An archival collecting framework for the records generated by South Africa's Portuguese community-based organisations in Gauteng

Abstract

South African institutions of preservation, such as archives, have often focused their collecting efforts on records of national significance and documenting the perspectives of the more dominant communities that represent power and government. This has resulted in the underrepresentation of certain communities in the archival heritage of the nation, such as the South African Portuguese community, whose contemporary history and experiences have not been adequately reflected in the country’s archival collections, including in those of government and other mainstream archival institutions and non-public institutions. Since South Africa has a number of Portuguese community-based organisations - and because the records they have created may be a potential resource for safeguarding the social history of this under-documented group - this study aimed to investigate the management of these records with a view of proposing a best practice model that would assist in their future management and guide their inclusion in any intended archival collection initiatives. Utilising a generic interpretive qualitative research design, the study revealed that the selected study population, namely the Portuguese community-based organisations in Gauteng, create and hold diverse types of records that may show important aspects of the community’s history that are worthy of systematic management and preservation. However, it became evident from the empirical findings that the recordkeeping practices of these organisations were performed inadequately, with records often being misplaced or discarded after their administrative use had expired. The findings also showed that, although these organisations had never thought of establishing an archival programme for themselves or depositing their records in any mainstream archives, they were willing to contribute their records to a planned archival collecting initiative of the community. Based on these findings, recommendations were made with regard to these organisational records in order to improve their management and to facilitate their potential inclusion in an archival collecting plan. The study also suggested an archival collecting framework and a model for these records. The proposed model followed an integrated approach, taking into account the community’s divergent collecting and custody preferences, such as the mainstream institutional acquisition of these records or these being preserved within community structures.