Symposium: Colonial Archives and Meaningful Digital Infrastructure

The program will include sessions on:

• Colonial archives, worldwide relevance and the potential of digital unlocking 
• Text recognition, and then what? Towards meaningful infrastructures for complex archives
• Bias in the archive as challenge and source
• Can we reach new audiences? Ways forward for digital infrastructures and colonial archives

Event overview

Many archives related to the Dutch colonial past have been digitised in recent years. From the archives of the VOC and WIC to early modern family, notarial, and business archives. These archives are closely intertwined with the colonial past itself. They contain information that sheds light on the (everyday) consequences and experiences of colonialism worldwide. These archives also provide access to information about non-European societies that is often not preserved in other ways. Colonial archives are often literally world heritage. More and more archives are therefore being made accessible through digitisation and text recognition. But as rich and diverse as these archives are, they are not neutral.

Challenges and questions

The symposium Colonial archives and meaningful digital infrastructure explores challenges, questions, and examples surrounding digital access and enrichment of shared resources related to the colonial past.

• How can digital infrastructure contribute to making unique information about the people and societies affected by or resisting colonialism findable and researchable?
• How can multiple perspectives and the many voices in these archives be made more visible?
• How can we ethically employ new techniques?
• And who are the true beneficiaries of advanced access and research infrastructure?
• Who should these initiatives serve, and how can global stakeholders beyond Dutch and professional users be reached (such as the descendants of colonized societies and of those societies whose pasts can be reconstructed using these archives)?

New approaches

Last spring, the advice Dealing with shared sources of the colonial past. Advice on repair and restitution in relation to colonial archives by the Dutch Council for Culture called attention to the role that a responsible handling of colonial archives can play in a better understanding of the impact of colonialism worldwide and its legacies to the present day. It also emphasised that colonial archives themselves are often tools that serviced colonial rule, and whose accessibility has often accentuated the flawed and one-sided perspectives that they bear.

New approaches are thus key to ensuring that new digital access and user infrastructures do not amplify colonial distortions or injustices, but instead contribute to dialogues in, and between, former colonizer and colonised societies. This leads to the question: how can digital infrastructures for colonial archives contribute to a better understanding of past and present in a complex world of present-day inequalities and memory cultures?

Confirmed speakers and moderators include: 

• Rita Tjien Fooh, national archivist and director National Archives of Suriname, and President Forum of National Archivists
• Nadeera Rupesinghe, director general National Archives of Sri Lanka and historian of VOC Sri Lanka
• Margo Groenewoud, specialist in colonial archives and digital humanities and historian of the Caribbean
• Wisaal Abrahams, visual producer, visual artist and researcher of South African society and history
• Liedeke Plate, professor and director Radboud Institute for Culture and History, specialized in art, culture and inclusion
• Elisabeth Heijmans, historian Antwerp University, specialized in early modern French and Dutch overseas expansion
• Hylkje de Jong, professor history of law VU University and projectleader HUF-project
• Manjusha Kuruppath, team leader at the digital infrastructure project GLOBALISE and historian of the VOC and colonial encounters
• Sophie Rose, historian Universität Tübingen, specialized in gender, race and religious plurality in colonial history
• Wim Manuhutu, heritage specialist and historian VU University, specialized in Moluccan and colonial history
• And various young professionals of GLOBALISE and research projects, including Kay Pepping, Brecht Nijman, Stella Verkijk, Britt van Duijvenvoorde, Pascal Konings, Dung Pham, Henrike Vellinga 

Practical Information

The program will be held at the Radboud University and will include sessions, discussions, and opportunities to share ideas. Lunch is not provided, but nearby options are available during the break from 12:00 to 13:00. For those unable to attend in person, an online option is available (registration required for the link).

Inaugural Lecture

After the symposium, attendees are invited to join the inaugural lecture of IISG-colleague Matthias van Rossum (in Dutch) at 15:45, titled De ‘jongens’ van Bontekoe? Over nut en noodzaak van mondiale geschiedenissen van kolonialisme en arbeid. Separate registration is required through the form on the Radboud University announcement page.

Organizers

This event is organized by GLOBALISE, Combatting Bias, IISG Resisting Enslavement,and the Radboud Institute for Culture & History.

Register now to participate in the symposium in person or online.