Archival silences : : missing, lost and, uncreated archives / / editors, Michael Moss, David Thomas.

• TeilnehmendeR: Moss, Michael S.,; Thomas, David, 1950-
• Place / Publishing House: Abingdon, Oxon ;, New York : : Routledge,, 2021.
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Edition: 1 ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xiv, 257 pages) :; illustrations, maps

"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.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Notes on contributors -- Introduction* -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 1: Theorising the silences -- Silences only exist when researchers in the archives notice them -- Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence -- The ending of silences does not always resolve issues -- The marginalised are not the only ones to suffer from silences -- Silencing has been part of government's policies for millennia -- The textuality of archives can hide their meaning -- The real silence of the archive -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Websites -- Chapter 2: What are silences?: The Australian example -- Cook and indigenous Australians -- Storytellers' archives - silenced by definition -- Controlling the convict record -- The inevitable limits of Australia's First World War record -- Patrick White' self-silencing and the fruits of disobedience -- The silencing reality of established arrangements -- A silencing detention system -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 3: Silent contemporary records: Access to the archive of the Special Investigation Commission in Iceland, 2010-2019 -- The background -- A small nation on a large island -- Big ambitions -- Facing national bankruptcy -- The Emergency Act October 2008 and the fall of the banks -- The Pots and Pans Revolution -- The Special Investigation Commission (SIC) and its findings -- Findings - what was the truth? -- Too rapid growth -- Negligence by politicians, bankers and auditors -- Lack of record management -- The archive of the commission -- Organizing the archive -- A new role for the National Archives -- Outsourced legal consulting -- Access to official information -- Inquires and requests of access to the SIC archive.

Laws and rules on access to the SIC archive -- The nature of the inquiries to the SIC archive -- The nature of the answers of the NAI -- Handling a request on access -- Who wants access? -- Private persons -- Researchers -- Journalists -- Prosecutors -- Insurance companies -- The Governmental Information Committee -- Verdicts of the Governmental Information Committee -- Court cases -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Sources on the internet -- The archive of the National Archives of Iceland (NAI) -- Printed -- Chapter 4: Noises in the archives: Acknowledging the present yet silenced presence in Caribbean archival memory* -- Noises in the blood: an allegory of a society -- Documenting Rastafari -- Archival records on Rastafari -- Need for Rastafari voices -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Websites -- Books and articles -- Chapter 5: Silenced and unsilenced memories: Archival fonds of Brazil's political police, 1964-1985 -- Introduction -- Brazilian dictatorship in the Latin American context -- Rights reparation policy and archives -- Truth commissions and archives -- Final remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 6: Uncovering archival silences through photographs and listening: Envisioning archives as a democratic space -- Marcos regime and its silences -- Listening to the silences through photographs -- Archives as a democratic space for the future -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 7: Silences in Malawi's archives -- Introduction -- The African Lakes Corporation -- Records destroyed by termites and fire -- Records destroyed by cyclone -- Loss of records at district offices -- Loss of records at Native Authority level -- State creation of silences in the archives -- Exportation and destruction of archives -- Prohibition of access to the archive -- Institutional challenges -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography.

Central African Archives -- Chapter 8: Perceived silence in the Turkish archives: From the Ottoman Empire to modern republic -- Introduction -- The newly founded Ottoman state: War, fires and floods -- From state to empire: Centralisation, historical actors and reform -- Recordkeeping practices and legal framework -- Access to Turkish public records -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Other sources -- Chapter 9: Silenced archives and archived voices: Archival resources for a history of post-independence India -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Websites -- Books and articles -- Chapter 10: The voices of children and adolescents in the archives -- Punishment in primary schools 1829-1906 -- Officials' assessment of children as witnesses -- Mistreatment of school children during 16 years -- Reluctance to recognise abuse -- The voice of an angry mother -- Violence against children in the heyday of the nuclear family, 1945-1960 -- Contacting the police -- Overlooked victims? The positions of children in cases of domestic dispute -- Children as victims -- Children as informants -- Children as participants -- Children as shadow agents -- Police discretion -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Books and articles -- Websources -- Chapter 11: Diaries and silence -- Silences from without: The problem of institutional and professionally imposed silences -- Silences within diaries -- Personal and introspective -- Regular and frequent -- Honesty and frankness -- Secrecy and privacy -- Self-writing and interpretation as an 'exercise' -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 12: Filling the gaps -- Introduction -- The paradox of tyranny -- Exploring other resources -- Critical reading -- Rebel and rogue archives -- Rebel archives -- Rogue archives -- What can archives do? -- Be bolder -- Be more unruly -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Websites.

Afterword: Tales from the sometimes 'silent' archives -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Printed Works -- Manuscripts -- Index.