Representation

The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University
» http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/



Hall, S. (1997). Representation : Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage Publications Ltd. ISBN: 0761954325. [Amazon]

Hartmann, W., Silvester, J. & Hayes, P. (eds.) (1999). The Colonising Camera: Photographs in the Making of Namibian History. Cape Town: Juta and Company Limited. ISBN: 1919713220. [Amazon] [Google Books]

Bridging the "hermeneutic gap"

[note to myself: lots to go in here in due course ... incl. 'War of the Ghosts']

'Heritage dissonance'

Ashworth, G., Graham, B., & Tunbridge, J. (2007). Pluralising Pasts: Heritage, Identity and Place in Multicultural Societies. London: Pluto Press. ISBN: 0745322859. [Amazon]

Graham, B., Ashworth, G. & Tunbridge, J. (2000). A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture and Economy. London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN: 0340677791. New edition. [Amazon]

Tunbridge, J.E. & Ashworth, G.J. (1995). Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict. Hove, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 047194887X. [Amazon]

Diversity

The following quote--long, but worth reproducing in its entirety--is from Richard Sandell's Preface to his Museums, Prejudice and the Reframing of Difference (2007):

Sociology, cultural studies, anthropology and museum studies have, over the past two decades, thoroughly positioned museums as sites in which social understandings of cultural difference are negotiated, constituted, and communicated. Although work within these disciplines has sometimes sought to acknowledge the complexities, contradictions and ambivalence involved in modes of cultural production (and, more rarely, those associated with processes of audience reception), analyses have very often highlighted the capacity for museums to function as instruments of power, generating discriminatory effects through the ways in which differences--in particular racial and gender variations--have been represented in hierarchical and otherwise negative, pernicious ways. The representational practices of the museum have frequently been characterised as excluding and oppressive through their capacity and their tendency to erase, marginalise or silence minority groups and identities.

In recent years, however, there has been a growing interest--especially amongst practitioners--in the potential which museums might hold to function as sites for the staging of liberatory interventions designed to contest or subvert dominant (oppressive, discriminatory) understandings of difference. Although relatively few museums have sought to develop exhibitions that purposively offer these alternative ways of seeing--which explicitly seek to communicate and engender support for concepts of equal human rights and social justice--there is nevertheless evidence of a much more widespread concern to represent different communities in more equitable and respectful ways. Museums of all kinds, and in many parts of the world, are increasingly expected to develop their displays in ways which reflect the diverse, culturally pluralist societies within which they are operating.

... Museums, I shall argue, can counter prejudice through their capacity to frame (and reframe), to inform and enable the conversations which visitors, and society more broadly, have about difference.

Sites to view: explore UntoldLondon (below), and in particular the further sites on the Links page.

"London is home to people of every race and faith. More than 300 languages are spoken here, and whilst some cultural groups have been here for centuries, 30% of Londoners today were born abroad. This site searches for the histories that relate to all the cultures of London. We focus on London museums, but also look at archives, galleries and the history work of communities themselves."
» http://untoldlondon.org.uk

"... and what can we learn from you?"

Back in late 2006 I participated in a seminar on museums and African heritage at South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. The event was a farewell to Ali Hlongwane, director of the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto, at the end of a three-month DCMS-sponsored placement in the UK for South African curators to "help develop management and specialist curatorial skills to preserve the country's priceless heritage". In the pronouncement of UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell at the launch of the programme, "People working in the UK's museums have a world-class reputation thanks to their skill and expertise. This is a chance for some of that to be passed on to South Africa, to help its museums develop the highest standards as they continue the task of recording and preserving their heritage."

So Ali had, no doubt, learned from his 'training programme' at the Museum of London. But to me this all seemed rather presumptuous and a tad arrogant. And so I asked him: "and what can we learn from you, Ali?" I'd rather put him on the spot: he had no answer to hand, and I'd been wrong to expect it. I had no answer myself. But I had a couple of intuitions: the first, so obvious as to be banal, was that Zulus, as much as any other people on earth, had ways of preserving memory of the past, preserving a rich history and cultural tradition, from which we in the UK could learn. My second intuition was that African curators had the ingenuity to devise locally relevant ways of capturing and preserving memories; and this was borne out when, after Ali's departure back to Johannesburg, I found the Soweto ‘76 Digital Memory Box on the Hector Pieterson Museum web site, using

"electronic multimedia to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital records of those students who took part in the Uprisings of 1976. The Soweto ’76 Digital Memory Box contributes to the ongoing effort by South African historians and archivists to preserve the record of Black townships by collecting first-hand accounts, on-scene images, and blog postings. The Museum hopes to foster positive legacies by allowing former students still living in Soweto, and elsewhere, to tell their stories in their own words. These stories will become a part of the historical record and will remain accessible to a wide audience for generations to come."

Native Cultures, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, & Heritage Technologies

Centre For Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CEFIKS, Accra, Ghana)
"Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) refer to the complex set of knowledge, skills and technologies existing and developed around specific conditions of populations and communities indigenous to a particular geographic area. IKS constitute the knowledge that people in a given community have developed over time, and continue to develop. It is the basis for agriculture, food preparation, health care, education and training, environmental conservation, and a host of other activities. Indigenous knowledge is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. Herbal medicine is a good example of indigenous knowledge, which has affected the lives of people worldwide.
Indigenous knowledge provides the basis for problem-solving strategies for local communities. It represents an important component of global knowledge of development issues. It is often an under-utilized resource in the development process. A key reason for the under-utilization of indigenous knowledge in the development process is the lack of guidelines for recording, codifying and applying such knowledge An understanding is required of indigenous knowledge and its role in community life from an integrated perspective that includes both spiritual and material aspects of a society as well as the complex relation between them. At the same time, it is necessary to understand and to explore the potential contribution of indigenous knowledge to local and national development. It is also necessary to protect, preserve and utilize indigenous knowledge to benefit its owners and the communities where it is practiced. And that such protection, preservation and utilization process requires carefully thought-out research and deliberate effort.
There is, therefore, a strong need for an organization devoted solely to the research, monitoring, documentation, and coordination of indigenous knowledge systems in Ghana. The Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CEFIKS) was established in the year 2000 to fulfill this need. The Centre is based in Accra and has affiliates in the USA, and local communities in Ghana.
The primary focus of CEFIKS is to

• record, preserve and disseminate information about indigenous knowledge systems.
• serve as a clearinghouse of indigenous knowledge systems from various communities within and without Ghana.
• support and advocate the use of indigenous knowledge systems in the socio-economic development process in Ghana and the region of West Africa.

» http://www.cfiks.org

[t.b.c.]

Case study: African Heritage

Aluka
"Aluka is an international, collaborative initiative building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. ‘Aluka’, is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave’, reflecting Aluka’s commitment to connect resources and scholars from around the world ...
Aluka seeks to build digital collections by attracting high-quality scholarly content about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners will have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience—without having to develop and support their own technology platforms. Aluka’s web-based platform provides powerful tools for research, teaching, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.
The Aluka website includes a wide variety of high-quality scholarly materials contributed by Aluka’s partners, ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides. By aggregating these materials online, the Aluka collections link materials that are widely dispersed and difficult to access, opening up new opportunities for research, teaching, and broader public discussion. One of Aluka’s primary objectives is to provide African scholars and students with access to scholarly materials originally from Africa, but now out of their reach.
Aluka also works closely with partner organisations in Africa to build capacity in digitisation and the use of online materials for teaching and research. In some cases this includes setting up digital labs and providing technical training in scanning and creating metadata records; in others, Aluka convenes training workshops for librarians, archivists, faculty, and heritage professionals on topics related to digital imaging, preservation, and the use of online tools in the classroom.
To demonstrate the potential of Aluka as a scholarly resource, three collections are currently under development: African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes, African Plants, and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa. New materials are added to the collections on an ongoing basis. In the longer run, our hope is that Aluka’s work in Africa will be a model for expanding the initiative to other regions of the developing world."
» http://www.aluka.org

The African Digitization Project (University of Wisconsin)
"Although African studies is a relatively new discipline, the field has generated a large body of publications in the past 45 to 50 years. Most of these of course were published in garden-variety ways, in sufficient copies to remain reasonably available in today's much improved document-delivery environment. Nonetheless, there have been exceptions--materials that were published in limited, sometimes very limited, quantities, but which have produced a demand beyond the capacity of their initial print run to satisfy. In fact, fewer than ten copies were produced of the titles indicated below by an asterisk.
Digitizing these then--and others like them--will significantly enhance their accessibility. More to the point, it will make it possible for researchers in Africa to secure access to them and thereby to circumvent--if only (so far) in a modest way--the longstanding and apparently indefinitely continuing "book famine." In a way, the present project could be seen as providing a template for further and future projects here and elsewhere. While no amount of digitizing to hope to overcome this shortage, strategically based projects throughout the western world can have a discernible impact on its effects."
» http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/AfricaFocus/subcollections/AfricanaAbout.html

African Online Digital Library
"MATRIX, working in cooperation with the African Studies Center at MSU, and in partnership with premiere research institutions in Africa, is pioneering the African Online Digital Library. The goal of this fully accessible online digital repository is to adopt the emerging best practices of the American digital library community and apply them in an African context.
AODL benefits a wide variety of scholars, students, and institutions by producing multilingual, multimedia materials for both scholarly research and public viewing audiences. AODL serves scholars and students conducting research and teaching about West and South Africa as well as teachers and students of African languages in both the United States and Africa. It also provides a valuable model for creating and distributing a diverse array of materials in a region with very limited electronic connectivity."
» http://www.aodl.org

Further readings and resources (web)

ICOM, Museums and Cultural Diversity: Policy Statement
Report of the Working Group on Cross Cultural Issues of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Presented at the 89th session of the Executive Council of ICOM on December 1997.
» http://icom.museum/diversity.html

Working Document on safeguarding (and promoting) cultural diversity, European Parliament, Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport, 16 July 2003
» http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/committees/cult/20030911/490273EN.pdf

ICOM / AFRICOM Handbook of Standards: Documenting African Collections
"One of the objectives of the project is to advise museums about the use of computer systems for collection documentation. ... The objective of a computer-based documentation system include:

• supporting an archive of the collection, in a form that can be readily maintained and developed;
• supporting the management of the collection, by maintaining current and historic information about the ownership, location, valuation, condition, etc., of individual objects;
• supporting the security of the collection, by maintaining duplicate copies of information and enabling information to be made available to outside agencies such as the police and customs;
• providing a means of searching for information about the collection;
• supporting the use of the information about the collection in publications, checklists, etc.;
• enabling information to be transferred from the museum to other museums and external organisations."

» http://icom.museum/afridoc/

Columbia University Libraries: African Studies
"Columbia University Libraries' research collections on Africa south of the Sahara contain over 110,000 book titles & over 1,700 current serials in history, political science, law, sociology, anthropology, economics, geography, geoscience, literature, ethnomusiciology, and the visual arts." Extensive listings of online African resources may be found in the following pages:
'African Studies Internet Resources'
» http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/index.html
'History and Cultures of Africa'
» http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/cult.html

Delivering Shared Heritage
Report from the Mayor's Commission on African and Asian Heritage (MCAAH)
» http://www.mlalondon.org.uk/uploads/documents/delivering_shared_heritage.pdf

BlackHistoryScholar
"The Black History Scholar Programme was established by the Mayor of London in partnership with Accenture as part of the 2005 Black History Season. The programme offers young people between the ages of 11 and 15, an excellent opportunity to learn about African and Caribbean history through an exciting, competitive and rewarding range of activities."
» http://www.blackscholar.net

The MOSAICA Project: MOSAICA and tolerance
» http://www.mosaica-project.eu/index.php?id=28

NativeWeb: Museums & Online Exhibits
A listing of 120+ museums and their web sites
» http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/museums_online_exhibits/

dgCommunities: Culture and Development
"The term 'culture' has two broad usages within the context of socio-economic development.
The first, wider, definition refers to particular shared values, beliefs, knowledge, skills and practices that underpin behavior by members of a social group at a given point in time.
The second definition encompasses creative expression, skills and strategies, traditional knowledge, and cultural resources that form part of the lives of communities and societies, and can be a basis for social engagement and enterprise development. These include, for example, craft and design, oral and written history and literature, music, drama, dance, visual arts, celebrations, architectural forms, historic sites, and traditional technologies.
For both definitions, there is the growing recognition that culture plays a broad and significant role in improving the well-being of people in the developing world, as well as when those people find themselves residing in the more developed world. Cultural factors contribute to social and economic development through the growth of cultural industries, the expansion of tourism and cultural exchange, the development of social capital, and the improvement and spread of education. In doing so, these cultural factors impact the growth of peace and prosperity in the developing world and of global understanding among individuals, groups, and nations.
The Development Gateway’s Culture and Development topic area strives to provide an authoritative entry point to, and focus for, information and discussion about key cultural issues in the developing world for each of the above definitions."
» http://culture.developmentgateway.org

Readings (conferences, journals, and offline)

Brown, M.F. (2006). Who Owns Native Culture? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN: 0674016335. [Amazon]

Hooper-Greenhill, E. (ed.) (1997). Cultural Diversity: Developing Museum Audiences in Britain. Leicester: Leicester University Press. ISBN: 071852411X. [Amazon]

Hunter, J., Koopman, B. & Sledge, J. (2003). 'Software Tools for Indigenous Knowledge Management'. Museums and the Web 2003. Charlotte, NC. March 2003. [Web]

Hunter, J., Schroeter, R., Koopman, B. & Henderson, M. (2004). 'Using the Semantic Grid to Build Bridges between Museums. and Indigenous Communities'. Global Grid Forum: Semantic Grid Applications Workshop. Honolulu, Hawaii. June2004. pp 46 - 60. [PDF]

Isaac, G. (2007). Mediating Knowledges: Origins of a Zuni Tribal Museum. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. ISBN:0816526230. [Amazon] [See review at Indian Country]

Littler, J. & Naidoo, R. (eds.) (2005) . The Politics of Heritage: The Legacies of ‘Race’. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0415322111 [Amazon]


Sandell, R. (2007). Museums, Prejudice, and the Reframing of Difference. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0415367492. [Amazon]

Wilson, B., Atkins, D.E. & Holland, M.P (eds.) (2002). Special Issue on Digital Technology and Indigenous Communities, D-Lib Magazine Vol. 8 No. 3. March 2002. ISSN: 1082-9873. [Web]