News
In this news section you will find Archival Platform announcements. You can also download Archival Platform newsletters.
Share
Archival Platform October 2010 newsletter
EDITOR’S NOTE
In our Ancestral Stories section, Troy Meyers, whose ancestors from a prominent English settler family intermarried with local Zulu people, puts to rest any idea that people can be separated into neat racial categories. Sean Field of the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Popular Memory poses a challenge to colleagues working on history and memory to take family history more seriously. Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports on the difficulties the Nelson Mandela Foundation has encountered in putting together Madiba’s genealogy. You can look forward to a follow-up story on other versions of Mandela’s family tree in future.
Guest writers, responding to our call to “have your say” include Mak (from Makhado), who takes a break from the pressing issues of the day and visits the Museum of Broken Relationships, and Shadrack Katuu, who considers the documentary heritage of the Winter Olympics held in Vancouver this year and asks what lessons South Africans can learn from the way in which the city processed the records relating to this event.
We and our colleagues around the world celebrated the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on 27 October. In search of innovative projects dealing with this important topic, the Archival Platform visited the Visual History Archive, a digital archiving project which integrates mapping technologies and audiovisual, textual and photographic documents in a place-based system.
Open Access Week, from 18 to 24 October, another important international event, is aimed at promoting free access to online copies of peer-reviewed scholarly journals, conference reports, etc. This month the Archival Platform looks at the issue of open access in South Africa and reports on various developments.
The Protection of Information Bill tribunal still remains a focus of attention. This month we supported the Right2Know Campaign for a Week of Action from 19 to 27 October, and joined the march on parliament. In this newsletter, we report on South Africa’s drop in the ranking of the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2010 and publish Minister Cwele’s second submission to the Ad Hoc Committee on Protection of Information Bill.
The issue of the proposed media tribunal remains high on our agenda. We also bring news of the meeting between the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and government, and publish Professor Kader Asmal’s speech to mark the SANEF commemoration of Black Wednesday.
We’re delighted to hear that the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has announced the theme for International Museum Day 2011 – Museums and Memory – and to learn that ICOM will be collaborating with a number of important archival and heritage associations including the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, the International Council on Archives (ICA), The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archival Associations (CCAAA) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to address this theme holistically. This initiative accords perfectly with the Archival Platform’s broadly inclusive approach to archives and archiving, and we look forward to being involved!
The Archival Platform congratulates Paul Mashatile on his appointment as Minister of Arts and Culture. We’ve watched, heard and read about various goings-on at the Department of Arts and Culture over the last year or so with some bemusement and some anger. We’ve collated these issues and report on some of the challenges the new minister faces.
A heartening story this month is on the launch of an online database of artworks seized by Nazi forces during World War II: The records kept by various organisations have been collated and will hopefully be used to return these works to their rightful owners or their descendents.
Best wishes,
Jo-Anne
IN THE NEWS
Save and savour our audiovisual heritage now!
On 27 October we celebrated the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.
South African falls to 38th place on World Press Freedom Index
This is attributed to attacks on journalists during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ and to the behaviour of senior members of the ruling African National Congress toward the press.
The Visual History Archive
The Archival Platform spent a morning in conversation with Craig Matthew, of the Visual History Archive, a digital archiving project.
What’s up at the Department of Arts and Culture?
The Department of Arts and Culture has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons – suspensions, legal action, parliamentary questions. We take time to comment.
Why employment contracts need an intellectual property clause
Employers, employees and contractors need to establish clear ground rules for this, or face the consequences later!
No public interest override in Secrecy Bill – Cwele
Read State Security Minister Cwele’s second submission to the Ad Hoc Committee on Protection of Information Bill.
ICOM theme for 2011: Museums and Memory
The International Council of Museums will be cooperating with the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme and other organisations to celebrate International Museum Day in 2011.
Right2Know Campaign: Week of Action
The Right2Know Campaign’s Week of Action from 19 to 27 October 2010 send a clear message to the South African government: Let the truth be told. Stop the Secrecy Bill!
Open Access Week
Open Access Week, from 18 to 24 October, is aimed at promoting free access to online copies of peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, papers, theses and reports.
Stolen Holocaust art database launched
Thousands of artworks were seized by German forces during World War II. A new digital database has been compiled to facilitate the identification of these works.
When does self-regulation degenerate into self-censorship?
Read Professor Kader Asmal’s speech to mark the SANEF commemoration of Black Wednesday at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Media should be given space to fix itself – Motlanthe
The current review of the media’s self-regulatory mechanism will influence whether there was a need for a media appeals tribunal.
The Archival Platform interacts with delegates to the SAMA and OHASA conferences
The Archival Platform met with delegates to SAMA conference in Durban and the OHASA conference in White River.
OPPORTUNITIES
Job opportunities:
Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Iziko is seeking applicants for the following positions: executive director core function; director institutional advancement; progammes manager; personal assistant to executive directors; administrative assistant (institutional advancement); assistant curator (palaeontology); collections manager (entomology); assistant collections manager; museum educator; supply chain management co-ordinator; human resources manager; employment co-ordinator; and security, health and safety officer.
Call for reviewers
Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies (ENAJS), a journal for the critical analysis of journalism in all its facets in Africa, is seeking reviewers.
Scholarships and fellowships:
Fellowship: National Museum of American History
Scholarships: Cambridge University
Scholarship: Musée du quai Branly
Training opportunities:
Online workshop: Digital Preservation
An Introduction to the Basic Concepts. 17 November, 2010
Workshop: Managing Indoor Climate Risks
Olinda, Brazil, 20 – 25 March 2011
Calls for proposals and participants:
Call for proposals for funding: British Library and Arcadia: Endangered Archives Programme
Call for participants: Arterial Network working groups on cultural policy
Calls for chapters:
CONFERENCES AND RESOURCES
Conferences:
Nostalgia and Amnesia: Avenues of Remembering and Forgetting
California, United States of America, 1 January 2011
ICOM-SA: Museums and Memory
Cape Town, South Africa, 18 February 2011
Commonwealth Association of Museums: Culture, Economy and Climate Change
Singapore, May 2011
Struggle for Equality: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Human Rights in Africa
Cape Town, South Africa, 15 – 16 November 2010
International Conference on the Inclusive Museum
Johannesburg, South Africa, 3 June – 3 July 2011
Does War Belong in Museums?
Graz, Austria, 21 – 23 September 2011
Calls for papers:
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Research Paper Award 2011: Use and Users of Digital Libraries
Battleground States, Collapsing Cultures and Darkened Dreamscapes: Societies and Imaginations in a State of Disorder. Ohio, United States of America, 25 – 26 February 2011
Newsletter:
Books:
The Road to Democracy in South Africa: Volume 4, focussing on the 1980s, was launched by the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET) in October 2010 and is now available for purchase.
Material Journeys: Collecting African and Oceanic Art, 1945 – 2000, by Christraud Geary and Stephanie Xatart, is reviewed by Paula Girshick.
Nelson Mandela, Conversations with Myself.
OPINIONS
Archival Platform:
Staking a claim? Autobiographies, foundations and other personality-based memory initiatives
Jo-Anne Duggan comments on the upsurge in initiatives such as foundations, annual lectures and biographical and autobiographical publications in recent years.
Recording traditional music: The work of Percival Kirby
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya marks World Day for Audiovisual Heritage with a post on the Kirby Collection housed at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town.
Ancestral Stories:
Ancestral Stories Editorial: October 2010
Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports on debates about family history at the SAMA conference in Durban and the OHASA conference in White River.
Descended from the founders of Durban
Troy Meyers writes about his ancestors that intermarried with Zulu people in early Durban – and so helps put to rest any idea that people can be separated into neat racial categories.
Remembering “family”: Should we be doing “family histories”?
Sean Field, of the Centre for Popular Memory, poses a challenge to colleagues working on history and memory to take family history more seriously.
Nelson Mandela’s contested genealogy
Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports on the difficulties the Nelson Mandela Foundation has encountered in putting together Madiba’s genealogy.
Guest opinions:
How – and why – do you archive heartbreak?
Mak (from Makhado) takes a break from the pressing issues of the day and visits the Museum of Broken Relationships.
International sports events and their documentary heritage
Shadrack Katuu asks what lessons South Africa can learn from the way in which the Vancouver processed the records of the Winter Olympics.
