In this news section you will find Archival Platform announcements. You can also download Archival Platform newsletters.
Archival Platform July Newsletter
Dear colleagues
Archival Platform newsletter 3
The Archival Platform is a new 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.
We will soon be able to announce a smart new format for our newsletter, and a new website.
Our networking efforts, while based in South Africa, will reach out not only to people in South Africa, but also elsewhere in Africa and on other continents to expand this debate. Entries for this newsletter are gratefully taken from lists like SAHO, ICOMOS, Australia ICOMOS, UNESCO, ICOM, AFRICOM, ICCROM, OCPA and your contributions. Feel free to pass the newsletter on, and let me know if you don’t want to be on the list.
Contact me with your news and ideas.
Best wishes
Dr. Harriet Deacon
Director, Archival Platform
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Archival Platform is funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the University of Cape Town.
NEWS
NHC Heritage Funding Summit
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana emphasized the importance of cultural industries at the Heritage Funding Summit convened by the National Heritage Council (NHC) at Gallagher Estates in Gauteng on 9 July. She said “the challenges of the sector are more about funding and sustainability of projects rather than suppression of expression”. A poll taken at the Heritage Funding Summit revealed that less than 10% of the funding applications received from heritage projects are likely to be approved by funders. The Heritage Funding Summit will end on Friday 10 July with a Funder’s Forum established to advice on dealing with the challenges that are hindering the development and preservation of especially endangered heritage. Of the 519 people who are at the Summit, 9% are funders, 36% from government and 55% are heritage practitioners from various fields. Detailed results of the NHC funding survey are available on the NHC website http://www.nhc.org.za.
Cape Verde and Burkina Faso sites on the World Heritage List
The World Heritage Committee holding its 33rd session chaired by María Jesús San Segundo, the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO, has inscribed two new natural sites and 11 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. They included The Ruins of Loropéni (Burkina Faso) and Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande (Cape Verde). For the second time in the history of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 1972, a site was removed from the World Heritage List when the Committee decided that Germany’s Dresden Elbe Valley could no longer retain its status as a World Heritage site of outstanding universal value. The decision was due to the construction underway of a four-lane bridge in the heart of the cultural landscape.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=46023&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Four Africans running for UNESCO Director-General post
Four Africans are running for the Post of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), official sources in Paris said on Tuesday. They are the Algerian Mohammed Bedjaoui, Egyptian Farouk Hosny, Tanzanian Sospeter Mwijarubi Muhongo and Beninese Nouréini Tidjani-Serpos. The UNESCO Executive Council will examine these candidates and choose one in the course of its session expected to be held from 7-23 September, just before the 35th edition of the General Conference which will elect the new DG. According to the UNESCO Constitutive Act, the DG is elected by the General Conference on the proposal of the Executive Council for a four-year term of office which is renewable once.
Time Travel project at Ikageng
Time Travel is an out-of-the box educational experience. It not only inspires learners’ interest in history, it also encourages communication and empathy amongst people. A Living History Project recollecting the protests of 1986 started in 2008 in Ikageng, a township in Potchefstroom, South Africa, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Kronobergs County Council, the Växjo City Council in Sweden and the Tlokwe City Council in South Africa. Ebbe Westergren and colleagues from the Kalmar & Smålands museum introduced the Time Travel educational method as part of Local Historic Environment Education to various stakeholders at a workshop held in Potchefstroom in November 2008 and another in March 2009. For more information contact Ebbe Westergren [ebbe.westergren@kalmarlansmuseum.se]
World Oral Literature Project
The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The World Oral Literature Project has been established to support local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of oral literature by providing funding for original research, alongside training in fieldwork and digital archiving methods.
http://www.oralliterature.org/
The South African Society of Archivists is re-established
The South African Society of Archivists elected office bearers for 2009-2011 on 24 June. They include Patrick Ngulube (Chairperson), Letitia Myburgh (Vice-chairperson), Petria Marais (Treasurer), Lebohang Mokoena (Secretary), Marlene Burger (Print editor), Mpho Ngoepe (Events manager), and Lesley Hart (Web editor).
If you would like to join SASA please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
ICADLA-1 Conference report
The first International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives was held in Addis Ababa on 1-3 July 2009. The conference provided participants with a number of successful case studies and called for an emphasis on the contribution of knowledge to development in Africa. The conference also adopted a number of resolutions. Of interest to some newsletter recipients may be the presentation by Dr Daisy Selematsela of the National Research Foundation in South Africa. She reported to the conference on the Digitization and Data Preservation Centre project, a collaborative initiative of the NRF and the Carnegie Foundation. This initiative is investigating providing support to digitising initiatives in South Africa. It generated an audit report in March 2009 that surveyed a large number of digitization initiatives in South Africa. The conference also reported on a number of exciting digitisation initiatives in Southern Africa – if you are interested in learning more about specific items on the ICADLA-1 programme please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for further information.
http://www.uneca.org/icadla1/index.htm
The conference features in the following blog:
Podcast of Derek Keat’s presentation on AVOIR and CHISIMBA
SAHS Archives panel report
The Archival Platform hosted a panel on archives at the South African Historical Society Conference held in Pretoria in June 2009. The panel discussion underlined the importance of the role professional historians and societies such as the SAHS can play in highlighting the value of the archive within society, addressing current challenges in the sector and responding to new ones. As professionals, we can contribute to national debates on the role of the archive in a working democracy, the status and independence of the National Archives, access to information, digitisation of archives, the training of archive professionals and promoting the use of archives by broader audiences. The Archival Platform can provide ways of sharing ideas and resources to take these debates forward in a constructive manner - any suggestions please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The conference and panel featured in a blog written by Laura Mitchell: http://makinghistorypodcast.com/2009/07/03/sahs/.
See the Resources section of this newsletter for more about the research tool Zotero mentioned in Laura’s blog.
CONFERENCES, COURSES AND MEETINGS
Between Past and Future: Oral History, Memory and Meaning
XVI International Oral History Conference: Prague, Czech Republic, 7 – 11 July, 2010
This year our attention will focus on finding and making meaning of the past and human identity through oral history. We will focus on number of research fields where oral history can contribute to better understanding not only of our past but our lives in general. Also, for the first time our conference will take place in an ex-totalitarian country. This enables us to analyse the specific role of oral history research in societies where other, especially official records about the past have been submitted to censorship or have been discarded.
If you wish to present a paper please submit a 300-word maximum proposal summarizing your presentation, via the Conference Website: http://www.ioha2010prague.cz
Deadline for abstracts: 6 September 2009
Regional contact for Africa: Radikobo Ntsimane (South Africa) - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
New Museums for Africa: Change and Continuity
AFRICOM 3rd Conference and General Assembly: Dates: 2-5 December 2009; Venue: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
AFRICOM’s 3rd international Conference and General Assembly will be held at the Ouaga 2000 International Conference Centre, from 2-5 December 2009, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Communication. In order to ensure greater representation and greater input and exchange, AFRICOM wishes to offer bursaries to cover travel and subsistence for two museum professionals from each African country. Abstracts, expressions of interest to attend, and bursary applications will be accepted until 27th July 2009
Please visit the AFRICOM website to download the Announcement with full details:
http://www.africom.museum/GA%20Announcement%202009.pdf
Also, publish your activities in AFRICOM News
AFRICOM News is an annual publication seeking articles between five hundred to a thousand (500-1000) words in English or French on issues related to heritage in Africa drawing upon the challenges faced and significant strides that have been achieved so far in conservation, illicit traffic of artefacts or even cultural partnerships emerging in our continent. Please submit abstracts to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 30th July 2009.
The Politics of Collecting and Curating Voices
6th National Oral History Conference: Cape Town 13-16 October 2009
The Oral History Association of South Africa and National Archives and Record Services of South Africa (Department of Arts and Culture) are convening another conference to critically reflect on the process of collecting voices of memory and on the politics associated with this endeavour since 1994. There are various aspects of ‘collecting voice/s’; visual, aural, textual – with the attendant dilemmas and complexities. It is hoped that this conference will offer an opportunity to tease out these dilemmas and complexities through constructive discussions and debates.
Deadline for proposals/abstracts is 12 July 2009
Contacts for submitting proposals:
Natalie Jaynes – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or
Nkhumbudzeni Tshirado - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Creative Museum: African Museums Using Culture for the Development of Children and Youth
COMMONWEALTH ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS GCAM WORKSHOP 4, Hosted by the Chief Albert Luthuli Museum in Stanger, South Africa - October 24–29, 2009
The five-day study workshop will build on the success of three previous GCAM workshops in Kenya and Malawi that focused on the development of children’s programming in African museums. Workshop 4 will continue to look at methods and examples of program design, with an emphasis on utilizing the museum’s skills and knowledge of local conditions and culture to work creatively with multiple community partners to address contemporary issues with innovative programmes. The theme of Workshop 4 is children and culture, and the potential uses of culture, traditional and contemporary, for the development of children and young people.
Limited funding of expenses will be available to participants from Commonwealth African countries. For further information and if you are interested in attending this meeting, please contact the Secretariat by June 30, 2009: Lois Irvine at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Barbara Winters at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Practical Museology: basics and new concepts
The 73rd SAMA Conference will be held at Pine Lodge Port Elizabeth from Tuesday, 8th September to Thursday, 10 September 2009
The programme will include sessions dealing with the following themes:
1. Collections Management (including conservation techniques, storage solutions, digitization, documentation and innovative computer databases)
2. Education and visitor services (worksheets, demo lessons, etc.)
3. Exhibitions (planning, management and maintaining exhibitions, new techniques/products, labelling)
Application of legislation and policy: Copyright Act (78 of 1978), National Heritage Resources Act (25 of 1999), National Environmental Biodiversity (Act 10 of 2004) (TOPS), etc.
4. Museology in motion: case studies and project reports-back will enjoy preference. All hands-on demonstrations should be planned with a large audience in mind preferably in DVD format.
http://sites.google.com/site/southafricanmuseumsassociation/
Other Views: Art History in (South) Africa and the Global South
South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH) and Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA). Organised by SAVAH under the aegis of CIHA, to take place at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 12 – 15 January 2011
A principal focus of the discussions, with particular reference to South Africa, will be how the study of art from the African continent is often impeded by a totalising notion of an undifferentiated ‘Africa’. This belies the histories, political trajectories and regional differences of its many communities, nations and states. The focus offers opportunities to pose questions such as: What is the counter point to the homogeneous ‘African art’ label? How can art history in an African context challenge traditional western art history with regard to notions of authenticity, individuality, artistic processes, methods and theories? What are the discourses of indigenous people’s art practices, and what is the importance of early indigenous art for a history of art in South Africa and elsewhere? In what ways, and under what circumstances, can objects previously defined as ‘craft’ or ‘utilitarian’ be incorporated into the domain of ‘art’? How is ‘heritage’ understood, collected and displayed? What are the ideologies behind collecting, patronage and restitution, and the use of objects, buildings and spaces? How do we negotiate questions of identity and culture in an increasingly ‘global’ world? What do we choose to study and why? How do we teach that which we choose to study?
For further information contact Jillian Carman at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Federico Freschi at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Museums and Community
Torreon in Mexico, 10-13 November 2009.
INTERCOM would hereby like to invite you to submit proposals for presentations, case studies, research papers and best practice models that demonstrate how museums face the challenges we are discussing this year. The focus is on museums and their multiple roles outside of the museum: connections and partnerships with their local communities, links with other organisations on a local, regional, national and international level. How does the museum face these challenges in an increasingly globalized world?
Present a summary of no more than 300 words, along with your contact information before the 17th of July 2009 and send it to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Please visit the conference website for more details about all aspects of the conference:
New and Social Media training
SAFREA (South African Freelancers Association) training: New and Social Media
Safrea Western Cape 29 July Networking meeting
Ikhaya Lodge in Gardens, Cape Town.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=9918&uid=7288311471#/topic.php?uid=7288311471&topic=9918
RESOURCES
The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs
The Herskovits Library at Northwestern University in the USA officially launched the online Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs on June 25. “The 7,000-plus photographs in this extraordinary collection document the changing relationships among Africans and between Africans and Europeans during 100 years of dramatic historic change,” says Herskovits Library curator David Easterbrook.
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/africana/winterton/
The Winterton Collection becomes the third Herskovits Library collection available online. The others are a collection of 113 antique African maps dating from the 16th to the early 20th century at
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/mapsofafrica/
and a collection of 590 posters reflecting the culture and politics of contemporary African nations at
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/africana/collections/posters/
Book: World Heritage in Danger
A compendium of key decisions on the conservation of natural World Heritage properties via the List of World Heritage in Danger.
By Tim Badman, Bastian Bomhard, Annelie Fincke et al. Gland: IUCN, 2009. 42 p. (IUCN World Heritage Studies; 7)
Available for free download
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/whc09_33com_9e_iucnfin__.pdf
Book: Cultural Heritage and the Law
Cultural Heritage and the Law: protecting immovable heritage in English-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa
Edited by Webber Ndoro, Albert Mumma and George Abungu (ICCROM, 2009)
Price: 20 Euros
This book presents the legal frameworks for immovable cultural heritage protection in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. It documents and analyzes the existing frameworks, addressing the history, development and contexts in which they were established and used.
http://www.iccrom.org/eng/news_en/2009_en/various_en/06_30pubAfrica2009_en.shtml
Book: Preserving the cultural heritage of Africa
Preserving the cultural heritage of Africa : crisis or renaissance? Suffolk :, Pretoria : James Currey ; Unisa Press; 2008.
Yoshida, Kenji and Mack, John.
Podcast: State of the Nation and the 15 Year Review
At the Cape Town Book Fair 2009, as part of the public programme of events, the State of the Nation was placed under review, with commentary on the challenges that face South Africa, 15 years into our new democracy. In this HSRC Press podcast package of two segments, we hear the ranging views of the political scientists who spoke prior to the panel debate, moderated by HSRC senior research specialist and University of the Western Cape lecturer, Suren Pillay.
HSRC Podcasts
http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/pages.php?pageid=23
Podcast: Writing History in the Wake Of Apartheid
At the Cape Town Book Fair 2009, three South African historians consider how one writes history in the post-apartheid period. This HSRC Press podcast package of three segments presents three of the panellists, before the lively discussion, which was moderated by University of the Western Cape historian and author of The Deaths of Hintsa, Professor Premesh Lalu, ensued. First up was oral historian Dr Sean Field, Director of the Centre for Popular Memory at the University of Cape Town and co-editor of Imagining the City – Memories and cultures in Cape Town, published by the HSRC Press.
HSRC Podcasts
http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/pages.php?pageid=23
SOIMA website: audiovisual preservation
The SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) programme has introduced a website aimed at highlighting the issues and challenges that some cultural and research institutions face in preserving their sound and image materials.
http://www.iccrom.org/eng/news_en/2009_en/various_en/06_02webSOIMA_en.shtml
Digital Copyright: Creative commons South Africa
http://zacreativecommons.designforweb.co.za/
Learn to use Zotero
In order to support those of you who’d like to use Zotero (a new research and collaboration tool Keith Breckenridge demonstrated at the SAHS conference) he has set up an email list. On this list we will be able to answer questions about everything from installation to undergraduate tutorial design, and the list server will keep an archive of the messages (which will be available on the web). If you’d like to sign up to the list, please go to: http://lists.humsci.ukzn.ac.za/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zotero
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Congratulations on a welcome and beautifully designed resource. No more moaning, just positive action. Consequently, I am too embarassed to divulge a sadly out of date URL until it’s been upgraded ...! Best wishes, Antonia.