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Archival Platform November 2010 newsletter
EDITOR’S NOTE
We have a right to information. It is essential to the wellbeing of individuals, communities, organisations and states. It’s an issue that the Archival Platform will continue to foreground and to address.
Why? Because we are committed to promoting the role of archivists in deepening democracy through the use of memory and archives as dynamic public resources. We believe that information and records are fundamental to the exercise of democracy, accountability and good governance and that archives have a crucial role to play in advocacy, restorative justice, historical memory, struggles against impunity and the exercise of human rights.
In taking this stand we’re aligning ourselves with a number of significant initiatives. The "Right to Truth" document, issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2009, says that, "The recognition that archives and archivists play a central role in undergirding human rights has grown over the last decade." Human rights archives are playing an increasingly important role in advocacy, restorative justice, historical memory, and struggles against impunity.
Our Archival Platform Editorial this month focuses on the power of information and the archive as a mechanism for holding our democratic government to account, and reports on the status of the Protection of Information Bill.
In our efforts to keep up to date with relevant issues, the Archival Platform subscribes to many different newsletters and news and information feeds, and we are constantly inspired by the ideas and activities that we read about. This month, instead of publishing guest posts, we’ve decided to share a couple of our favourite sites and initiatives with you. The WITNESS Blog celebrated American Archives Month by posting a series of articles exploring the theme of archives and activism. Archivists Watch is a site that focuses on the relationship between archives, records and information, and the way in which these can be used to uphold and protect human rights. The Memory and Justice website, established by the International Centre for Transitional Justice, provides a forum for the exchange of views about memorialisation as a form of accountability for past atrocities.
What we like most about these sites is that they tell stories of initiatives that make a difference!
We bring you news of a couple of exciting local initiatives: Africa Media Online, which has recently digitised over 24 000 images from local museum; the Luthuli Museum and the 50th anniversary celebrations of the award of the Nobel Prize to Chief Albert Luthuli; the South African Heritage Resources Agency’s intention to declare the District Six Cultural Landscape as a national heritage site; and the development of Community House as a labour and community history museum centred around the Trade Union Library and its archive. We’ve also published information about the Department of Arts and Culture’s 2009/2010 Annual Report and presentation to the parliamentary portfolio committee.
Protection of, and access to information is an issue of almost universal concern. It lies at the heart of struggles against repressive regimes and the stands as a beacon on the route to the universal realisation of human rights. As active citizens of a democratic country it is our right to be able to access information and our responsibility to ensure that this right is respected and exercised responsibly.
Bearing this in mind, we’ve been following the passage of the Protection of Information Bill with some concern, and draw your attention to ways in which similar issues are making the news in Zimbabwe and the United States of America.
We’ve taken note of the Declaration of the Civil Society Conference, and hope that it will inspire local archivists to take action. We read the Public Protector’s speech on whistleblowing with interest and wonder how the protection of whistleblowers will be accommodated in the future.
On the international front, we draw your attention to the Universal Declaration on Archives, which has been adopted as a core pillar of the International Council on Archives and bring you news of two recent meetings, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safekeeping of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the International Council of Museums General Assembly.
Our Ancestral Stories are proving very popular and we’re delighted to see that they’re provoking comment! In the Ancestral Stories Editorial Mbongiseni Buthelezi teases out a number of difficult questions to do with the relationship between individual family histories and sweeping national narratives and asks: how then do we speak of the nation’s past? Vivien Horler talks to Mbongiseni Buthelezi about how her family has come to be South African and British as a result of migration between England, the United States and South Africa in search of work opportunities in the mines. Mbongiseni also follows up on Phineas Ndwandwe’s July post about the Ndwandwe association, Ubumbano LwamaZwide. He reports on his trip to the Zwide Heritage Celebration held in Mseleni in northern KwaZulu-Natal that brought together Ndwandwe people from KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Mozambique and Swaziland. Tony Harding tells of his distressing findings when excavating the silenced history of his family’s involvement in the slave trade.
Remember, the Archival Platform welcomes contributions, news and information about events, initiatives and projects, debates and issues of interest or importance to our readers.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Jo-Anne
IN THE NEWS
Africa Media Online
The Archival Platform met with David Larson of African Media Online and learnt about initiatives to facilitate “Africans telling Africa’s story”.
Community House
A new initiative aimed at developing a labour and community history museum precinct, centred around the Trade Union Library and its archive.
Honouring Albert Luthuli
The Archival Platform visited the Luthuli Museum and comments on the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Chief Albert Luthuli.
Department of Arts and Culture: Annual Report 2009-2010
Read the Department of Arts and Culture’s Annual Report 2009/2010 and the minutes of their presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture, or listen to the podcast
New Zimbabwean bill restricts public access to official information
A bill, to be submitted to the Zimbabwean parliament, will allow authorities to block public access to official documents including judicial decisions, new legislation and public records.
District Six Cultural Landscape: A national heritage site?
The South African Heritage Resources Agency has announced their intention to declare the District Six Cultural Landscape a national heritage site.
Baskets as containers of memory
A new exhibition, “Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art” at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington looks at baskets as “containers of memory”.
Intergovernmental Committee for the Safekeeping of the Intangible Cultural Heritage meets in Nairobi
Read about new cultural practices and expressions of intangible heritage inscribed on the convention’s lists, and the statement issued by non-governmental organisations.
International Council of Museums (ICOM) General Assembly
Helene Volgraaf, reports back on the ICOM and shares two important document adopted by the meeting.
Universal Declaration on Archives
The Universal Declaration on Archives has been adopted as a core pillar of the International Council on Archives’ advocacy policy.
Protecting whistleblowers
Read the speech by the Public Protector, Advocate Thulisile Madonsela at the Open Democracy Advice Centre.
Declaration of the Civil Society Conference
Civil society organisations came together in Boksburg in late October to rebuild a strong, mass democratic movement to address social problems.
OPPORTUNITIES
Job opportunities:
National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
The National Arts Festival is looking for a production manager to join their team.
Fellowships and funding:
Deadline: 11 February, 2011.
The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) Building Blocks Programme
Deadline: 31 December 2010
Training opportunities:
African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies
Offered by the University of the Western Cape Centre for Humanities Research and the Robben Island Museum.
Safeguarding Sound and Image Collections
Riga, Latvia, 11 to 29 July, 2011
Reducing Risks to Cultural Heritage
Face to face and online opportunities
Other opportunities:
Deadline: 21 January 2011
Calls for papers:
International Journal of Intangible Heritage
Deadline for volume 6: 15 December, 2010
African Literature, Visual Arts, and Film in Local and Transnational Spaces
Deadline: 1 December, 2010
CONFERENCES AND RESOURCES
Conferences:
Access to Information: Archives and Records in Support of Public Sector Reform in Context
Maputo, Mozambique, 6 to 10 June, 2011
Engaging Africa / Engaging Africans: Knowledge, Representation, Politics
Melbourne, Australia, 2 to 4 December, 2010
The 37th national annual conference of the African Literature Association
Ohio, USA, 13 to 17 April, 2011
Battlefield and Mass Grave: A Range of Interdisciplinary Analyses of Places of Violence
Brandenburg upon Havel, Germany, 21 to 24 November, 2011
Resources:
Book: Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing Imaginaries in Tourism and Beyond
Website: Institutional Repository Bibliography, Version 3
Podcast: Episode 45 of Africa Past and Present
Magazine: e-conservation magazine (Issue 16, October 2010, ISSN: 1646-9283)
OPINIONS
Archival Platform:
Jo-Anne Duggan considers the power of information in holding government to account.
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya writes about coffee shops in spaces of memory.
Utando Baduza visits the George Museum.
Ancestral Stories:
Ancestral Stories Editorial: November 2010
Mbongiseni Buthelezi considers the relationship between individual family histories and national narratives.
Mines and migration: a family’s journey to South Africa
Vivien Horler talks about how her family came to South Africa to work in the mines.
Zwide Heritage Day: 185 years on
Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports on his trip to the Zwide Heritage Celebration.
Encountering slavery as a family legacy
Tony Harding tells of his his family’s involvement in the slave trade.
Guest opinions:
An inspiring selection of posts about activism, as it relates to archives.
Using archives, records, and information to uphold and protect human rights.
International Centre for Transitional Justice: Memory and Justice website
A forum to exchange views and learn about memorialisation.
