Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond edited by Linda Barwick, Jennifer Green and Petronella Vaarzon-Morel

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Body text and binding are still very good.

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 about how to ensure they are cared for.

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 and for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.