Posted on March 14, 2010
Harriet Deacon says goodbye (sort of) ...
We aim to promote public engagement with and investment in the archive through networking and information sharing. The need for such a project emerged out of several initiatives. The 2002 book Refiguring the Archive highlighted the idea that archives are more than just physical records: they are political and intellectual constructs, hiding as well as revealing historical truths through their very construction, alteration and interpretation. The 2007 conference 'National system, Public Interest' highlighted the poor public status and lack of investment in archives and the dearth of networking and information sharing across the professional memory sector. Verne Harris from the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Carolyn Hamilton, UCT National Research Foundation Research Professor in 'Archive and Public Culture', were mandated by the conference to set up the Archival Platform as a way of addressing these concerns.
The idea for the AP was also informed by my own work in the heritage sector, notably an HSRC book project called Protecting our Cultural Capital, and some work commissioned by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation looking at the relationship between research and policy-making in the arts and culture sector.
We joined many professional organisations and presented on the AP at a number of conferences in 2009 including ICADLA-1 in Addis Ababa, SAHS and OHASA, the UCT heritage economics conference, and archives conferences in Mpumalanga and Pretoria. The Archival Platform started its online networking through a website, newsletter, facebook and twitter feed in August last year. The newsletter currently goes to over 1000 people in the sector and the Facebook fan page has over 450 members from all over the world, but mainly South Africa. Our twitter feed, the_archive, has over 100 followers now, and we're on a number of twitter lists. Our monthly newsletter has been widely welcomed across the sector.
In Heritage Month 2009 the Archival Platform launched a 'Letters for Lulu'Â campaign (in the spirit of Tips for Trevor), to help identify challenges and opportunities in the heritage and archive sector. We gave the letters to the Minister in December 2009 and are waiting for her promised response. In the letters received, professional organizations and institutions like SAHS and SAHA raised concerns about the state of our archives. Young professionals in the sector commented in their letters about the dearth of funding for individuals in the sector, the need to promote oral history, the importance of digitizing collections, and the need for a review of existing policies on copying materials in archives. This latter point was underlined by our online poll on camera use in archives which received over 1,000 votes, and the excellent response to our meeting on camera use in archives on 1 December 2009.
In October I was joined by four part-time correspondents on the Platform: Thokozani Mhlambi, Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya, Uthando Baduza and Kirsten Thomson. Mbongiseni Buthelezi became an associate researcher for the Platform, working on the clan names project for 2010.
I'm now saying goodbye as the first Director of the Platform - I'm going to be based in the UK for a few years, but I'll remain an online correspondent and ambassador to the Platform to assist in its excellent work. Jo-Anne Duggan, the new Director, is extremely well placed to take the work of the Platform forward from here. I wish her and the team best of luck!
Harriet Deacon, Director of the AP from May to December 2009, acting Director from January to March 2010
And the new Director, Jo-Anne Duggan, says hello ....
There has long been a need for an initiative that brings people together to share information, debate and discuss issues of concern and interest. I particularly value the way in which the Archival Platform utilises contemporary communication technologies to facilitate interaction with a broad audience. But, as I meet with others and am asked to explain what the Archival Platform is, and what it does, I am reminded that it offers an opportunity to do more than simply exchange information and ideas. It encourages us as a sector to interrogate issues critically, to ask, 'what is at stake', for us as practitioners and citizens and to consider ways in which we can act to consolidate public ownership of South Africa's historical archive, to ensure that memory work remains an open business.
I've been active in the sector for the last 20 years or so. I've been fortunate to have been involved in many aspects of heritage and to have worked with the state and civil society to research, preserve and promote heritage in various ways. I have had opportunities to be involved in policy development and heritage practice, to undertake in-depth research and to facilitate broad consultative processes. I have worked with objects in museums, with the development of heritage sites and interpretive facilities and on projects that require research into institutional arrangements, legislation, strategies and international best-practice models. I have enjoyed the cut and thrust of theoretical discourse.
My passion is and always has been to work with the people associated with the heritage resources and in heritage practice. I enjoy bringing diverse people together to share ideas, debate direction, negotiate common ground, plot strategy and plan interventions. I enjoy working with communities to uncover and document their heritage as much as I enjoy working with the government officials mandated to manage heritage.
In the course of my work I have come increasingly to appreciate the knowledge that resides in individual and community memory, and the consequences that we as a nation will suffer if these are lost. I have been privileged to feel urban and rural landscape come alive as old men and women people them with their stories. I have held fragile documents that remain as witness to events long after the people who created them have passed on. I have been deeply affected by paintings and drawings that articulate complex memories more eloquently than words, and by poems that capture the essence of lived experience that complements historical narrative and academic analysis.
I have been frustrated by the loss of material that has been destroyed or rendered impotent because it is not accessible.
I am passionate about heritage, in all its complexity and happy to work with anyone who shares this passion. As the new Director I aim to consolidate existing relationships, reach new audiences and build new alliances. I look forward to working with you and to facilitating the important process of sharing information and ideas, engaging in research, facilitating debate, alerting the sector to opportunities and threats, rallying support where action is required and continuing to build a platform from which our collective voices may be heard.
And finally, thanks to Harriet for everything that she has done to get the Archival Platform to where it is now and for all the help that she has given me personally to make the transition between old and new as seamless as possible. We look forward to hearing from her in the future and wish her much joy and many more exciting adventures in the world of heritage!
Jo-Anne Duggan