A radical and necessary intervention in our consideration of the archives and the records, and a particularly genius approach to bringing the archives to life This is the task for all of us - we must reanimate the archives, and this is the true decolonisation of the archives To have the Traditional Owners take these elements of cultural heritage and bring them back to life in their own cultures, reanimating them, re-embodying them, and re-emplacing them in Country This is the task liberating the archives, re-embodying the archives.
Professor Marcia Langton launching Music, Dance and the Archive, online, hosted by Indigenous Knowledge Institute, University of Melbourne, 1 December 2022 The case study descriptions of working with Aboriginal community members on traditional music are fascinating and encouraging examples of working inclusively and developing archival knowledge in co-operation with traditional owners.
The questioning and examination of past practices of custodianship, arrangement, and description contribute considerably to decolonising the archives.
Judges comments, 2022 Mander Jones Awards Music, Dance, and the Archive offers new critical and innovative creative work with archival collections, and the book carries forward our understandings of historical materials into new fascinating directions.
Brian Diettrich, Yearbook for Traditional Music 55 (Special Issue 2) A beautiful book that sings with energy and action, bringing to life those shadows of archived song, performance and collected cultural heritage of First Nations people around the world. Each contribution reveals with strength the aspects of performance, cultural maintenance and connection to culture beyond the fragments of the archive, but also notes the value in workshopping, responding and working with it. The practices described in detail in this collection of projects interrupt the record keeping of the archive, weaving past, present and future into connection and continuity. It is a truly inspiring read!
Tiffany Shellam, Aboriginal History 47