Repatriating childhood: Issues in the ethical return of Venda children’s musical materials from the archival collection of John Blacking
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Open Access
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PresentationAuthor/s
Emberly, AndreaAbstract
In academic disciplines that engage in ethnographic field research there have been dramatic shifts in the ways in which scholars approach work with children and young people, guided by changes to institutional Human Ethics Protocols. These shifts have impacted how ethnomusicologists ...
See moreIn academic disciplines that engage in ethnographic field research there have been dramatic shifts in the ways in which scholars approach work with children and young people, guided by changes to institutional Human Ethics Protocols. These shifts have impacted how ethnomusicologists approach the study of children’s musical cultures and must also be addressed when framing issues of repatriation that centre on materials collected from children and young people. Whilst the field of ethnomusicology is increasingly concerned with issues surrounding repatriation and the extensive ethical and community considerations involved in returning materials to cultural heritage communities, there has only been peripheral consideration of how repatriation might impact the lives of children and youth represented in archival collections. In the late 1950s ethnomusicologist John Blacking collected significant materials documenting the musical lives of young children in remote communities in Limpopo province, South Africa. Blacking’s research became the foundation for his seminal work on musicality and Venda children’s musical cultures in particular. Blacking’s field recordings (including video, audio and photographic materials) and extensive documentation and analysis are currently housed in two archival collections at Queen’s University in Belfast and the Callaway Centre Archive at the University of Western Australia (UWA). The Callaway Centre at UWA is currently examining ways to repatriate selections of Venda materials to communities in Limpopo. This paper will examine ethical and methodological considerations for repatriating materials that document childhood, including issues such as informed consent, changing methods for documentation of children’s lives, and the return of historical childhood materials to research subjects who are now adults. An exploration of the materials in the Blacking Collection at UWA will be used as a case study to examine issues that may arise in ethnomusicological research that involves the return of archival records of childhood to communities of origin.
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See moreIn academic disciplines that engage in ethnographic field research there have been dramatic shifts in the ways in which scholars approach work with children and young people, guided by changes to institutional Human Ethics Protocols. These shifts have impacted how ethnomusicologists approach the study of children’s musical cultures and must also be addressed when framing issues of repatriation that centre on materials collected from children and young people. Whilst the field of ethnomusicology is increasingly concerned with issues surrounding repatriation and the extensive ethical and community considerations involved in returning materials to cultural heritage communities, there has only been peripheral consideration of how repatriation might impact the lives of children and youth represented in archival collections. In the late 1950s ethnomusicologist John Blacking collected significant materials documenting the musical lives of young children in remote communities in Limpopo province, South Africa. Blacking’s research became the foundation for his seminal work on musicality and Venda children’s musical cultures in particular. Blacking’s field recordings (including video, audio and photographic materials) and extensive documentation and analysis are currently housed in two archival collections at Queen’s University in Belfast and the Callaway Centre Archive at the University of Western Australia (UWA). The Callaway Centre at UWA is currently examining ways to repatriate selections of Venda materials to communities in Limpopo. This paper will examine ethical and methodological considerations for repatriating materials that document childhood, including issues such as informed consent, changing methods for documentation of children’s lives, and the return of historical childhood materials to research subjects who are now adults. An exploration of the materials in the Blacking Collection at UWA will be used as a case study to examine issues that may arise in ethnomusicological research that involves the return of archival records of childhood to communities of origin.
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Date
2013-01-01Licence
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York University, University of Western AustraliaShare