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Collaborative
Learning Projects
The
anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa represents one of the quintessential
freedom struggles of the 20th century. In the context of these struggles,
a wealth of oral history projects were begun across South Africa
in the 1970s and 1980s to record the stories of South Africans whose
stories had been excluded under apartheid. Although many of these
projects have continued and new projects have developed under the
new democratic system, individual projects remain disconnected and
hampered by limited funding. It is the top priority of South African
cultural heritage institutions to develop greater coordination and
sharing of expertise in order to ensure the long-term preservation
of these invaluable oral narratives and to provide greater public
and educational access to them.
Under
the auspices of the collaborative learning projects of the bi-national
partnership, MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social
Sciences Online, and the Michigan State University Museum work with
a wide range of institutions in South Africa to assist in the digitization
and preservation of these oral histories, while making these materials
available to the widest possible audience. The projects use archival
and heritage centers across South Africa to collect, preserve, and
provide digital access to oral histories.
By
capacitating South African documentation, research and heritage
centers to digitally preserve oral histories, this project both
increases access to these unique collections while preserving the
life of their current holdings. Where IP permissions allow, there
is access to these collections from outside of the individual research
center that houses the physical holdings when all participating
organizations agree, thus creating a rich resource that can be drawn
from diverse holdings across South Africa and making this available
to a broad public. Digitization is also used for preservation alone,
with access to materials restricted via a range of means –
from password protection to domain restrictions.
MATRIX
is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the digitization
and delivery of spoken word resources, and has partnered extensively
with the Michigan State University Museum on a range of heritage
and oral history initiatives. Further, because of the high demand
for these materials by researchers and the critical need for training
in the collection, preservation and digitization of oral history
materials across South Africa this project has benefited both the
US and South Africa-based research and heritage communities.
Folk
Arts
Oral
History
South
Africa Film and Video Project [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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