Walls Have Ears and Eyes: Taking ‘Extended Archives’ to the People through Murals

Abstract

In the past, programmes to bring archives to the people of South Africa were designed but failed to meet their objectives. This study explores the use of murals as ‘extended archives’ to bring archives to the people of South Africa. Qualitative data were collected through observation and interviews with mural viewers in three purposively chosen sites. The findings imply that murals can be used as ‘extended archives’ to bring archives closer to the people. Such murals can be described and indexed for easy identification and further digitised and displayed on social media to promote archives.

Keywords:

• Archives
• murals
• extended archives
• archival repositories
• public programming

Notes

1 Jacqueline Kau, Mpho Ngoepe and Nampombe Saurombe, “'Let the Little Children Come to Archives': Schools as a Conduit for Taking Archives to Children,” ESARBICA Journal 38, no 1, (2019): 107–23.

2 Tamar G Chute, “Selling the College and University Archives: Current Outreach Perspectives,” Archival Issue 25, no. 1–2 (2000): 33–48.

3 Gabrielle Blais, Access to Archival Records: A Review of Current Issues: A RAMP Study (Paris: UNESCO, 1995), 15.

4 K Stack, “A New Digital Presence for the Worcester Mural: An Interactive Quality Project Report,” [Online]. https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-110617-092914/unrestricted/A_New_Digital_Presence_For_The_Worcester_Mural_Archive_IQP_2017.pdf (accessed October 15, 2019).

5 Gabrielle Blais and David Enns. “From Paper Archives to People Archives: Public Programming in the Management of Archives,” Archivaria 31, Winter (1991): 101–13.

6 Ibid.

7 Republic of South Africa, “National Archives and Records Services of South Africa Act, No. 43 of 1996” (Government Printers, Pretoria, 1996).

8 Archival Platform, “State of the Archives: An Analysis of South Africa’s National Archival System” (University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 2015), http://www.archivalplatform. org/images/resources/StateofthearchiveforWeb.pdf (accessed January 29, 2020).

9 Thomas Van der Walt, “Re-Thinking and Re-Positioning Archives: Taking Archives to the Children,” ESARBICA Journal 30, (2011): 115–34.

10 Jonathan Mukwevho and Mpho Ngoepe “Taking Archives to the People: The Use of Social Media as a Tool to promote Public Archives in South Africa,” Library Hi Tech 37, no. 3 (2018): 374–88.

11 Archival Platform, State of Archives, 129.

12 Mpho Ngoepe and Patrick Ngulube, “Assessing the Extent to which the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa has fulfilled its Mandate of taking the Archives to the People,” Innovation: Journal of Appropriate Librarianship and Information Work, no. 42 (2011): 17.

13 Ibid, 19.

14 Allen Stephanie, Sofía Becerra-Licha, Kenn Bicknell, Jacqueline E. Chapman, Genna Duplisea, M. Alison Eisendrath, Joe Filapek, Jan Levinson Hebbard, James Himphill, Jeffrey Inscho, et al. Collective Wisdom: An Exploration of Library, Archives and Museum Cultures (Dublin: OCLC, 2017). [Online]. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2017/collective-wisdom-white-paper.pdf (accessed January 10, 2020).

15 Mpho Ngoepe, “Whose Truth Is True: The Use of Archival Principles to Authenticate Oral History,” in Handbook of Research on Connecting Research Methods for Information Science Research, edited by Patrick Ngulube (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020), 307–19.

16 J Meluso, “Do Murals Really Make an Impression?” (Masters’ diss., The State University of New Jersey, 2010), 14.

17 Ibid.

18 Minas N Kastanakis, and Benjamin G Voyer, “The Effect of Culture on Perception and Cognition: A Conceptual Framework,” Journal of Business Research 67, no 4, (2014): 425–33.

19 Shadrack L. Venson, Mpho Ngoepe, and Patrick Ngulube, “The Role of Public Archives in National Development in the East and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives,” Innovation: Journal of Appropriate Librarianship and Information Work 48, no 2 (2014): 46–68.

20 Mpho Ngoepe, “Archives Without Archives: A Window of Opportunity to Build Inclusive Archive in South Africa,” Journal of the South African Society of Archivists 52 (2019): 149–66.

21 Cameron Cartiere and Shirley Willis, eds., The Practice of Public Art (London: Routledge, 2008).

22 Archival Platform, State of Archives, 124.

23 Stephen J. Grove and Raymond P. Fisk, “Observational Data Collection Methods for Services Marketing: An Overview,” Journal of Academy Marketing Science 20, no 3 (1992): 271–24.

24 Kastanakis and Voyer, Journal of Business Research, 426.

25 Department of Arts and Culture, “Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage,” Third draft, February 2017. [Online].

http://www.dac.gov.za/sites/default/files/Revised%203rd%20Draft%20RWP%20on%20ACH%20FEBRUARY%202017_0_0.pdf) (accessed November 17, 2019).

26 Venson, Ngoepe, and Ngulube, “Innovation: Journal of Appropriate Librarianship and Information Work,” 47.

27 Nampombe Saurombe, “Taking Archives to the People: An Examination of Public Programs in the National Archives of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives,” Archives and Manuscripts 48, no 1, (2019): 25–44. DOI: 10.1080/01576895.2019.1604242

28 Mukwevho, and Ngoepe “Library Hi Tech,” 388.

29 Jonathan Mukwevho, Mpho Ngoepe, and Patrick Ngulube, “Doing more with less: Application of soft power theory to enhance visibility and accessibility of public archives in a resource-strained environment,” In Handbook of Research on Advocacy, Promotion, and Public Programming for Memory Institutions, ed. Patrick Ngulube (Hershey PA: IGI Global, 2020), 1-30. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7429-3.

30 Blais and Enns, “Archivaria,” 111.