COMMA 2011-1 – Archives an Recordkeeping in Australasia and Oceania
Paradise, isolation, indigeneity, settler colonialism, remoteness, orality, micro-states, pragmatism, ingenuity – these are just some of the words and phrases that spring to mind whenone contemplates the territories and peoples of Australasia and Oceania. The often double- edged concepts embodied in these words have shaped archival identities in the region. More recently, the particular flavour of archiving that has developed in the region has in turn started to shape the global recordkeeping discourse. Arguably, this is because of a growing recognition that narrow, traditional Eurocentric concepts of archival endeavour provide an inadequate frame of reference for the complex, contingent and pluralistic realities of the twenty-first century. This theme issue of Comma aims to provide a snapshot reflection of this refiguring of archival identities, where the global periphery is now, for better or worse, setting much of the agenda for a profession that hitherto has been squarely European in orientation and perspective. [...]