Place-based cultural knowledge – of ceremonies, songs, stories, language, kinship and ecology – binds Australian Indigenous societies together. Over the last 100 years or so, records of this knowledge in many different formats – audiocassettes, photographs, films, written texts, maps, and digital recordings – have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate. Yet this extensive documentary heritage is dispersed. In many cases, the Indigenous people who participated in the creation of the records, or their descendants, have little idea of where to find the records or how to access them. Some records are held precariously in ad hoc collections, and their caretakers may be perplexed as to how to ensure that they are looked after.
Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond explores the strategies and practices by which cultural heritage materials can be returned to their communities of origin, and the issues this process raises for communities, as well as for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.
List of figures List of tables Foreword Editors' preface The contributors List of abbreviations 1. Conundrums and consequences: doing digital archival returns in Australia by Linda Barwick, Jennifer Green, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel & Katya Zissermann 2. Deciphering Arrernte archives: the intermingling of textual and living knowledge by Jason Gibson, Shaun Angeles & Joel Liddle 3. Reflections on the preparation and delivery of Carl Strehlow's heritage dictionary (1909) to the Western Aranda people by Anna Kenny 4. Returning recordings of songs that persist: the Anmatyerr traditions of akiw and anmanty by Jason Gibson 5. Incorporating archival cultural heritage materials into contemporary Warlpiri women's yawulyu spaces by Georgia Curran 6. Enlivening people and country: the Lander Warlpiri cultural mapping project by Petronella Vaarzon-Morel & Luke Kelly 7. (Re)turning research into pedagogical practice: a case study of translational language research in Warlpiri by Carmel O'Shannessy, Samantha Disbray, Barbara Martin & Gretel Macdonald 8. 'The songline is alive in Mukurtu': return, reuse, and respect by Kimberly Christen 9. 'For the children ...': Aboriginal Australia, cultural access, and archival obligation by Brenda Croft, Sandy Toussaint, Felicity Meakins & Patrick McConvell 10. Working at the interface: the Daly Languages Project by Rachel Nordlinger, Ian Green & Peter Hurst 11. 'We never had any photos of my family': archival return, film, and a personal history by Fred Myers & Lisa Stefanoff 12. Return of a travelling song: wanji-wanji in the Pintupi region of Central Australia by Myfany Turpin 13. Never giving up: negotiating, culture-making, and the infinity of the archive by Sabra Thorner, Linda Rive, John Dallwitz & Janet Inyika 14. Nura's vision: Nura's voice by Suzanne Bryce, Julia Burke & Linda Rive 15. i-Tjuma: the journey of a collection - from documentation to delivery by Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, Jennifer Green & Inge Kral 16. Ever-widening circles: consolidating and enhancing Wirlomin Noongar archival material in the community by Clint Bracknell & Kim Scott Index
Reviews for Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond
The book is a successful attempt to move beyond arguments for the rights of indigenous communities into the more logistical arenas of how these rights, principles and cultural practices can be upheld in record-keeping and archival contexts. -- Kirsty Fife * Archives and Records * 'Archival Returns holds great potential for inspiring First Nations communities, researchers and cultural institution practitioners in their own community-centred initiatives and research ... This volume helpfully offers, through case studies, a number of tools that older and younger generations in Aboriginal communities can employ to protect, manage and maintain place-based cultural learning in archival materials.' -- Mariko Smith * Aboriginal History Journal *
- Nominated for Australian Society of Archivists '2020 Mander Jones Awards' 2020 (Australia)
- Winner of Australian Society of Archivists '2020 Mander Jones Awards' 2020 (Australia)
