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Archival Platform September 2010 newsletter
Download the Archival Platform September newsletter here.
Dear Colleagues,
It’s Heritage Month, and we are thinking hard about museums!
Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana has responded to the “Letters to Lulu” handed to her by the Archival Platform in 2009. We bring you her response and our comments on it, and invite you to participate in our Letters to Lulu 2010 campaign. This year we’re asking you to send a postcard to the Minister alerting her to the challenges facing museums and the issues that should be taken into account in the development of a national museums policy framework.
The Archival Platform team has tackled a variety of topics this month. Jo-Anne Duggan reflects on the museum as archive and considers the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) initiative to develop a national museums policy framework. Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya writes about heritage, museums and curation training programmes at tertiary institutions. Thokozani Mhlambi discusses ways in which people locate their musical heritage within contemporary society and meditate on the way in which people relate to particular kinds of music and claim these as their own. Harriet Deacon discusses some of the ways in which interactive Web 2.0 tools are used for encouraging public participation in archives and heritage work. Mak from Makhado takes a fresh look at museum objects and wonders how to make sense of them.
Our Ancestral Stories posts cover a range of issues this month. Mbongiseni Buthelezi reports back on an interview with Zainab “Patty” Davidson (nee Amlay), curator of the Heritage Museum in Simon’s Town. Emile Maurice describes the process through which he constructed a picture of the life and times of his father, Edgar Maurice, based on photographs from the family archive. David Slingsby writes of his experiences using family documents and photographs to write his own family history. Victoria Collis-Buthelezi reviews David James Smith’s Young Mandela and considers Madiba’s private legacies.
The national news media have given extensive coverage to issues arising from the Protection of Information Bill and proposals to establish a media tribunal. This month we’re asking what impact these may have on the archive and the practice of archiving, and we’ve collated various statements and opinions for your consideration. National Archivist Graham Dominy, writing in his personal capacity, asks why a Protection of Information Bill is needed; how security and archival information classification systems work; and how an information access regime could be better monitored and adjudicated.
We’ve posted an updated and fuller version of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and International Council of Archives report on archival policies in the protection of human rights on our website to remind us that archives have a significant role to play in deepening democracy.
It’s been a busy month for conferences. Kylie Thomas reports back on “Bonani Africa 2010 Conference: Beyond the Racial Lens”, and Jo-Anne Duggan on “Working with the Archive: The Second Apartheid Archive Conference” and the Nelson Mandela Foundation “Dialogue for Social Change” seminar.
We review a number of new sites of archival memory and action: Iziko’s new Social History Centre brings together collections divided by our colonial and apartheid past; the development of the crypt at St George’s Cathedral as a site of memory and witness; and Community House, a heritage site and archive focusing on the role of the labour movement and the struggles of working-class communities for a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa.
Finally, we list some interesting new opportunities, conferences and events, and some very useful resources.
We hope you had a happy and productive Heritage Month!
Jo-Anne Duggan
NEWS
Our letter from Lulu
DAC Minister Lulu Xingwana has responded to the letters handed to her by the Archival Platform in 2009 – and we reply.
Protection of Information Bill: An archival perspective
The Protection of Information Bill has received exhaustive coverage in the media – largely, we think, because of the consequences it has for the future of journalism in this country. But what, we wonder, does it mean for the archive and archiving?
The proposed media tribunal: What’s at stake?
Some perceive the proposed media tribunal to be a threat to our fragile democracy while others claim that it protects individuals and organisations against defamation. We’ve collected statements reflecting a range of opinions for your consideration.
Protecting information: A practical view
National Archivist Graham Dominy, writing in his personal capacity, asks why a Protection of Information Bill is needed; how security and archival information classification systems work; and how an information access regime could be better monitored and adjudicated.
Archival policies in the protection of human rights
An updated and fuller version of the 1995 report prepared by Unesco and the International Council on Archives concerning the management of archives of state security services in former repressive regimes.
Not yet “beyond the racial lens”
Kylie Thomas reports on the “Bonani Africa 2010 Conference”, noting that while the event was framed as hosting a conversation about photography “beyond the racial lens”, invoking the visual archives of apartheid and anti-apartheid struggle brought to light much that is unresolved about the past.
Graves of three women activists declared National Heritage Sites
The South African Heritage Resources Agency honours the courage, determination and bravery of struggle heroines Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph.
Panel of experts required to draft a national museums policy framework
The DAC has begun the process of developing a national museums policy framework!
Community House, Cape Town: Heritage site and archive
New developments are afoot at Community House, a site of memory and living heritage that acknowledges and propagates the role of the labour movement and the struggles of working-class communities for a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa.
St George’s Cathedral Crypt: A place of memory and witness
This cathedral became widely known as a site and focus of resistance against apartheid, and a place of refuge. The Archival Platform visited the crypt to hear how the church is working to remember the past and explore the issues confronting society today.
“Working with the Archive: Second Apartheid Archive Conference”
This conference examined South African experiences of racism and the continuing effect on individual and group functioning in contemporary society.
Nelson Mandela Foundation “Dialogue for Social Change” seminar
A seminar focusing on xenophobia and the experience of migrants in South Africa raised some thought-provoking questions about memory practice, among other issues.
Iziko opens Social History Centre
Iziko’s new, world-class museum facility will house its Social History collections and archives. The Social History Centre will allow Iziko to integrate collections previously held in different museums in order to overcome the artificial divisions created by our colonial and apartheid past, and to improve research access.
CAMPAIGNS
This year we are asking you to send a postcard to DAC Minister Xingwana alerting her to the challenges facing museums and the issues that should be taken into account in the development of a national museums policy framework.
OPINIONS AND POSTS
Archival Platform editorial: Reimagining museums?
Jo-Anne Duggan reflects on the museum as archive and considers the DAC’s move to develop a national museums policy framework.
Addressing skills gaps in the heritage sector: Institutions of higher learning
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya writes about heritage, museums and curation training at the universities of Cape Town, the Western Cape, Witwatersrand and Pretoria.
“Music Heritage Route”: the music of one’s own
Thokozani Mhlambi discusses ways in which people locate their musical heritage within contemporary society and meditate on the way in which people relate to particular kinds of music and claim these as their own.
Using new media for heritage management (part two): Online tools for the participatory archive
Harriet Deacon discusses some of the ways in which interactive Web 2.0 tools are used for encouraging public participation in archives and heritage work.
The secret life of museum objects
Mak from Makhado takes a fresh look at museum objects and wonders how to make sense of them.
Ancestral Stories: Editorial, September 2010
Mbongiseni Buthelezi tells of an interview that he, Jo-Anne Duggan and Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya conducted with Patty Davidson (nee Amlay), who founded and runs the Heritage Museum in Amlay House, Simon’s Town, Cape Town.
The power of the ordinary: The family archive
Emile Maurice describes the process through which he constructed a picture of the life and times of his father, Edgar Maurice, based on selections of photographs from the family archive.
The Slingsby family
David Slingsby’s post is an absorbing narrative of the life of family documents and photographs that he is using to write a book of his family’s history.
Private legacies of Mandela
Picking up the thread from last month’s Ancestral Stories editorial, Victoria Collis-Buthelezi reviews David James Smith’s Young Mandela.
CALLS FOR PAPERS, PROPOSALS, CONTRIBUTIONS AND PARTICIPANTS
Call for journal submissions: Journal of African Cinemas seeks papers that expound on the identity or identities of Africa and its peoples represented in film.
Call for conference papers: “2010 and Beyond: Architecture and the City”, Durban, South Africa, 14 – 16 October 2010
Call for conference papers: “Peopling the Past: Private Lives, Public Histories and the Museum”, Greenwich, UK, 21 – 22 July 2011
OPPORTUNITIES
Online course: Introduction to Paleography and Archival Studies, offered by the Medici Archive Project
Short course: Architectural and Urban Conservation: Part 2 – Skills Development, University of Cape Town
Postgraduate programme: Master of Philosophy in conservation of the built environment, University of Cape Town
Postdoctoral researchers: Indigeneity in the contemporary world: performance, politics, belonging, Royal Holloway, University of London
Fellowships: African Humanities Programme, for scholars in the humanities who are nationals of sub-Saharan African countries
Short course: Book repair, Afrikaans Language Museum, Paarl
Web-based discussion forum: Melissa Mannon, author of Cultural Heritage Collaborators: A Manual for Community Documentation, is seeking people to respond to the following questions: How does your institution work to support the documentary record? Is collaborative collection development across cultural disciplines a good idea for your institution and community?
Volunteers: Ancestry24 is looking for volunteers to assist in documenting graves in Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town
BOOKS AND OTHER RESOURCES
Book: Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music by Max Mojapelo
Book: Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century by Rachel Madan
E-book: Using Moving Image Archives by Nandana Bose and Lee Grieveson
Online training material: The Open Planets Foundation’s fifth Team Digital Preservation adventure, Team Digital Preservation and the Planets Testbed, is now available
Book: Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography by Clifton C Crais and Pamela Scully
WHAT IS THE ARCHIVAL PLATFORM?
The Archival Platform is a non-profit initiative, established under the auspices of the University of Cape Town and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to play a catalytic role in the way in which practitioners, theorists and the general public think about archive and the ways in which archiving is practised in South Africa. We look forward to engaging with everyone who shares our interest in and commitment to the sector and to working with all concerned to re-energise and breathe new life into the sector, not just because we are interested in seeing our archives working efficiently and effectively, but because we know the archive can and should play a role in deepening hard-won democracies and building a just and cohesive society. Something I am sure we all aspire to.
