne Duggan considers the work of memory and looks back at some of the memory work that has been done by individuals, organisations and the nation. Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya picks up on new developments in the education and training landscape and considers what this means for the cultural heritage and creative industries sectors. Thokozani Mhlambi looks further afield and links discussions around Martin Luther King Day, celebrated in the United States of America, to current debates in our country.
In the Ancestral Stories Editorial, Mbongiseni Buthelezi speaks of the common thread that links our Ancestral Stories posts this month this month is place: a farm, an island, a mountain. Musa Hlatshwayo tells us about a pilgrimage of Qwabe people in December up a mountain near Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal. In Merle Martin’s story we learn how people from Saint Helena have fanned out across the world. And in Helene Retief Lombard’s case we have a farm that has been her family’s centre of gravity for over 300 years.
Our guest posts focus on the important issue of digitisation of national heritage resources. This is particularly relevant as the sector prepares to consider the draft policy on the digitisation of national heritage resources released for comment by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC). Roger Layton notes that 2011 will go down in history as the year in which the true digital revolution began, and considers the implications of this for heritage practice.Mona Hendricks reflects on the digitisation of rock art images from the Bleek and Lloyd collection, and Mak (from Makhado), inspired by all the lists published at the end of 2010, lists ten questions he thinks we need to ask about the draft DAC policy.
Secrecy remains high on the agenda. This month we look at the ongoing development at and around WikiLeaks, and ways in which countries including the Unites States of America (USA), South Africa and Zimbabwe have responded to the exposure of “secret” documents. We also draw your attention to two organisations, the South African History Archive and the National Security Archive, that make use of freedom of information legislation in South Africa and the USA respectively to gain access to government information. We welcome news that the African National Congress has toned down the demands for a media tribunal – this bodes well for democracy. We are alarmed that some organisations take action against those that blow the whistle on “bad” secrets or corrupt action. The case of the Iranian human rights lawyer, jailed for actions deemed to be “detrimental to national security”, reminds us of the need to guard our constitutional rights fiercely.
It’s good to hear from the International Council of Museums (ICOM) that International Museum Day 2011 will focus on Africa. We welcome the news that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM) have signed a partnership agreement aimed at reinforcing communications, awareness-raising and networking among museums professional in Africa.
A heated debate has been raging on the H-Net listserv about “who owns African patrimony”. We’ve collated the viewpoints for your information. We also draw your attention to the challenges faced as the Brooklyn Museum in the USA tries to repatriate a collection of objects to Costa Rica.
The need to protect of intangible heritage and traditional knowledge has been firmly endorsed through the Swakopmund Protocol on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore.
We welcome three resources. South African History Online (SAHO) took the initiative to make information on South Africa’s nine 2010 FIFA World CupTM™ cities available online, creating a useful legacy of the sporting event that drew so much attention to our country last year. The Rwanda Genocide Archive that serves as a repository for information related to the 1994 massacre has been officially launched. In Tanzania, the National Data Archive (NADA) will make important statistical information available online.
Details of upcoming conferences and events, job opportunities and new resources are available below.
With best wishes for a happy, peaceful and productive year
Jo-Anne Duggan
IN THE NEWS
One City Many Histories, a South African History Online project
This initiative has made information on South Africa’s nine 2010 FIFA World Cup™ host cities previously scattered in diverse specialist literatures broadly available.
Repatriation of museum objects
The Brooklyn Museum in the United States of America is preparing to return about 4 500 pre-Columbian artefacts taken from Costa Rica roughly a century ago.
Swakopmund Protocol on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore
This agreement affirms the principle that local communities are the custodians of their traditional knowledge and empowers them to exercise rights over their knowledge and resources.
Rwanda Genocide Archive officially launched
This archive serves as a unified repository for information related to the 1994 massacres. Initial holdings include 1 500 audiovisual recordings and more than 20 000 documents and photographs.
Tanzania launches the National Data Archive (NADA)
This initiative will enable the general public and other stakeholders to access statistical data online.
Actions taken against whistleblowers raise alarm
Employees who courageously blew the whistle on corrupt practices at Telkom and in the health insurance industry have come under fire.
Supreme Court of Appeal judgement welcomed
The Supreme Court of Appeal has ordered the Presidency to release the Khampepe-Moseneke report into constitutional and legal challenges in Zimbabwe.
This initiative aims to reinforce communications, awareness-raising and networking among the professional museum community in Africa.
International Museum Day (IMD) 2011 to focus on Africa
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) 2011 celebrations will focus on the African continent.
This Washington-based archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Is it ever appropriate for governments to keep secrets?
“There is a legitimate role for secrecy, and there is a legitimate role for openness,” says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Who owns African cultural patrimony?
We share some of the points made in an online debate currently being played out on the H-Net listserv.
Opportunities
Training:
Cape Town, South Africa, 9 to 11 February 2011
Short course in registry practice
Pretoria, South Africa, 23 to 25 February 2011
Cape Town, South Africa, 5 to 26 February 2011
Web course, 31 January to 25 February 2011
Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Acquisitions
Web course, 31 January 2011 to 25 February 2011
Jobs:
The Department of History, Sam Houston State University, Texas
Position of chairperson beginning 1 August 2011
Fellowships and funding:
MA fellowship for Stanford University’s Centre for African Studies
Deadline for applications: 31 January 2011
The Darmasiswa Scholarship Programme for the academic year 2011 – 2012
Deadline for applications: 18 February 2011
Calls for contributions:
African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter
Call for submissions
14th International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 28 February 2011
International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries 2011
Deadline for submissions: 21 March 2011
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 March 2011.
Bridging Ages Conference in Tallinn, Estonia, 3 to 5 June 2011
Deadline for proposals and abstracts: 1 March 2011
Conferences and Resources
Resources
Journal: African Media Studies, Volume 2 Issue 2 available online
Journal: African Media Studies, Volume 2 Issue 3 available online
Journal: Africa Spectrum (No 2/2010) has been published and is freely accessible online
Book: Africa Yearbook has been published
Book: Digital Library Futures: User Perspectives and Institutional Strategies has been published
Website: James J Ross Archive of African Images 1590 – 1920 (RAAI)
Conferences
Muldersdrift, South Africa, 11 to 13 May 2011
12th Cambridge Heritage Seminar: The Heritage of Memorials and Commemorations
Cambridge, United Kingdom, 15 to 16 April 2011
London, United Kingdom, 19 February 2011
New Researchers in Maritime History Conference 2011
Hull, United Kingdom, 11 to 12 March 2011
100 years of the publication of Specimens of Bushman Folklore by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd
Cape Town, South Africa, 17 to 20 August 2011
Bayreuth, Germany, 14 to 16 July 2011
Western Cape Museum Educators meeting
Ysterplaat, South Africa, 27 January 2011
National Policy on the Digitisation of Heritage Resources
The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) have issued an invitation to stakeholders to attend a workshop in Gauteng on 3 February 2011 to consider the draft National Policy on the Digitisation of Heritage Resources.
If you are unable to attend this important meeting, please submit your comments as a matter of urgency.
Download a copy of the policy today!
Opinions
Archival Platform
Dealing with memory is hard work! Jo-Anne Duggan looks at some of the issues that challenge us – as individuals, organisations and as a nation.
Where to from here? The National Skills Development Strategy 2011 – 2016
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya writes about the implications of the new landscape for education and training on the cultural heritage and creative industries sectors.
Celebrating Martin Luther King Day and the struggle for black recognition
Thokozani Mhlambi comments on Martin Luther King Day in the United States of America and considers some of the debates around naming and memory, in relation to heritage in South Africa.
Ancestral Stories
Ancestral Stories Editorial: January 2011
Mbongiseni Buthelezi reflects on the places we call “home”, and wonders what happens to family records.
Helene Retief Lombard and the story of the Retiefs of Welvanpas
Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Jo-Anne Duggan speak to Helene Retief Lombard and Willem Lombard about Retief Lombard’s book, The Chronicles of Krakeelhoek: The Story of the Retiefs of Welvanpas.
Beginnings: The South African Saint Helenian Association
Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports on Merle Martin’s work in establishing the South African Saint Helenian Association.
The Qwabe hold a prayer meeting
Musa Hlatshwayo tells us of his trip to the pilgrimage of the amaQwabe near Empangeni and of the goals of the Ubumbano lwamaQwabe organisation.
Guest posts
Redefining our modes of access to information through digital technologies
Roger Layton notes that 2011 will be remembered as the year in which the true digital revolution began, and considers the implications of this for heritage practice.Sanitisation of a colonial archive
Mona Hendricks reflects on the digitisation of rock art images from the Bleek-Lloyd collection.
Ten questions to ask about the draft National Policy on the Digitisation of Heritage Resources
Mak (from Makhado) poses ten questions for the Department of Arts and Culture
