Not just paper: the importance of non-traditional records

When many people think of archival records, they think of paper – paper in files and filing cabinets, files in boxes, loose pages in drawers, bound ledgers and registers, printed photographs. But many archivists think about records more broadly. For example, the New South Wales State Records Act 1998 defines a ‘record’ as: “any document or other source of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or on film, or by electronic process, or in any other manner or by any other means”[1] [my italics].

I was reminded of this last month, as part of my role as Lead Archivist on the National Find & Connect web resource project. Since the Magill Training Centre (Adelaide) closed in 2012 South Australian historians Karen George and Gary George – both working on the Find & Connect web resource – had been asking for permission to photograph the interior. When the start date for demolition was publicly announced just before Christmas they asked again. Karen and Gary were specifically interested in a mural painted in the 1970s when the McNally Training Centre ran on the site. An artist had come in to the Centre and worked with the kids on a design. Some of the kids at the Centre were also involved in helping with the painting.

Mural at the Magill Training Centre painted in the 1970s. (Photograph: December 2012.)

Permission to photograph the site and mural was refused, and in the first week of January 2014 demolition started. When chased up, demolition workers told Gary and Karen they had been specifically instructed not to allow people onto the site, and not to allow people (including demolition workers) to take any photographs. Before these decisions could be reversed (and apparently earlier than expected based on publicly accessible information) the mural was demolished.

The central importance of records to Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and others who were in institutional ‘care’ is a concept constantly reinforced by the community, advocacy groups, sector workers, senate reports and more. There are some paper records related to McNally that survive, but we must be aware that – especially where records play such a vital role in identity formation and understanding the past – we have a collective responsibility to locate, preserve and provide access to more than just paper. Records can be any significant source of information, evidence or meaning, recorded in any manner, by any means, including hand-painted walls.

If the wall featured a mural by Keith Haring or Banksy the situation might be different. Haring’s mural on Johnston Street, Collingwood is rightly on the Victorian Heritage Register. But there are plenty of examples of important political graffiti and street art as social commentary, much of it by unknown hands, without the same prominence. If the mural is by a forgotten group of kids in the 1970s, for many its perceived importance drops even further.

Some organisations do recognise the significance of these ‘non-traditional’ records. For example, the New South Wales Benevolent Society recently agreed to sell the property containing Scarba House  which will eventually result in the loss of public access to the building. Therefore, they are creating an online record of the house and grounds using photos and other materials – a ‘virtual tour’ – to digitally preserve Scarba House and its surrounds.

Where this isn’t happening, archivists, historians and others need to work with the community to keep raising awareness and advocating for change. Case files and admission registers are critical records for Forgotten Australians. But paintings, walls, buildings, gardens, objects, mementos and bric-a-brac can all be important records too and we must seek to preserve them, even if only digitally. Sometimes these ‘non-traditional’ records can contain more meaning and emotion than words on a page; and sometimes they are the only records left.