Archivaria - the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA)
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Greg Bak and Marianne Rostgaard, eds., The Nordic Model of Digital Archiving
No full textThe Nordic Model of Digital Archiving. Greg Bak and Marianne Rostgaard, eds. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2024. 312 pp. 978-1-032-35122-
In Search of a Liberatory Appraisal for Palestinian Archives
No full textIn November 2023, the Central Archives of Gaza was bombed during Israel’s ongoing incursion in the strip, reducing 150 years of the cultural record to ash. This attack is but one moment in the long history of archival theft and destruction in Palestine, the culmination of a sphere of colonial epistemicide. Palestinian ways of knowing face a constant threat of annihilation, and Palestinian archives are built under the looming peril of physical destruction. Palestinian archives struggle to appraise for the future and engage instead in massified forms of appraisal and digitization in efforts to preserve everything they can in the face of these threats. Taking stock of some current prominent instances of archival projects in Palestine, this article thinks through some current approaches to appraisal, wondering if they apply here and whether they can be expanded to account for the particularities of this environment. It then attempts to reimagine what a liberatory appraisal might look like, thinking about the Palestinian archive as a counter to epistemic violence and exploring the processes through which appraisal methods and categories might be gleaned by anticipating liberated futures
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Documentary film by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
No full textAny Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story. Documentary film, directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee. Banger Films and the National Film Board of Canada, 2024. 99 minutes. South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, Austin, Texas, March 8–16, 2024; Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Toronto, Ontario, April 25 – May 4, 2024
Sue Breakell and Wendy Russell, eds., The Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context
No full textThe Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context. Sue Breakell and Wendy Russell, eds. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2024. xii, 282 pp. 978036720601
Archival Literacy and Primary Source Literacy: A Collaborative Instructional Toolkit for Introductory Composition and Beyond
No full textThis article is a case study that addresses challenges archivists and introductory composition instructors can experience when working to embed archival and primary source literacy into a course and models how to successfully overcome related obstacles. Building on the excellent work of James Roussain, it employs the archivist-as-educator model not only to teach the students but also to train the disciplinary instructor. Teaching instructors archival and primary source literacy and training them how to teach these types of literacy enhances student success. Acknowledging the literature that discusses the ineffectiveness of one-shot guest lectures, the authors have designed and piloted an archival and primary source literacy toolkit that provides a scalable and effective model for embedding a module and assignment into an introductory composition course at a large research university. The inquiry-based active-learning activities in the toolkit are scaffolded to prepare students for the assignment. Furthermore, the toolkit provides guidance on how instructors and archivists can collaboratively develop the skills they need to successfully embed the module into introductory composition courses
Silence in the Archives: France, the Algerian War, and National Identity
No full textIn 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the French government would make classified archives about the Algerian War accessible 15 years ahead of schedule, in an effort to improve Franco-Algerian relations. The announcement, which came after decades of requests that the archives be returned to Algeria, seemed to be a good-faith effort to address France’s difficult heritage with respect to the Algerian War (1954–1962) – particularly the widespread use of torture and the “disappearing” of dissidents during the war. The Algerian War has always occupied a contentious place in French history, having been largely left out of history textbooks and referred to as a war only after 1999. By opening the archives ahead of schedule, Macron seemed to commit the French government to healing generational wounds and improving relations with Algeria. The declassification of Algerian archives led the status of the Algerian War and, as a result, that of Algerian immigrants in contemporary France, to become major talking points for candidates on the right and on the left during the 2022 presidential election. While the opening of the archives appears to have done away with the archival silence that has shrouded the history of the war, this article will argue that France and its political actors have selectively lifted archival silence to privilege certain narratives and continue to silence others
Life Everlasting? The Absurdity of Perpetual Privilege
No full textThis article looks at solicitor-client privilege and the lawyers’ duty of confidentiality from the perspective of the harm done to legal history and Canada’s documentary heritage by the claim that privilege never ends. After discussing the emergence of the field of legal history, the scarcity of lawyers’ papers preserved in archives, and efforts to address the perpetual privilege problem, the author examines the rationales for privilege and the justifications for its purportedly absolute and unending nature and finds them wanting. The article then sets out the role of archival institutions in preserving historically valuable records and making them available for research. The author argues that, after a reasonable interval, the public interest in access to lawyers’ papers trumps privilege and that archivists have the tools and experience to manage (temporary) access restrictions to such materials. The recent guidelines on disclosure of historical records under the Access to Information Act signal that privilege need not be perpetual and indicate the need to start a conversation to finally resolve the conflict between privilege and fuller documentation of both the legal profession and its impact on society
Liberation on the Dance Floor: Reflective Nostalgia, The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, Toronto, ON
No full textLiberation on the Dance Floor: Reflective Nostalgia. The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, Toronto, Ontario. November 7 – December 15, 2024. Curated by Craig Jennex