We Carry Their Voices: An Indigenous Pacific Archivist on Preserving Oral Histories

Abstract

This paper considers how Western archives can incorporate Indigenous Pacific ways of transmitting customary knowledge systems in their practice and queries how this knowledge might sit alongside traditional archival methods. Through personal memories and accounts as an Indigenous Pacific archivist, I explore the possibilities of oral history as a way to preserve intangible cultural heritage and consider some of the challenges that are encountered as well. Rather than discussing audio preservation techniques, this paper is intended to focus on the core archival methods that are enlisted to preserve data about Indigenous collections, such as arrangement and description, as well as recent developments in digitisation, access and Indigenous data sovereignty. Drawing on my own examples from the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound (AMPS) as well as other selected repositories in Aotearoa New Zealand, I consider how Indigenous voices are increasingly being incorporated into archival practices and, by extension, how our histories are being told and shaped.