A marshall in love. Remembering and forgetting queer pasts in the Finnish archives

Abstract

This article analyses the formation of the queer archives in Finland. In Finland, the close links between the civil society and the state affect the archiving of social movements' history. One of the publicly funded private central archives, the Labour Archives (Työväen Arkisto), has taken responsibility of preserving the documents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) past. This includes documents of activism and associations as well as personal archives and narratives. The article presents the position of the Finnish LGBT collection within the Finnish archival sector and evaluates it in the light of archival theory. The Finnish model of queer archives offers an example of preserving queer pasts in a social history archive that is neither strictly a mainstream archival institution nor an independent activist archive. The article describes the development of queer history and the need to find sources telling about queer lives and discusses the role of the archival institutions and archival science in remembering and forgetting queer pasts. The article reflects also how the archival policies and archival practices affect which pasts are officially remembered and which are forgotten.

Queering the Community Music Archive

“…As the scholarly interest in DIY and community-based archiving grows -of which music archiving and heritage is a subset -so has a body of literature emerged focusing specifically on queer and feminist archives. Our review of this literature is not exhaustive, but includes several books (see Kumbier 2014;Halberstam 2005;Cvetkovich 2003), edited collections (see Keilty & Dean 2013; Bly & Wooten 2012), journal articles (see Caswell & Cifor 2016;Chenier 2016;Cooper 2015;Taavetti 2015;Samer 2014;Sheffield 2014Sheffield , 2016McLeod et al 2014;Eichhorn 2014;Manalansan 2014;Madden 2013;Wakimoto et al 2013;Boulay et al 2012;Darms 2012), and special issues by journals such as Radical History Review ('Queering Archives: Historical Unravelings', 2015) and Archivaria ('Special Section on Queer Archives', 2009).…”

“…Marginalised groups, such as women and queer communities (gay, lesbian and bisexual; trans* and intersex; and various other sub/cultural groupings of sexual/gender dissidents), have traditionally been excluded altogether or had their minoritarian status erased from mainstream historical narratives and heritage institutions (Cooper 2015;Taavetti 2015;Wakimoto et al 2013;X et al 2009;Cvetkovich 2003). As a consequence, they have been responsible for establishing their own collections, archives and museums to preserve their histories, to save what is at risk of being lost.…”

“…Since queer archives frequently document traumatic events, oppressive regimes and private struggles, they are what Cvetkovich (2003) conceptualises as 'archive[s] of feelings'. They are repositories of trauma, shame and mourning, but also love, celebration and pride (Taavetti 2015;DiVeglia 2012;X et al 2009;Cvetkovich 2003). How people engage with the archive is an affective experience as well -archives can trigger the resurfacing of painful memories, but can also elicit feelings of pleasure, excitement, catharsis, inspiration or empowerment (Petro 2015;Cooper 2013;Piepmeier 2012;Eichhorn 2010;Cvetkovich 2003).…”

“…For instance, in examining the digital queer archive BishopArchive.org, which documents experiences of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Petro (2015) notes that retelling, sharing and reading these personal histories can be difficult for survivors. At the same time, bringing attention to painful individual pasts serves to allow for the mourning and remembering of its victims, to hold accountable those institutions who were responsible for their suffering, and to contribute to a sense of collective memory (Taavetti 2015;DiVeglia 2012).…”

“…Archives do not only serve to inspire activism, however -archiving is a form of activism in itself (Kumbier 2014;Piepmeier 2012;Gumbs 2012). Reclaiming history through the archive is a political act in that it has the potential to make the invisible visible, restore voices to marginalised groups, legitimise them as worthy of preservation, challenge mainstream historical canons, and reshape cultural memory (Taavetti 2015;Petro 2015;Wakimoto et al 2013;DiVeglia 2012;X et al 2009). The archive, then, is never only preoccupied with the past, but simultaneously oriented towards the present and future.…”