Archival silences: missing, lost, and uncreated archives

Abstract

"Archival Silences demonstrates emphatically that archival absences exist all over the globe. The book questions whether benign 'silence' is an appropriate label for the variety of destructions, concealment and absences that can be identified within archival collections. Including contributions from archivists and scholars working around the world, this truly international collection examines archives in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, England, India, Iceland, Jamaica, Malawi, The Philippines, Scotland, Turkey, and the United States. Making a clear link between autocratic regimes and the failure to record often horrendous crimes against humanity, the volume demonstrates that the failure of governments to create records, or to allow access to records, appears to be universal. Arguing that this helps to establish a hegemonic narrative that excludes the 'other', this book showcases the actions historians and archivists have taken to ensure that gaps in archives are filled. Yet the book also claims that silences in archives are inevitable and argues not only that recordkeeping should be mandated by international courts and bodies, but that we need to develop other ways of reading archives broadly conceived to compensate for absences. Archival Silences addresses fundamental issues of access to the written record around the world. It is directed at those with a concern for social justice, particularly scholars and students of archival studies, history, sociology, international relations, international law, business administration and information science"--Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction / Michael Moss and David Thomas, page 1 -- 1. Theorising the silences / Michael Moss and David Thomas, page 10 -- 2. What are silences : the Australian example / Michael Piggott, page 26 -- 3. Silent contemporary records : access to the archive of the Special Investigation Commission in Iceland, 2010-2019 / Eiríkur G. Guðmundsson, page 54 -- 4. Noises in the archives : acknowledging the present yet silenced presence in Caribbean archival memory / Stanley H. Griffin, page 81 -- 5. Silenced and unsilenced memories : archival fonds of Brazil's political police, 1964-1985 / Renato P. Venancio and Adalson O. Nascimento, page 100 -- 6. Uncovering archival silences through photographs and listening : envisioning archives as a democratic space / Iyra S. Buenrostro, page 119 -- 7. Silences in Malawi's archives / Paul Lihoma, page 135 -- 8. Perceived silence in the Turkish archives : from the Ottoman Empire to modern republic / Lale Özdemir and Oğuz İcimsoy, page 152 -- 9. Silenced archives and archived voices : archival resources for a history of post-independence India / Swapan Chakravorty, page 168 -- 10. The voices of children and adolescents in the archives / Mette Seidelin and Christian Larsen, page 186 -- 11. Diaries and silence / Polly North, page 208 -- 12. Filling the gaps / Michael Moss and David Thomas, page 226 -- Afterword : tales from the sometimes 'silent' archives / David D. Hebb, page 242.