EDITORIAL

 

I want to open this editorial with thanks to all readers and members for their patience as we bed down further systems and processes for publishing this and future issues of Archives and Manuscripts both online and in print.

In this issue, we see conversations about pushing boundaries in practice emerge, along with setting the scene for emerging scholarly and professional practices. In particular, I note that we are publishing the first scholarly article to use a Traditional Knowledge (TK) notice (Wilson & Barrowcliffe), something that is long awaited and that we will continue to refine and apply as the journal and TK systems grows. This issue also confirms what I hope to be an ongoing practice of practitioners sharing the experiences and reflections on their everyday work in what is a core profession for our society.

As Wilson and Barrowcliffe¹ outline, the challenges of sharing TK through publication in scholarly sites such as Archives and Manuscripts also creates opportunities to push boundaries. Their article includes a TK notice and I encourage you to read and reflect on the meaning this labeling gives to what you are reading. As an Editor I have worked closely with the authors and the Local Contexts team at New York University to apply these emerging labels, and it has been a productive and educational process. Of note for me is the way the labels worked to unsettle and challenge assumptions through most parts of the scholarly publishing process, from review through to copyediting and typesetting, and how this becomes productive to the whole process.

Also in this issue, Shani Crumpen² explores the role of Indigenous Data Governance in a community archives setting. Through the case study Crumpen traces the multiple sites and stakeholders in the community setting, and draws on her own experience and reflections to evaluate the role of Indigenous Data Governance and Sovereignty in this community setting. Crumpen finds that through realising Indigenous Data Governance there are opportunities to challenge institutional and other rigid frameworks, again encouraging boundaries to be shifted and renegotiated through archival practice.

Jennifer Douglas³ then takes on a little studied and discussed area of archival practice – that of donor relations, extending her work from the previous issue of Archives and Manuscripts to acknowledge and symbolise the importance relationships archivists develop with donors, often over extended periods of time, and the manifest role of grief in these relationships. Similarly, Sarah Welland⁴ takes us to an area that is under-discussed in practice – that of the role of the expert user in the archive, and the perception of purpose in light of these users. For both Douglas and Welland, these stakeholders play active and engaged roles in archival practices, and their research brings these roles to the fore.

This issue includes three reflections from practitioners that are themed around the audiovisual archive – Ben Pask’s⁵ reflection on working at the ABC News Libraries, Eva Samaras’s⁶ work on visual effects archiving, and Theresa Cronk’s⁷ report on the ‘Music and the First World War’ project at the Australian War Memorial. These three articles give an insight into the variety of work being done at national and international institutions that intersect with audiovisual records, and the importance of an experienced and committed workforce to support these unique and emerging records.

As we move slowly into a post-pandemic world and one where scholars and practitioners are more likely to be sharing spaces and networks again, I look forward to future special issues that bring these sometimes disparate groups together. Keep an eye out for an upcoming call for a special issue, and please continue to send through your thoughts and feedback on the journal.

Dr Jessie Lymn, Canberra, Australia
General Editor, Archives and Manuscripts

Notes

1.	Leann Wilson and Rose Barrowcliffe, ‘Green Ribbon and Blue Ribbon Stories: Applying a Bidjara Way of Knowing to Understanding Records’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 43–59. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10921.
2.	Shani Crumpen, ‘Realising Indigenous Data Governance: A Case Study of the Koori Resource and Information Centre Archives’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 3–21. doi: 10.37683/asa. v50.10213.
3.	Jennifer Douglas, ‘On ‘Holding the Process’: Paying Attention to the Relations Side of Donor Relations’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 23–42. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10925.
4.	Sarah Welland, ‘Created, Intended, Articulated and Projected: FourPerceptions of Purpose Around the Archival Document for Expert Users’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 61–75. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10919.
5.	Benjamin Pask, ‘Hunters and Collectors: The Work of ABC’s News Libraries across Archives and TV News Production’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2022, pp. 77–80. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10917.
6.	Evanthia Samaras, ‘Archiving Visual Effects: Filling a Digital Void in the Documented Memory of Film and Television’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 81–88. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10417.
7.	Theresa Cronk, ‘The Music and the First World War Project at the Australian War Memorial’, Archives & Manuscripts, vol. 50, no. 2, 2022, pp. 89–101. doi: 10.37683/asa.v50.10913.