The excitement of Heritage Month may be over, but ideas about our heritage are still bubbling on the Archival Platform. Our guest blogs this month reflect on the ways in which we shape our understandings of the past, both through academic analysis and government intervention. We have a commentary on heritage, identity and racial nomenclature from historian Enocent Msindo. This is timely, as the question of race and racism is a key issue in recent public debate. We also have a guest blog on questions of human rights and cultural practice, in relation to traditional male circumcision. This theme will be followed up next month with a commentary by a traditional circumcision practitioner. Finally, we have a guest blog on South Korean heritage policy, discussing how government encouragement of local heritage affects public appreciation of it. This month we also have lots of input from readers, including several meeting reports and book reviews.

There are other reasons to celebrate in October. We celebrate the Unesco World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on October 27 and the non-governmental campaign “Stand up 2009”, from October 16-18, encourages us to act against poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals.

Finally, the Archival Platform is pleased to announce the appointment of four part-time researchers to assist in its work for the next year: Uthando Baduza, Xolelwa Kashe Katiya, Kirsten Thomson and Thokozani Mhlambi. You’ll be hearing more from them.

With the setup phase of the platform completed, we’re also advertising for a full-time director to start next year. In January, current director Harriet Deacon will be relocating to the UK for a few years. She will stay in touch with the work of the Platform online and expand our networks abroad.

See the job advert on our website.

Also, now you can vote in our poll about camera use in archives:
www.archivalplatform.org/

The Platform belongs to all of you – both regular readers of the newsletter and visitors to the website – so send us news and reports, comments and guest blogs, as well as ideas for action in the sector.

Dr Harriet Deacon
Director, Archival Platform
Email: director@archivalplatform.org

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Stand Up 2009 campaign

Being active citizens requires that we take action for what we believe in. On October 16-18, people in all provinces in South Africa will participate in the Stand Up and Take Action campaign, the largest global citizen action to raise awareness about poverty and the Millennium Development Goals.

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Documentary shorts series launches

The Centre for Popular Memory has started work on a new series of documentary shorts, This I Remember. These five-minute shorts are a collection of peoples’ stories, compiled from interviews conducted with people who live in Cape Town. Raylaine Hendricks and Esther Mtini are the first two shorts in the series and focus on forced removals from Harfield Village in 1969 and the political unrest in the townships in the late 1970s.

They have been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed at the following site addresses:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rVNn6p7GWE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAL5Of-gkvM

Project to turn local craft initiatives into viable businesses

On September 23, the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and Old Mutual joined forces to form the DAC-OM Legends Programme. The programme aims to provide a platform that will turn local craft initiatives into viable businesses. The partnership was formed through the merging of the DAC Investing in Culture programme and the Old Mutual Legends Programme. The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding to seal the partnership at the Protea Hotel in Polokwane.

Click here for the Minister’s speech at this event.

Padraig O’Malley resource now online

The Heart of Hope website, an archival resource that is the product of almost two decades of research by the Irish writer and academic Padraig O’Malley, is now being hosted on the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s website.

www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/padraig_omalley/

History Archive has new website

To mark International Right to Know Day 2009, the South African History Archive has relaunched its website, www.saha.org.za/

Luxor’s Valley relics returned to Egypt

On October 9, France announced it would return five relics stolen from Egypt’s Luxor’s Valley of the Kings and sold to the Louvre. The announcement came two days after Cairo severed ties with the Paris museum in protest.

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World Heritage Sites face underfunding and professional staff shortages

Underfunding and shortage of professionals are the main hurdles facing conservation of World Heritage Sites in sub-Saharan Africa, according to experts.

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Kenya: museums alert over Lamu land allocations

The National Museums of Kenya is compiling a list of people allocated land in a water catchment area in the Lamu World Heritage Site. Director-general Omar Farah says Lamu Island is at risk of losing the only source of fresh water if allocations in the 982ha land at Shella are not nullified.

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Slave route museum inaugurated in Matanzas, Cuba

The Atlantic slave trade forms an essential part of the history of Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas. A new museum on this shared history has been opened in Cuba’s San Severino Castle.

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Zimbabwe crisis chronicled in stone at sculpture colony

Farm workers and artisans on a farm near Harare are carving stone figures that reflect the experiences of Zimbabweans, the Mail & Guardian reports.

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Sweden cuts down on culture and development

Swedish development agency Sida has dissolved the Department of Culture and Media as part of a restructuring effort. It’s unclear whether the agency’s cultural support in developing countries will be affected.

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Contacts: kvc@support.nl, info@powerofculture.nl

Survey to understand transnational cooperation

The Fitzcarraldo Foundation is finalising a qualitative survey aimed at understanding how the policies of European and non-European foundations concerning transnational cultural cooperation have changed in the past five years.

www.fitzcarraldo.it

Contact: fondazione@fitzcarraldo.it

Google digital library plan opposed by Angela Merkel

The Mail & Guardian reports that German chancellor Angela Merkel said her government opposed Google’s drive to create online libraries full of scanned books.

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Masters, doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships

The programme on the study of the humanities in Africa at the University of the Western Cape invites suitably qualified candidates to apply for masters, doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships for the 2010 academic year.

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Fellowships at UJ

The University of Johannesburg offers research fellowships for recently qualified PhDs in the humanities. The closing date is November 6, 2009.

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Museum and heritage studies diploma/MA at UWC

The University of the Western Cape is offering a postgraduate diploma in museum and heritage studies and an MA degree with a specialised stream in museum and heritage studies. Applications are now open for 2010.

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Australian graduate programme in liberal arts, cultural and environmental heritage

The Australian National University offers an exciting suite of graduate awards in cultural and environmental heritage: graduate certificate, diploma, and masters and masters (honours) degrees.

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Fellowship for women scholar-practitioners

The Campbell Fellowship will support a female social scientist from a developing nation, either pre- or postdoctoral, whose work addresses women’s economic and social empowerment in that nation.

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Postdoctoral fellowships: Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Programme

Applications are invited from nationals of non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for a number of postdoctoral fellowships in the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Programme.

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Unesco international chair for performance in cultural industries

Unesco has announced the creation of a new international chair for performance in the cultural industries, as well as a laboratory for cultural innovation for developing countries.

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Creative Africa Network mobility grants

Creative Africa Network’s mobility grants are designed to allow artists to travel to major international events they are taking part in.

More information:
www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/mobility_grants/

Contact: Christine Eyene, eyonart@googlemail.com

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Report: World Summit on Arts and Culture
Johannesburg, South Africa
September 22-25, 2009

The summit, co-hosted by the National Arts Council of South Africa and the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), attracted 450 delegates from 70 countries; 250 delegates were from Africa and represented 31 countries – the highest ever for a World Summit.

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Report: Mike van Graan on the World Summit on Arts and Culture

This is the final reflection on the Fourth World Summit on Arts and Culture by Mike van Graan, programme director of the Summit. The views are not necessarily those of the World Summit organisers.

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Report: SA National Trust consultation

This consultative meeting on the idea of forming a National Trust in South Africa was held in Johannesburg on September 5, 2009.

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Report: U40 Africa Network meeting

The U40 World Forum (June 12-14, 2009) brought together 50 professionals under the age of 40 from all over the world to discuss proposals on how to implement the 2005 Unesco Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The first meeting of the U40 Africa chapter was held in Pretoria on September 22, 2009.

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Report: NMF workshop on the Protection of Personal Information Act

On September 30, 2009, the Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted a workshop on the proposed Protection of Personal Information Act at the Foundation’s offices. The aim of the workshop, according to the Foundation’s head of memory, Verne Harris, was “to determine what impact the proposed Act will have on archival and memory institutions”.

www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/protection_of_personal/

Report: Abu Dhabi Intergovernmental Committee, 2003 Unesco Convention, 4COM

Archival Platform director Harriet Deacon reports on the intergovernmental committee, which she attended as an examiner of the Kenyan Mijikenda nomination file.

www.archivalplatform.org/resources/

Report: ACCU international partnership programme for safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage

Videos of the third training course of the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for Unesco Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage are available on the Archival Platform website. The workshop took place in Japan from July 15-22, 2009.

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Conference: Challenges and opportunities of managing archives and records
University of SA, Pretoria
November 25-26, 2009

The South African Society of Archivists, in conjunction with the Department of Information Science at Unisa and the National Archives, will host a national conference of archivists, records managers and heritage personnel.

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Conference: Beadwork in KwaZulu-Natal
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg
December 3-5, 2009

This conference hopes to bring together the work of scholars in the field who have focused on the role and significance of beads in the construction of cultural, national, and gendered identity in the region. It will be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Visual Art in Pietermaritzburg.

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Call for papers: Voyage/Text
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
September 1-3, 2010

The organisers invite submissions that address the literature of maritime voyaging to build on the successful “Story of the Voyage Colloquium” held at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in October 2008.

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Conference: Belief narratives network
St Petersburg, Russia
May 17-19, 2010

The conference includes discussion of how belief narratives relate to politics, ideology and society.

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Conference: History, memory and identity in Africa
Oran, Algeria
April 26, 2010

This symposium raises questions such as: Of what value are concepts like historiography, memory and identity in reference to Africa? How do we rehabilitate Africa’s past without shutting it out from the present and the future altogether? How do we reconcile our identities?

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/identity_in_africa/

Conference: Preserving Africa’s ancient manuscripts
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
December 17-19, 2010

This conference will set itself the task of analysing the most salient issues raised by Africa’s ancient written treasures and historical records. It is coupled with an exhibition on ancient manuscripts and writing.

http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/ancient_manuscripts1/
http://www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/ancient_manuscripts/

Conference: Preserving African cultural heritage
Dakar, Senegal
November 1-7, 2010

The jointly organised 13th Pan-African Association of Prehistory and Assimilated Disciplines and the 20th Society of Africanist Archaeologists conferences brings together members from these two organisations dedicated to preserving African heritage.

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Conference: Cultural Trends
London, England
October 16, 2009

Cultural Trends, the journal that champions the need for better evidence-based analyses of the cultural sector, is delighted to announce that its second one-day international conference, Centre/Periphery: Devolution/Federalism, is now open to delegates.

www.archivalplatform.org/news/entry/cultural_trends/

Conference: Cultural policy research
Jyväskylä, Finland
August 24-27, 2010

The 2010 International Conference on Cultural Policy Research aims to provide a space for exploration of cultural policies – their meaning, roles and impact – in an interdisciplinary and international environment.

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Conference: Moving images of the British Empire
London, UK, July 8-9, 2010
Pittsburgh, US, September 25-26, 2010

“Colonial Film: Moving Images of The British Empire” is a major scholarly and archival project that investigates the history of moving images of the British Empire.

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Conference: The world map of masks and symbols
Bangkok, Thailand
November 12-14, 2009

The International Mask Arts and Culture Organisation and the Thai Ministry of Culture intend to create a database of world masks and what they symbolise through the active exchange of information at the symposium.

Website: http://www.worldmask.org/
Contact: iovkorea@yahoo.co.kr or worldmask@gmail.com

Workshop: World oral literature project
Cambridge, England
December 15-16, 2009

This workshop aims to discuss strategies for collecting, recording, preserving and disseminating oral literatures and endangered narrative traditions.

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