Rethinking archival ethical and legal frameworks

Authors: Livia Iacovino

Publish Date: 2010/06/30

Volume: 10, Issue: 4, Pages: 353-372

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Abstract

Archival systems have been based on the conventional understanding of the relationship between record subjects as third parties and record creators as the principal parties to the record transaction thus limiting the rights of those captured in and by the record An alternative approach is a participant relationship model which acknowledges all parties to a transaction as immediate parties with negotiated rights and responsibilities A number of legal and archival concepts support a participant model of cocreatorship and associated responsibilities in relation to ownership access and privacy The application of the participant model to Indigenous Australian record subjects in particular to records about them held in archival institutions or in creating organisations would enhance Indigenous rights in records Indigenous claims to ownership over archival sources of Indigenous knowledge can be characterised in the legal concept of a bundle of rights that recognises more than one interest to control disclose access and use records Human rights principles in international and national human rights instruments also support the assertion of Indigenous rights in records Archival and legal reform is required to fully implement the participant model but a number of archival ethical and legal strategies would accelerate its implementation The reconceptualisation of the record subject as a record cocreator can also be applied to nonIndigenous contexts and therefore has significant archival and legal implicationsThis article is one of the outcomes of a Monash University Melbourne Australia Jean Whyte research project “Rethinking archival and legal frameworks for records of Indigenous Australian communities of memory a participatory model of rights and responsibilities” 2008–2009 http//wwwinfotechmonasheduau/about/news/archive/2008/jeanwhytefundrecipientshtml It builds on a working paper “New Approaches to Rights and Responsibilities in Koorie Knowledge” prepared by the author for an Australian Research Council ARC Linkage project “Trust and Technology Building Archival Systems for Indigenous Oral Memory” 2004–2008 a partnership of Caulfield School of Information Technology Monash University Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies Monash University the Public Record Office of Victoria the Koorie Heritage Trust Inc the Victorian Koorie Records Taskforce and the Australian Society of Archivists Indigenous Issues Special Interest Group http//wwwinfotechmonasheduau/research/centres/cosi/projects/trust/I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Professor Eric Ketelaar in the preparation of this article The research on which the article has been based has been made possible by a Jean Whyte Research Grant Monash University 2008–2009 Professor Eric Ketelaar Chief Investigator Livia Iacovino Senior Research Fellow http//wwwinfotechmonasheduau/about/news/archive/2008/jeanwhytefundrecipientshtml

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