Contemporary Voices and Archives collecting plan

Purpose

Contemporary Voices and Archives is a curatorial area developed to build a more inclusive collective memory that reflects Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse multi-cultural identities and forms of cultural expression through participatory work and collaborative relationships with communities, scholars, researchers and other heritage organisations.

The purpose of this collecting plan is to provide a foundation for the collection development activities specific to the Contemporary Voices and Archives Collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library, part of the National Library of New Zealand.

This collecting plan was developed in accordance with the collecting principles outlined in the National Library of New Zealand’s Collections Policy.

Background

Contemporary Voices and Archives was established as a new curatorial area of the Alexander Turnbull Library in January 2021 with the appointment of its inaugural Curator Contemporary Voices and Archives.

The new curatorial area is established to redress historical exclusion and underrepresentation in Turnbull collections as well as to acknowledge an increased awareness of:

• the changing demographics and increasing diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s many cultural and ethnic identities

• contemporary areas of interest as well as trends in collective memory building and archival research

• the changing landscape of heritage collections in terms of donors, contributors, users, formats

• the need for models of community engagement and stewardship that transcend the power dynamics implicit in ownership and custody

• the need to rethink the sustainability of our current practices in view of the climate and sustainability costs

The newly expanded Cartoons and Comics archive, and the differently prioritised ephemera collection are part of the Contemporary Voices and Archives. The scope of Contemporary Voices and Archives encompasses currently under or unrepresented as well as new and evolving communities, events and formats.

The aim is to address the silences and gaps in current collections; and avoid their recurrence going forward by actively building connections with communities as well as developing capacity to engage with diverse formats.

Pacific and migrant communities in Aotearoa representing various cultures and ethnicities; disabled communities; LGBTQIATakatāpui+ communities; as well as vulnerable and marginalised groups such as children and former refugees, and the intersectional nature of these categories, are at the heart of the work this curatorial area does. These collection activities will also encompass the interactions of these communities with tāngata whenua. Equally central are those formats, events and concerns of contemporary significance, including digital heritage, the pandemic and climate change.

Scope of the collection

The scope of the collection area will include three strands:

• Corrective collecting to address gaps, silences, and under-representation in current collections as well as to prevent their recurrence in future collections.

• Contemporary collecting to proactively address contemporary and emerging communities, identities, concerns, cultural traditions, and content formats (reflecting changes in New Zealand’s Immigration Act in 1987, Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986, and global advances in technology).

• Collecting, including rapid-response collecting, about significant contemporary events, national and international, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exclusions

• Material covered by the collection scope of other format areas within Alexander Turnbull Library and sister organisations such as Archives NZ and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.

• Records of government departments and other records covered by the Public Records Act 2005. This includes politicians’ papers and records generated through machinery of government. Contact Archives New Zealand

• Collections from a community, or on a regional theme which have relevance to their local area, and where there is a suitable local collecting repository

• Duplicate items already held by the Alexander Turnbull Library including under

  legal deposit, by sister organisations such as Archives NZ and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, or in another repository/institution within Aotearoa New Zealand.

• Archival material collected through other streams in the Library

• The records of organisations, groups or business unless offered directly from the governing body or delegated representative of that organisation. See notes on organisational records under the ‘Collecting priorities’ section below.

• Items in poor condition or which pose a risk to the collections, unless these are very rare, are integral to a larger collection, or include important provenance evidence or content, and where any risk can be managed.

Collection strengths

The Contemporary Voices and Archives collection will build collection strengths relating to minority and migrant, disability, LGBTQIATakatāpui+, and Pacific communities. Its value will lie in its corrective collecting activities, as well as the focus on the contemporary period and rapid-response collecting across Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.

Collecting principles

The National Library of New Zealand Collection Policy provides the principles that guide all collecting across the published and unpublished collections by the National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library.

National Library of New Zealand Collection Policy.

The relevant principles from the collection policy are provided below, with an explanation of how they will be realised for the Contemporary Voices and Archives collections.

Principle 1

Developing breadth and depth in the Library’s research collections requires decisions to be informed by, and responsive to, current and emerging research trends and the anticipated needs of future generations of New Zealanders.

Actions

The Contemporary Voices and Archives team aims to build relationships and work collaboratively with minority and migrant, disability, LGBTQIATakatāpui+, and Pacific communities across Aotearoa New Zealand. It will work directly with communities, as well as with community organisations and research communities which represent or work with these groups. This outreach will enable the Library to identify and meet the needs and interests of contemporary and future researchers from all communities.

The Library welcomes and encourages dialogue with any part of the research community regarding the scope of the collection that supports an existing or future research need.

The National Library of New Zealand Collection Development Policy provides a suite of principles that guide all collecting across the published and unpublished collections by the National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library.

The relevant principles from the Collection Development Policy are provided below, with an explanation of how they will be realised for the Contemporary Voices and Archives collections.

Principle 2

Active engagement with iwi, hapū and whānau helps build good collections of documentary heritage and tāonga created by Māori and relating to Māori, for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

Actions

The Alexander Turnbull Library is committed to ensuring records of Māori are collected, preserved and made available to the highest possible standard, in ways that are acceptable to Māori, and are carried out in consultation with appropriate iwi and pan-iwi representatives.

The Contemporary Voices and Archives collections will actively focus on the rich history of relationships between the pacific as well as migrant communities of diverse ethnicities and Māori to prioritise the narratives of cultural encounters by Māori, in both Te Reo Māori and English, covering iwi, hapū, whānau history, political, social and environmental issues, arts and culture, and other topics.

Principle 3

The Library has an important leadership role in collaborating and coordinating collection related activities across institutional and national boundaries to enable New Zealanders to connect to information important to their lives, and to support strong documentary heritage and tāonga collections for all New Zealanders.

Actions

The Alexander Turnbull Library always considers the most appropriate repository for a collection prior to acquisition, which can often be another institution within Aotearoa New Zealand or further abroad.

Records with provenance in the Pacific Islands or migrant/minority/marginalised communities will be collected in collaboration with, and not in competition with, any recognized collecting institution of the Pacific Islands or community-led organisations such as LAGANZ.

Potential areas for collaborative or coordinated proactive collection will be explored with other institutions, especially when the Library’s born-digital collecting capacity can be utilised, and gaps in relevant national holdings identified.

Principle 6

The Library takes into account the cost of acquiring, storing, managing, and making accessible collection items when building its collections.

Actions

The Library’s process for approval to purchase collection items includes consideration of cost and benefit and is followed at all times when the Crown’s acquisition budget is used to build collections.

For items that are acquired for the Contemporary Voices and Archives collection, the total cost of collecting, preserving, conserving, and providing access is one factor considered as part of determining the benefit to Aotearoa New Zealand of having the items preserved in perpetuity as part of our documentary heritage.

The Library will be selective in the materials we acquire taking into account the whole cost of acquiring and stewarding the material.

Collecting priorities

The Contemporary Voices and Archives Collection is developed:

• to support community interest in and access to their own histories, stories and memories

• to sustain advanced research in:

  • contemporary socio-cultural history

  • histories of immigration, modern labour force and demographics; migrant and minority communities; disabled communities; gender and queer studies; community organisations, groups and movements; and communities marginalised by the hegemonic discourse and/or the digital/social/cultural divide as well as a lack of access to technologies, education, and opportunities

  • singular and major events of local, regional, national and global significance and New Zealanders’ response to them

  • contemporary memory studies and memory making

  • social media and collective memory

• To preserve a diverse and inclusive documentary heritage in perpetuity for all in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Priorities

This collection prioritises memories and stories from, of, and for people and communities together with accounts of events and activities that have been under or unrepresented in the Alexander Turnbull Library and National Library collections to date.

Corrective collecting to address gaps and silences in our current collections

The focus will remain on acquisitions, partnerships as well as community-driven initiatives to build a collection of:

• personal, collective and community organisation collections from and by migrant, minority and marginalised communities/groups

• materials representing significant or unique contributions of individuals and groups from migrant, marginalised and minority communities to Aotearoa New Zealand society and the national scene

• content which reflects personalities, events, policies, cultural practices and social developments impacting on the lives of migrant, minority and marginalised communities; and which have a bearing on human rights and justice

• earlier and contemporary voices from migrant, minority, marginalised, under-represented or refugee backgrounds that are at risk of being lost to age, time, illness or disregard

• histories and perspectives that, when surfaced, have the potential to balance the meta-narrative by presenting a counterpoint to the told history; to challenge and question privileged perspectives

• hitherto unheard voices and histories that are waiting for an ‘active listening’ and a place in the told history.

Contemporary collecting

Rapid response collecting and collecting emerging forms of cultural expression are two key priorities of this collection.

• Rapid response collecting — both digital (in collaboration with Digital Collection Services) and non-digital (in collaboration with other curatorial/format areas) — in immediate response to events of local, national and global significance.

• New and evolving forms of cultural expression, media formats, emergent cultural traditions and collective memory platforms.

Proactive priorities

• Rapid response collecting in relation to significant contemporary national and international events.

• Stories and voices from Pacific, migrant, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities.

• Innovative formats of cultural expressions bringing together traditional knowledge and emerging technologies.

Organisation, business, group archives

This collecting plan relates to individuals and collectives, as well as organisations, businesses and groups. The archival records of these organisations will be collected in accordance with the Manuscripts and Archives collecting plan, which specifies:

• The Alexander Turnbull Library will consider offers of archives from nationally significant migrant/minority/community organisations.

• When appraising an organisation’s records, we will be selective in the materials we acquire taking into account the whole cost of acquiring and stewarding the material.

• Only original archival records with intrinsic research or heritage value will be accepted.

• For reasons of content security and to ensure legal transfer of ownership, the Library is unable to accept organisational records directly from individuals without the delegated organisational authority.

• Please note that prior acceptance of an organisation’s record for the Alexander Turnbull Library collection does not automatically guarantee acceptance of further deposits. Each offer is considered in accordance with the current collecting policy and priorities.

Contact

Dr Ashwinee Pendharkar, Curator Contemporary Voices and Archives, Alexander Turnbull Library.

Email — ashwinee.pendharkar@dia.govt.nz

Download the Contemporary Voices and Archives collecting plan

Contemporary Voices and Archives collecting plan (pdf, 210 KB)