Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

If the revitalisation and resurgence of Aboriginal culture is to fully take place, and so that we cancontribute our culture to the world heritage on our own terms, then we must once again be able toown, control and enjoy our cultural and historical resources housed within our own communityfacilities (1989 page 5).The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) submitted to theInquiry that,The archival records form the basis of a cultural heritage. There is anger that cultural property isvested under Government legislation. Repatriation of records is seen as an importantconsideration and an issue to be negotiated with indigenous communities and organisations(submission 684 page 23).Australian law does not currently accept the view of record ownership implicit inthese arguments. The owner of the record is the person or department which created it(Breen v Williams 1996; various archives acts). While FoI laws recognise the right of thesubject of the record to see it and have a copy, they simultaneously prevent any otherperson or organisation seeing it or having a copy without the individual’s consent.However, there are numerous records relating to Indigenous families and communitieswhich do not contain sensitive personal information or which are now less sensitive dueto the passage of time since their creation. Records Taskforces are well placed todistinguish between these categories of records.Original records should generally remain in the custody of the agency which createdthem or of an archive. Exceptions include letters and other records created by Indigenouspeople and placed on government or mission files. Non-government agencies or privateindividuals may donate original records to an Indigenous repository. The AustralianInstitute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies project, Return of Materials toAboriginal Communities, may offer some insights into how the provision of documentarymaterials to an Indigenous repository might be managed in practice (evidence 703).We have proposed elsewhere the expansion of the role of Aboriginal languagecentres or the creation of new institutions. The functions of ‘language, culture and historycentres’ could include oral history archive as proposed in Recommendation 11, recordsarchive, community education facility, language centre (recording and teaching),memorial, museum, cultural and historical resource and research centre. There wassignificant support among submissions to the Inquiry for the housing of personal andfamily records in these centres.Indigenous repositoriesRecommendation 29a: That, on the request of an Indigenous community, the relevantRecords Taskforce sponsor negotiations between government, church and/or othernon-government agencies and the relevant Indigenous language, culture and historycentre for the transfer of historical and cultural information relating to thatcommunity and its members.