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Archival Returns

Central Australia and Beyond
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond examines the intricate process of repatriating Indigenous Australian cultural heritage materials, including ceremonies, songs, stories, language, kinship, and ecology records. The book highlights the challenges posed by dispersed documentary archives in various formats such as audiocassettes, photographs, films, texts, and digital recordings, and explores strategies for returning these materials to their communities of origin while addressing the concerns of both Indigenous custodians and cultural institutions.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$8700

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Recommended for professionals and academics engaged with Indigenous cultural heritage, including museum curators, anthropologists, archivists, and those interested in decolonisation practices within cultural institutions.

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Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond explores the strategies and practices by which cultural heritage materials can be returned to their communities of origin, and the issues this process raises for communities, as well as for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.

Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond explores how cultural heritage materials can be returned to their communities of origin.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Place-based cultural knowledge of ceremonies, songs, stories, language, kinship and ecology binds Australian Indigenous societies together. Over the last 100 years or so, records of this knowledge in many different formats—such as audiocassettes, photographs, films, written texts, maps, and digital recordings—have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate. Yet this extensive documentary heritage is dispersed. In many cases, the Indigenous people who participated in the creation of the records, or their descendants, have little idea of where to find the records or how to access them. Some records are held precariously in ad hoc collections, and their caretakers may be perplexed as to how to ensure that they are looked after.

Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond explores the strategies and practices by which cultural heritage materials can be returned to their communities of origin, and the issues this process raises for communities, as well as for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.

Series: Indigenous Music of Australia

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  • Archival Returns
    Place-based cultural knowledge of ceremonies, songs, stories, language, kinship and ecology binds Australian Indigenous societies together. Over the last 100 years or so, records of this knowledge in many different formats—such as audiocassettes, photographs, films, written texts, maps, and digital recordings—have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate. Yet this extensive documentary heritage is dispersed. In many cases, the Indigenous people...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Described as revealing the "layers of complexity" in archival return processes, this book is deemed essential for folklorists, ethnomusicologists, archivists, and anthropologists working with Aboriginal cultural heritage. It also appeals to a broader audience by showcasing inspiring efforts to decolonise cultural-heritage institutions.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781743326725

Publisher: Sydney University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 February 2020

Country: Australia

Imprint: Sydney University Press

Illustration: Illustrations

Contributors:

  • Edited by Linda Barwick
  • Edited by Jennifer Green
  • Edited by Petronella Vaarzon-Morel

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 178.0mm

Height: 254.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 372

About the Author

Linda Barwick is a musicologist and professor at the University of Sydney's Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Jennifer Green is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne. She has worked for over four decades with Indigenous people in Central Australia documenting languages, cultural history, art, social organisation and connections to country.

Petronella Vaarzon-Morel is an anthropologist with long-term experience working with Warlpiri and other Indigenous peoples in Central Australia. She is an honorary research associate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney.

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