Reconstructing the archive: Access, documentation, conservation

Abstract

There has been limited research into the role of reconstruction in the preservation of Indigenous Australian archives, both those created within Indigenous communities, and those created about Indigenous people. Following a phenomenological methodology in which the research question is contested against real world experience, two case studies investigate the potential of reconstruction as a methodology in the conservation of Indigenous Australian archival material and the contexts in which it is created and used. First, a comparative analysis of metadata and documentation practices at the Warlayirti Artists’ Centre archive in Balgo, Western Australia, outlines the role of conservation in sup..