The Woman on the Other Side of the Wall: Archiving the Otherwise in Postcolonial Digital Archives

The Woman on the Other Side of the Wall: Archiving the Otherwise in Postcolonial Digital Archives

Curation

Postcolonial archives in theory and practice generally oppose traditional archival principles of open access. Indigenous cultures transmit knowledge according to local custom and do not conform to the Western, positivist hierarchical structure of institutional archives. Elizabeth Povinelli proposes to build a postcolonial digital archive of the native people of northwest Australia. In her article, she discusses the intellectual and ethical challenges that confront archivists when attempting to match tribal protocols of circulating and preserving traditional knowledge with digital media. Povinelli contends the open-access model of digital archives violates traditional barriers that indigenous societies erect to preserve and circulate traditional culture. She cites examples of modified algorithms and user-generated metadata in non-traditional digital archives and suggests adopting a tiered level of access for postcolonial archives. The resulting arrangement and access to content thereby respects local custom, although it may appear illogical or be inaccessible to the Western reader. Povinelli poses both ethical and ontological questions to digital archivists. Can digital media adapt to postcolonial archives without sacrificing and subverting the native society? Moreover, can the digital postcolonial archive, itself a challenge to the politically powerful and dominant institutional archives, maintain its purpose to halt the subjugation of the indigenous community? Such questions promote creative and critical innovation with rendering code, designing the interface, and adapting to the framework of a screen. However, even when constructed in accordance with native custom, Povinelli acknowledges that the power of the archive lies in its representation of truth, and as such, must continually be negotiated between archivist and the community represented.

Povinelli, Elizabeth A.

Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies

April 29, 2011

Polk, Victoria

© 2015 by Brown University and differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies

Journal Article

Povinelli, Elizabeth A. "The Woman on the Other Side of the Wall: Archiving the Otherwise in Postcolonial Digital Archives." Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 22, no.1 (2011):146-171. doi:10.1215/10407391-1218274.