The concept of societal provenance and records of nineteenth-century Aboriginal–European relations in Western Canada: implications for archival theory and practice

Nesmith, Tom

doi:10.1007/s10502-007-9043-9

Cited by 35 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…As Tom Nesmith notes: "Societal provenance is not just another layer of provenance information to add to other ones such as the title of the creator(s), functions, and organizational links and structures. The societal dimension infuses all the others" [19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Australian archival science has been particularly strong in this regard, starting in the 1960s with a move toward capturing provenance as distinct entities which are then related to aggregates of records (see, for example, [15,16]). Chris Hurley, Tom Nesmith, and Michael Piggott have all built on these ideas to explore ideas about parallel and societal provenance, broadening and enriching notions of provenance to include multiple perspectives and the shared involvement of different individual and collective provenance entities in the creation and co-creation of records [17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Provenance In Museums Archives and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

Jones

2019

Heritage

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In 2017 archaeological evidence was published which indicates that modern humans first arrived in Australia around 65,000 years ago. Through the countless generations since, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples built deep connections to the landscape, developed rich material culture infused with story and myth, and used oral and ceremonial traditions to transmit knowledge over thousands of years. Yet, since European invasion at the end of the eighteenth century, the provenance of ethnographic and institutional collections has largely been documented with reference to white collectors and colonial institutions. Attitudes are starting to change. Recent decades have seen significant moves away from the idea of the authoritative institution toward relational museums and the co-creation of knowledge. But the structure and content of much museum documentation continues to lag behind contemporary attitudes. This paper looks at the documentation of Australian ethnographic and anthropological collections through the lens of changing perspectives on provenance, including archival notions of parallel and societal provenance. When placed in the context of recent developments in material culture theory, these collections help to highlight the limitations of existing documentation. The paper concludes with a call for community involvement and a more relational approach to documentation which better encompasses the complexities of provenance and the entangled institutional, archival, oral, and community perspectives that accumulate around artefacts in museums.Heritage 2019, 2 885 artefacts in particular, documented provenance often starts with collection by Australian, European, or American anthropologists and expeditions rather than with the names or stories of those who designed, manufactured, or used the item. This paper explores the broad concept of provenance in the context of museum collections and archival records, drawing on archival theory, museological and curatorial investigations into the 'relational museum,' and case studes from the history of collecting in Australia. 'Provenance' is here viewed as one element in an expanded relational field [3] of description which can (and should) contain other possibilities for the theory and practice of museum documentation. In doing so, museums can better reflect complex, entangled histories, and the multiple contexts and knowledge systems that surround artefacts and other collection items.As a white academic I do not write on behalf of Indigenous Australia. With hundreds of communities speaking more than 250 langauges, the Australian continent contains a huge diversity of cultures and perspectives, including many different attitudes towards museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Here I argue that those of us embedded in European institutions must not assume we have the experience, or the right, to make decisions regarding provenance, knowledge, and the representation of First Nations artefacts and ideas. Instead, we must critique existing practi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Provenance In Museums Archives and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

Jones

2019

Heritage

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“…The emergence of archival postmodernism in the early 1990s and its consolidation in the early 2000s resulted in a new consensus within archival studies. Records creation has since been understood to be both temporally protracted, encompassing processes of inscription, preservation, representation and access, and socially diffuse, including people from inscribers of records to the subjects, keepers and users of records (Cook 2001a, b; Bastian ; Nesmith , b). Archival postmodernists explored how the creation of records might be attributed to a variety of agents, including archivists themselves.…”

Section: Decolonizing Archival Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonizing archival description: Can linked data help?

Douglas

Bak

McLellan

et al. 2018

Proc. Assoc. Info. Sci. Tech.

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Archival description documents the provenance of records, their interrelationships, and the processes of their creation. The concept of archival provenance was first elaborated in the context of 19th‐century European archival institutions and reflects particular socio‐historical perspectives on the nature of records and recordkeeping. Decolonizing archival description is a necessity, not only because it contributes to the discoverability of Indigenous knowledge woven into records of shared provenance, but also because it disrupts traditional concepts of singular provenance, calls attention to complex processes of records creation, and permits more expansive understanding of record contexts. Linked data appears to (1) promise the ability to represent complex multiple provenances, (2) promote multiple perspectives on the creation of records and (3) allow archives and Indigenous communities to work together to implement what the First Nations Information Governance Centre has characterized as Indigenous ownership, control, access and possession of records of shared provenance. From a variety of perspectives, this panel provides a critical analysis of linked data as a candidate solution for decolonizing archival description.

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“…It proposes that zine anthologies are an archive of content, form and practice, reflecting elements of Nesmith's 'societal provenance' and further extending Schwartz and Cook's decade-old critique of the archive as a site of power that is being disrupted. 5 I will first contextualise the research sitezinesand discuss the presence of this material in archives. Following this, I will problematise archival practices as fixed, suggesting a shift towards a pluralised approach to archival engagement.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The zine anthology as archive: archival genres and practices

Lymn¹

2013

Archives and Manuscripts

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Sydney (UTS) and a casual academic in the Information Studies programs at both UTS and Charles Sturt University. Her doctoral research focuses on the archival practices of subcultural communities and how this furthers temporal and spatial understandings of archives. Building on Eichhorn's concept of 'archival genres', this article considers the recent spate of zine anthologies published in Australia and the United States as examples of these genres. It proposes that the anthologies are archives of content, form and practice, given that they commonly reproduce entire zines as visual material, not just text, and are produced by members of zine communities. This article argues that the anthologies' narratives, presentation and distribution preserve ideologies of zine culture and that archival genres create spaces for the preservation of practices.

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The concept of societal provenance and records of nineteenth-century Aboriginal–European relations in Western Canada: implications for archival theory and practice

Cited by 35 publications

References 5 publications

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

Decolonizing archival description: Can linked data help?

The zine anthology as archive: archival genres and practices

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