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Decolonizing South East Asian Sound Archives

Lead Research Organisation: SOAS University of London
Department Name: Sch of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics

Abstract

DeCoSEAS is a transnational NL-FR-UK research project that renegotiates established understandings
of heritage curation. An experienced, cross-disciplinary team opens up three unique collections,
located in Europe, with extremely rare music and sound from Southeast Asia (SEA), that have
worldwide fame in terms of their quality, quantity and diversity, but are barely accessible. DeCoSEAS
facilitates:

physical access for SE Asian stakeholders (WP1),
online access for scholars, artists and stakeholders worldwide (WP2),
publication channels about heritage curation for SE Asian stakeholders (WP3) and
outreach projects for culture consumers worldwide (WP4).

Each WP is devised to achieve corresponding objectives:
1. Interrogate the colonial patrimony of archives,
2. Conceive a new digital curational framework,
3. Transfer publishing and editing agencies about heritage curation to heritage stakeholders, and
4. Democratize curatorial practices.

The objectives constitute DeCoSEAS envisaged decolonization of heritage curation that acutely
responds to current public and academic debates on de/colonization and heritage restitution. The
project is a pilot study for this vision adopting a knowledge chain with three formative orientation
points: the improvement of access to heritage, the transfer of agency to stakeholders of heritage, and
the diversification of the dialogue about heritage curation.

DeCoSEAS employs a paradigm-shifting methodological approach focused on hearing and listening as
dialogical modes of knowledge formation. It complements conventional academic faculties of
watching and reading as modes of singular objectification. DeCoSEAS strives for the inclusion of
voices, stances and interpretations that have hitherto remained unheard in existing discourses about
heritage by attending to multiple, time-bound and intricately entangled voices simultaneously (those
recorded from the past and those from SE Asian partners today). With these action plans, DeCoSEAS
aims to provide new insights in and new practices of heritage curation and participation.
 
Title Bebas Purnama "Freed by the Moonlight" 
Description Composition was an artistic output of Azeem Shah, one of the projects fellows. He composed the piece by relying heavily on melodic influences of the Malaysian archival recordings at the British Library like Mak Yong, Lagu Silat, and the Indian Muslim Fishermen Chants. Without the melody, it would have been difficult to produce the overall music that surrounded the melody. Apart from their melodic influence, he also tried to capture the 'feel' of the performance heard in the recordings, such as that communal spirit and the 'pride' that was heard from the voices of these performers. 
Type Of Art Composition/Score 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The fellowship from the project brought Azeem to the UK and allowed him to engage with the Malaysian sound archives at the British Library. Fluent in Bahasa Malay and attuned to the melodic histories of Malaysia, he also was able to do more provenance research on the sound and transcribed the lyrics. Azeem performed his composition at the Digital Bridges, Archival Gaps Conference at SOAS University of London and has submitted the song as a festive song for Hari Raya/Eid in Malaysia. 
URL https://vimeo.com/887339761?share=copy
 
Title Gónô Tmutul: Building a House of Stories 
Description Synopsis: Returning to a place she last lived more than 40 years ago, an Englishwoman seeks to hand back, with the help of an academic and a curator, a collection of rare and beautiful objects, photographs, and recordings to the Tboli people of Lake Sebu. Their inspiring odyssey represents a possible framework for how cultural artefacts might be repatriated to the source communities that value them in ways missing from the standard accountings of museums and auction houses. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact We have screened this film in various places to positive reviews. It has given us a chance to talk about repatriation through the lens of the moral imperative - and has resulted in invitations to screen at the AAS Conference 2023 in a plenary session as well as various screenings at SOAS and Postgraduate students in modules that deal with Repatriation and Social justice. The film received a special mention in the Beats Festival 2023 at Sunway University in Malaysia. 
URL https://vimeo.com/856163878?share=copy
 
Title Mari Ber-Lenso Exhibition 
Description Mari Ber-Lenso exhibition, an event dedicated to exploring Lenso. Lenso, a musical genre that emerged during the Soekarno era reflecting the cultural and political landscape of Indonesia from 1950 to 1965, not only embodies the spirit of the time but also serves as a crucial record of the nation's history, intertwining popular music with major socio-political events.The exhibition will delve into the importance of archives and documentation in preserving Lenso's legacy, highlighting the identification of key materials, the contributions of music creators, and the cultural processes that have shaped the Lenso tradition. Through a collection of rare archives, albums, and other musical artifacts, the exhibition will illustrate how various musical and cultural entities interacted, competed, and engaged in dialogue during this dynamic period in Indonesian history. The exhibition's grand opening was on 28-29 September 2024, and featured a talk show and musical performances by @iramapantaiselatan and @dialitachoir. The exhibition will run from 28 September to 24 November 2024 at the National Museum. Mari Ber-Lenso exhibition was designed by DeCoSEAS Fellow Zikri Rahman and DeCoSEAS project partner Irama Nusantara. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact The exhibit held at the National Museum of Indonesia received good reviews and a significant amount of viewers from the general public. 
URL https://www.decoseas.org/events/mari-ber-lenso-exhibition/
 
Title Yesterday Once More : A performance/Exhibition 
Description curated by Jarrod Sim in collaboration with the Penang Eurasian Association (PEA), the Penang House of Music (PHoM), and the Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives project (DeCoSEAS). Taking place on Saturday, 25th May, from 3 PM to 5 PM, the event shone a spotlight on the movers and shakers of Penang's Eurasian music scene, past and present including an exhibition from PHoM's extensive archive, highlighting Penang's Eurasian musical community's rich contributions to Penang's cultural tapestry. The event also features live performances by multiple generations of Penang musicians, who shared personal stories of their musical journeys, offering a unique glimpse into the sounds and experiences that have shaped Penang's identity. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Gathering of Multi-generation musicians in Penang who expressed desire for future collaboration on preserving the musical archives of Eurasian musicians in Penang. 
URL https://www.decoseas.org/events/experience-penangs-eurasian-musical-legacy-at-yesterday-once-more/
 
Description The award has significantly advanced accessibility to three previously inaccessible sound collections in Europe, primarily benefiting stakeholders in South East Asia. Notably, it has established three knowledgebases: Pratinada.net, an aggregated data site housing 7070 Southeast Asian sound items, localized and accessible in seven Southeast Asian languages as well as French and English; and narrative-driven platforms such as Jaap Kunst and the BBC Soundscapes of Empire. Particularly noteworthy is the facilitation of discovery and digitization of BBC recordings and related written archives concerning South East Asia during Britain's late colonialism and early postcolonialism periods, previously stored at the British Library and BBC Written archives. The award's focused efforts have enabled cataloging, digitization, and unprecedented stakeholder access to sample sound files, bypassing the necessity of physical presence at the British Library.

Moreover, partnerships with South East Asian collaborators, including eight fellowships, have cultivated a vibrant network of scholars, artists, and cultural enthusiasts, sparking scholarly and creative output and fostering reparative initiatives with regional cultural stakeholders. However, disruptions in the British Library's digital services have impeded the ongoing discovery process of BBC sound recordings, compounded by the unavailability of the BBC sound catalogue for general public access online. Nonetheless, the meticulous development of the knowledgebase, with comprehensive metadata fields and multilingual translatability, has laid a robust foundation for future expansion and data inclusion efforts.
Exploitation Route Academic & Research Applications
Further Scholarship: Researchers can use the sonic archives for comparative studies in transnational histories and decolonial methodologies, with a focus on sound as cultural expression.
Interdisciplinary Research: The archives support work in fields like anthropology, linguistics, environmental studies, and indigenous knowledge systems, through the lens of sound and oral traditions.
Student Engagement: Universities can integrate the archives into curricula, allowing students to engage with primary sound materials for coursework and theses.

Cultural Revitalization & Community Use
Indigenous Knowledge Preservation: Communities can access and reclaim their traditional knowledge, languages, and artistic practices through sonic heritage.
Cultural Education & Outreach: Museums, cultural centres, and grassroots organizations can use the sonic materials for workshops, exhibitions, and storytelling projects that revive and share auditory cultural expressions.
Ethical Repatriation: The sonic archives can serve as a model for digital repatriation efforts, fostering conversations on the return of sound recordings to source communities.

Digital Humanities & Technological Innovations
Integration into Other Platforms and the Making of micro-sites for local communities: The sonic archives can be linked with other digital sound repositories, enhancing global access to auditory heritage.
Open-Source Data Use: Developers and digital humanists can create new tools for visualizing, analyzing, or interpreting sound archives, including AI-assisted projects and interactive storytelling.
Capacity Building: The project's methodologies and workflows can serve as a blueprint for other digital sound heritage initiatives, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Policy & Institutional Impact
Museum & Archive Collaborations: Institutions can use the sonic archives as a model for ethical sound curation, documentation, and digital repatriation.
Heritage Policy Development: Policymakers can draw on the project's insights to shape guidelines for the protection, preservation, and restitution of sonic heritage.
Funding & Future Projects: The success of the project could attract further funding, ensuring the sustainability of digital sound repatriation and the expansion of similar projects globally.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Education

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL https://decoseas.org/
 
Description The DECOSEAS project has had a profound non-academic impact, particularly in empowering cultural stakeholders within diaspora communities and Southeast Asia. The sonic archives created by the project have provided a vital resource for cultural revitalization, offering communities a platform to reconnect with and reclaim their auditory heritage. These sonic materials, including recordings of traditional music, oral histories, and community narratives, enable intergenerational knowledge transfer, allowing younger generations to engage with cultural expressions that may have been at risk of fading. For diaspora communities, the archive serves as a space for reaffirming identity and fostering a sense of belonging, while simultaneously supporting creative works that draw upon these sonic traditions. This has led to the development of new artistic expressions, such as contemporary music, performances, and multimedia installations, that bridge the gap between historical soundscapes and modern experiences. The sonic archives have also been instrumental in baseline provenance research, helping trace the origins, transmission, and transformation of sound recordings. This research is key for ongoing work in digital and sonic repatriation, facilitating the return of culturally significant sound archives to their source communities. The project's contributions to understanding the histories of these sonic materials support the return of sound recordings both at the national level-through formal repatriation initiatives-and at the micro-regional level, where communities can directly reclaim and preserve their sonic heritage. In practical terms, the project has supported the direct return of sound archives to source communities, ensuring that repatriation is not a symbolic gesture but a genuine process of restoring cultural heritage. The availability of these archives allows communities to engage in co-curation, collaborating with museums, institutions, and digital platforms to ensure their sonic heritage is accurately represented and ethically managed. Through this process, DECOSEAS contributes to the decolonization of sonic archives, shifting control over sound recordings from external institutions back to the communities whose cultures they represent. Beyond repatriation, the DECOSEAS project has empowered community-driven heritage management by equipping local stakeholders with the tools and knowledge to protect, preserve, and promote their sonic traditions. This participatory model has helped communities reclaim ownership of their sonic narratives, allowing them to shape how their heritage is transmitted, understood, and celebrated in the present day. In doing so, it fosters cultural pride and resilience in the face of global challenges, while also supporting a broader understanding of cultural expression through sound.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural
 
Description Chairmanship of the SOAS PARR ( Provenance, Accessibility, Reparation and Repatriation) College-wide network
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact A working document on a SOAS Policy Statement towards transparency and accountability for its archival collections.
 
Description Musical Epistemology. Master course University of Amsterdam
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://studiegids.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2021-2022/zoek-vak/vak/87194
 
Description The Colonial Legacies of Sound Archives. Bachelor course University of Amsterdam.
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://studiegids.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2021-2022/zoek-vak/vak/87084
 
Description A Digital repatriation project for the co-production of knowledge with the Tboli and Bagobo Communities of Southern Mindanao - IKE Impact and Knowledge Exchange (IKE) Fund
Amount £8,305 (GBP)
Funding ID X519 ( Internal Worktribe Number) 
Organisation School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2022 
End 07/2023
 
Description Decolonial Futures:Digital Repatriation of Jaap Kunst Collection to East Nusa Tenggara Archive and Library Service
Amount € 15,000 (EUR)
Organisation University of Amsterdam 
Sector Academic/University
Country Netherlands
Start 11/2024 
End 12/2024
 
Description Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW) Award
Amount € 15,000 (EUR)
Organisation Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences 
Sector Learned Society
Country Netherlands
Start 04/2021 
End 03/2023
 
Description Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound)
Amount € 363,000 (EUR)
Organisation Dutch Research Council 
Sector Public
Country Netherlands
Start 01/2025 
End 01/2029
 
Title Decolonizing Metadata models for Colonial Sound Archives 
Description The consortium worked over the metadata fields provided for Sound Archives by Dublin Core, and analysed the categories against the data. The result of the very granular exercise was a set of highly customized metadata fields that would allow for better representation of the data when viewed from the community source's perspective. This would allow for greater findability by source communities and also a break with the hierarchical models of eurocentric categories for sound data. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Right now, the UK development team has programmed the new set of metadata fields into the CMS. The new set has allowed the RAs and researchers to input the data with more culturally informed care and thought. 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/admin/item
 
Title Digital Repatriation as a Reparative Approach to Colonial Archives 
Description Using the indigenous Blaan term Kastulen - this participatory research method is a conversation that uses the ethnographic methodology of photo elicitation. In the workshops, we use high resolution photos or sound files gathered from colonial repositories and create a site of engagement. We create a conversation among the cultural bearers , correct and annotate the catalogue records, trace provenance, and encourage opportunities for co-production of knowledge and an equitable knowledge exchange. The direct output of the collaborative research will be various inscriptive media (local film documentation as well as digital exhibits) The methodology hopes that the re-connection made between the cultural stakeholders with their exiled objects of knowledge (textual, sonic, and material) would result in cultural memory projects that can create new markers for collective self-identity and agency. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Directly related to DECOSEAS, we are digitally repatriating sound files to the Tboli peoples of Lake Sebu in the Philippines. The recording from the 70's will feature sound files of chanted epics, various chants, and a recorded political speech from a revered Datu in the 70's. 
URL https://philippinestudies.uk/mapping/blaan_in-conversation
 
Title Jaap Kunst Sound Collection 
Description The Jaap Kunst Collection is part of the sound archive of the former Etnomusicologisch Centrum Jaap Kunst (ECJK) at the University of Amsterdam. This Center was named after the Dutch ethnomusicologist Jaap Kunst (1891-1960). Kunst's recordings, photographs, silent film footage, field notes, and correspondence from the Indonesian Archipelago became the basis for the collection of similar materials from elsewhere in the world, deposited by Kunst's assistants and successors Ernst Heins and Felix van Lamsweerde, among others, from 1960 to the early 2000s. Between 1922 and 1934, Kunst recorded more than 300 wax cylinders of music and practices from the Indonesian Archipelago. A large part of the wax cylinders is stored at the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. They were digitized in the early 2000s but have remained hardly accessible until now. Kunst's oldest recordings contain gamelan music, recorded in Java in 1922 and Bali in 1925. A big wealth of the collection dates from the period between 1929 and 1934, when Kunst extensively travelled and recorded all over the archipelago. Katy Kunst-Van Wely assisted in some of the recordings as well as recorded independently. At Kunst's request, Father Verschueren, a missionary in Merauke, recorded in West Papua in 1933. In many of his publications about West Papua, Kunst relied on the recordings made in 1926 and 1939 by the Dutch army officer and teacher C.C.F.M. Leroux during his anthropological expeditions. On his own account, Pieter Middelkoop, a pastor in Kapan, made recordings in Central Timor that also ended up in Kunst's collection. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Data Analytics for the usage of the site indicates traffic from scholars in Indonesia and the Netherlands. 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/s/jaapkunst/page/search-page
 
Title Pratinada: An aggregated site for South East Asian Sound Archives 
Description The Pratinada knowledgebase provides access to three unique, rare and previously barely accessible sonic and musical collections from Southeast Asia located in Europe, namely: The Jaap Kunst Collection (Netherlands) The CNRS / Musée de l'Homme sound archives (France) The BBC Empire Service broadcasts (United Kingdom) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact A notable impact is how the work on the database brought together South East Asian scholars with scholars based in Europe to hash out a mutually beneficial database model . It has allowed for example to execute the necessity of translating the metadata fields into 10 South East Asian languages - and a more drilled down geographic location for the provenience of the sound files. 
URL https://pratinada.net/
 
Title Soundscapes of Empire: The BBC in South East Asia (1927-1961) 
Description The BBC in South East Asia is an expanding collection of primary source materials focusing on the British Broadcasting Company's significance in the region during Great Britain's late colonial and early post-colonial periods (1927-1961). As of 2023 the BBC has given unprecedented access rights to 45 sample sounds to complement the transcription and corollary written archives and narratives. The database gathers BBC-produced sound recordings for and about these geographical entities (currently the nation-states of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, Cambodia, the Philippines, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Laos, and Thailand). The recordings begin with the earliest surviving BBC broadcasts, now digitized and accessible at the British Library. They encompass diverse materials, such as a 1937 broadcast featuring an Englishman's reaction to the 1927 Krakatoa explosion, the inaugural address of the BBC Empire Service in 1932, and the initial broadcast in May 1951 of London Calling Asia, a program transmitted to South and South-East Asia as part of the BBC's Far Eastern Service. Pre-1961 recordings of BBC broadcasts were expensive and only done for practical reasons. Consequently, the corpus in the inventory is selective and incomplete. Yet the archive still enables us to listen to sounds that might otherwise remain unheard: commercially viable popular music, field recordings for ambient sound, speeches, and the social and ideological positioning of colonial subjects through voice inflections and sonic expressions. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The BBC sound project has created links with originating nations - like Malaysia and the Philippines to act as baseline data for eventual repatriation of the sound files. It has also initiated a shift in BBC copyright access laws as it allowed for the use of its materials for online access (as supposed to only accessing them in situ the British Library). 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/s/bbc-sea/page/welcome
 
Description BBC Sound Archives Services 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution A growing and annotated collection of newly catalogued and digitized BBC sound materials at the British Library. Methodology: Dr Juan, with some research assistants, has been going through the BBC paper catalogues at the Briitish Library to identify the materials that are relevant to the Decolonizing South East Asian Sound Archives project. Once materials are found, we correlate these with British Library sound archive numbers -- a majority of which are really just barebone catalog number entries without any further metadata or description of the material. As of this date, we have identified 250 BBC materials on South East Asia, catalogued and described/transcribed them, and have requested the digitization of these materials for listening access at the British Library. 92 of these materials have been digitized and made accessible at the British Library onsite and now also available to the general public through this project.
Collaborator Contribution In various meetings with the BBC copyright request team headed by Jake Berger of the BBC, a collaboration is developing between the project and the Fair use Copyright unit at the BBC to make the sound recordings we have identified (and the British Library has digitized) - to make these recordings available online through the DECOSEAS digital platform. Also through this unit, we have been able to access ( with an NDA) a database on BBC Newscripts from 1920's-1960. We use this database to do further research on the presence of the BBC in South East Asia and create a more complete picture of our analysis of BBC history in the region.
Impact Use of BBC New scripts for research https://ns.bbcgenome.com/ Developing an agreement to make BBC sound archives available online for virtual access especially to the stakeholders from South East Asia.
Start Year 2022
 
Description British Library Sound Archives 
Organisation The British Library
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Dr Juan has been collating the records from the BBC Sound Archives, with the catalogs of the British Library. In a lot of instances, the records do not sync and it is often difficult to find the recordings that relate to South East Asia. We hope that with the knowledge-base we are creating, we will be able to aggregate all the data and sync up the BBC written archives with the BL catalogues and have a complete picture of BBC broadcasts to South East Asia until 1960. DeCoSEAS will select the Southeast Asian digitized broadcasts from the larger body of overseas recordings with the aim of contextualizing sonic materials. These are presented online for crowdsourcing, data enrichment, and expert community building. It also hopes to facilitate greater physical access to the materials on site.
Collaborator Contribution The Sound and Moving Image Archives at the British Library have given us access to the paper catalogs of the BBC broadcast recordings that are currently stored at the British Library. They have integrated new catalogue descriptions and information on the sound recordings in CADENZA and made these recordings findable onsite. They have also digitized the materials the research team has requested from them and made them available on the BL sound servers which can now be accessed onsite.
Impact Additions to the dataset for the BBC Empire South East Asian Soundscapes, which is a subset of the South East Asia Hearing Aggregated platform.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Citra Research Centre as host for DECOSEAS 3-month Research Fellowship 
Organisation Universitas Putra Indonesia
Country Indonesia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Working with their technical team in streamlining/organizing their own sound archives and access to relevant materials in Europe for their own archives.
Collaborator Contribution From the inception of the project, Citra Research Centre has been an Associate Partner and has contributed their expertise during the DECOSEAS workshops and the building of the metadata model of the Knowledgebase. This time, they will be hosting the final tranche of fellows from South East Asia - giving the chosen fellow access to their archives and expert knowledge from their staff.
Impact Projected outcomes of the fellowship will be based on the research proposal of the fellow.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Irama Nusantara as host for DECOSEAS 3-month Research Fellowship 
Organisation Multimedia Nusantara University
Country Indonesia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Working with their technical team in streamlining/organizing their own sound archives and access to relevant materials in Europe for their own archives. Decoseas also hosted a staff member of Irama Nusantara to a 3-month fellowship to the Dutch Archives of Sound and Vision in 2022.
Collaborator Contribution From the inception of the project, Irama Nusantara has been an Associate Partner and has contributed their expertise during the DECOSEAS workshops and the building of the metadata model of the Knowledgebase. This time, they will be hosting the final tranche of fellows from South East Asia - giving the chosen fellow access to their archives and expert knowledge from their staff.
Impact Projected outcomes of the fellowship will be based on the research proposal of the fellow.
Start Year 2023
 
Description MyArchives Malaysia 
Organisation Monash University
Department Malaysia Campus
Country Malaysia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Creating a conversation with MYArchives so we can assess their needs in terms of knowledge transfer and enriching each other's aggregating datasets. The UK research team has also conducted a workshop with MyArchives on how to set up an OMEKA site. The workshop resulted in an actual test site with server space purchased by the UK Decoseas team that MyArchives can use for testing.
Collaborator Contribution MyArchives (Malaysian Audio-Visual Archives) is a project developed by the ICTM National Committee of Malaysia under the auspices of the International Council for Traditional Music. This project consists of a digital archive of performing arts developed through the joint efforts of scholars, performers and researchers focusing on traditions, past and present. The material is preserved in digital format for the purposes of research, sustainability and viability of the performing arts of the country.Myarchives gave a presentation of its work, goals and needs in the DECOSEAS workshop series. This will be used by the project for needs assessment.
Impact Presentation in the Workshop series March 10 2022 Collaboration in a Conference Panel for the 46th ICTM World Conference (Lisbon, July 2022). Omeka site set up for MyArchives
Start Year 2021
 
Description National Library of Laos Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change 
Organisation National Library of Laos
Country Lao People's Democratic Republic 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution National Library of Laos Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change
Collaborator Contribution Creating a conversation with the Library so we can assess their needs in terms of knowledge transfer and enriching each other's aggregating datasets.
Impact Seminar Presentation to the Research consortium with ongoing conversations on how we can make sound datasets accessible to them.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Penang House of Music as host for DECOSEAS 3-month Research Fellowship 
Organisation Government of Malaysia
Country Malaysia 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Working with their technical team in streamlining/organizing their own sound archives and access to relevant materials in Europe for their own archives.
Collaborator Contribution From the inception of the project, Penang House of Music has been an Associate Partner and has contributed their expertise during the DECOSEAS workshops and the building of the metadata model of the Knowledgebase. This time, they will be hosting the final tranche of fellows from South East Asia - giving the chosen fellow access to their archives and expert knowledge from their staff.
Impact Projected outcomes of the fellowship will be based on the research proposal of the fellow.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology (UPCE) 
Organisation University of the Philippines
Country Philippines 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Creating a conversation with UPCE so we can assess their needs in terms of knowledge transfer and enriching each other's aggregating datasets.
Collaborator Contribution UP CENTER FOR ETHNOMUSICOLOGY is a center for music research with material collections on the musics and musical traditions in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and representative areas from other continents. UPCE gave a presentation of its work, goals and needs in the DECOSEAS workshop series. This will be used by the project for needs assessment.
Impact Seminar Presentation to the Research consortium on 2021.12.10 Collaboration in a Conference Panel for the 46th ICTM World Conference (Lisbon, July 2022).
Start Year 2021
 
Title Aggregation of International sound archives of CNRS / Musée de l'Homme - Paris 
Description Aggregating platform for the CNRS and the DECOSEAS site. The International sound archives of CNRS / Musée de l'Homme encompass field recordings of music and oral traditions from around the world, from 1900 to the present. The establishment of these archives represents a long process begun by the musicologist André Schaeffner in the 1930s to collect, organize and archive audio recordings such as the Paris Universal Exhibition cylinders (1900). These audio materials were preserved in the newly established Phonothèque in the Département d'Ethnologie Musicale of the Musée d'ethnographie du Trocadero in Paris. In 1937, the Musée d'ethnographie became the new Musée de l'Homme. In 2009, the Musée de l'Homme was closed for renovations, and the audiotapes transferred to the French National Library, where the digitizing process has come to an end and put online through the Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (CREM). Today, around 30 000 audio and video files are available online for a wide audience, including ca. 3 500 recordings from Southeast Asia and Austronesian World (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua), with main collectors being Jose Maceda, Nicole Revel, Georges Condominas, Louis Berthe, Jacques Dournes, Dana Rappoport, etc. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact The site is still in development. 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/s/all/item
 
Title Customized CMS metadata models 
Description A highly customized CMS platform based on Omeka. The customization was a result of debates within the research consortium around metadata models for Sound categories and genres. It has also allowed for the Toraja website (migration of a Flash application to an web open source technology) •Migration from flash interface to web site •Preparation of 10,000 data files for migration to the EHESS research data repository, Didomena https://didomena.ehess.fr/?locale=en We have also worked with a choice of a logicist reasoning visualization •Preparation of audio and visual data •Creation of specifications for the production of a website •Choice of partners (It, Designer, Ux, hosting university) 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact The customization of the metadata fields has allowed the three discovering partnerships to input data without the colonial categories of authorship or scale models that are eurocentric. https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/admin/item. Each member of the consortium has been adding data to the CMS as our research continues. 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/admin/item
 
Title Decolonizing South East Asian Sound Archives Portal site 
Description The web application tool is an informational hub that gives details on the initiatives and research outputs of the project. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact We have been able to use the blog feature of the site to post real time talks and engagements, as well as announce fellowships and calls for proposals through the site. 
URL http://decoseas.org
 
Title Jaap Kunst 
Description The web application is a knwledgebase of The Jaap Kunst collection, located in Amsterdam under the curatorship of Barbara Titus. The Jaap Kunst is an ethnographic sound collection. Jaap Kunst (1891-1960) recorded a wealth of music and sound from the Dutch East Indies between 1919 and 1934 of more than 400 of wax cylinders. His collecting methods adhered to colonial stratifications of society and the scientific (archeological and botanical) classification norms of the time. His collection contains anonymized sound specimens representing distinct and timeless cultures. Collecting and classifying the peoples that inhabited the empire was intended to bolster the notion of it as empire. These methods were seminal to the development of a new scholarly practice (ethnomusicology) that is currently established as an academic discipline throughout the world, and of which Kunst is widely considered to be a "founding father". His sound archive has been digitized in the Phonogrammarchiv in Berlin, but was not available online. Since Kunst recorded music from the entire archipelago under Dutch rule, the collection has raised the interest of national Indonesian institutions (Museum Nasional [AP]) and government (Ministry of Culture and Education) since it is considered representative for the current Indonesian nation state whose borders coincide with those of the Dutch East Indies. The digital platform seeks to make the Jaap Kunst sound collection discoverable but also enriched through the creation of correlating links to Jaap Kunst letters and photos related to the individual sound recordings. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact This web tool is still in development, but its prototype is undergoing testing by consortium partners in South East Asia. Because of the access granted by the site, the project has been able to gather fellowship proposals based on accessing the Jaap Kunst materials. 
 
Title Redesign and Addition of Features to the Informational Website 
Description The consortium partners worked on adding functionalities to the website to create greater engagement with the general public through interlinked blog posts and news stories. After a series of user testing with the partners in South East Asia, we decided to create a way for partners in South East Asia to post news and information on the site. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact This development allowed for greater engagement with the partners in South East Asia. 
URL https://www.decoseas.org/news/
 
Title Songs of the thrice-blooded land-Ritual music from Toraja 
Description The digital platform and mobile application is a retooling of a collection of almost extinct ritual music of the Toraja from Sulawesi in Indonesia recorded by Dana Rappoport between 1991 and 2005, shaped into an interactive multimedia website formatted from a now obsolete DVD. The platform will showcase a unique online study of the ritual music of the Toraja people in Sulawesi - musical heritage that belongs to Austronesian cultural stratum established in Indonesia around 3000 BCE, now on the brink of extinction. The anthology, published in 2009, gives access to pre-colonial and pre-Christian Torajan music, practiced by only 5% of Toraja people resisting Christian and colonial cultural impositions. It presents an entire ritual cycle: 40 hours of songs and poems, translated into three languages (Indonesian, English, French) and accompanied by extensive documentary material (2000 photographs and 120 minutes of video). 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Still in development, the multi-media platform will allow for access to the video and its recordings from Songs of the thrice-blooded land . The intended audience - focussing more on the culture bearers in Indonesia, has shaped the direction of the platform towards being mobile-friendly. ( A majority of users of digital technology use their mobile phones to access information). 
 
Title Soundscapes of Empire ( this site is still under development) 
Description Soundscapes of Empire ( BBC Broadcasts to and About South East Asia) gathered and instigated by Cristina Juan hold a diversity of recorded broadcasts. It includes recordings among others, of broadcasts by the BBC Empire Service to the Far East. Started in 1932, the BBC Empire Service occasionally recorded their broadcasts, often to enable recordings to be broadcast at different times. The audience to which the Empire Service broadcast was extremely diverse and transnational. Radio could be received beyond imperial borders. At the same time, broadcasts were tailored to the social and racial stratifications that featured colonial society, observing strict compartmentalization between colonial settlers, "natives", and local upper classes, and between languages. Recordings were expensive and only done for practical reasons. The idea that some recordings were important to keep for longer term re-use or historical reasons developed gradually and inconsistently across the BBC. Hence the recorded material is selective, but enables us to listen to voices that might otherwise remain unheard: commercially viable popular music of the time, political rallies, debates, voice inflections and sonic postures that positioned colonial subjects socially and ideologically - ranging from Cantonese opera concerts in Singapore to Indonesian president Sukarno's Independence Speech, and reports on European refugees during WWII in SE Asia f.e. The broadcasts make us hear the formative political events as much as the every-day life of people within and outside the British imperial sphere during late colonialism and early postcolonialism (1930s-1950s). There have been a number of preservation and digitization initiatives as the BBC transitions to an "open archive". 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Currently, the site is in development as we continue to gather materials that relate to the BBC in South East Asia from 1932-1960. Most of the sound archives are stored at the British Library, but as noted by Paul Wilson of the British Library, 40 percent of these materials remain uncatalogued. We are working with the British Library curators to synch the BBC archive accession numbers with the descriptions on recording labels as well as the BBC paper catalogs. We are also looking into the written archives at Caversham as well as residual recordings at the BBC Sound Archives to write a more detailed narrative of the history and reach of BBC broadcasts to South East Asia. 
URL https://omekas.seasia-hearing.org/s/bbc-sea/page/welcome
 
Title South East Asia Hearing Aggregated Knowledgebase 
Description A digital platform aggregating the newly disclosed collections ( Jaap Kunst Collection, the BBC Soundscapes of Empire and the CNRS ) with access to other digital sound archives in Southeast Asia and Europe. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact This is a test site in development by the DECOSEAS consortium. Southeast Asia Hearing is a digital platform that provides access to three unique, rare, fand previously barely accessible sonic and musical collections from Southeast Asia located in Europe, namely: - The Jaap Kunst Collection (NL), - The BBC Empire Service broadcasts (UK), - The CNRS /Musée de l'Homme sound archives, and the Toraja collection (FR), The collections are put together in a common model designed in partnership with scholars, artists, local societies from Southeast Asia. The platform therefore innovates with a new digital curational framework thought collaboratively. The Southeast Asia Hearing portal has been built for broader interactions with external contributors. In order to optimize open access and user-friendliness, Southeast Asia Hearing enables internet users in Southeast Asia, not only to consult the material, but also to enrich the collections' meta-data. It therefore allows the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people in Southeast Asia and diasporic communities either in Europe or elsewhere, transferring curatorial agency to these stakeholders. Through the online constellation of material, visitors are able to employ the material for their own ends and get in touch with each other, building a community of academic and non-academic experts on the virtually presented sonic material. The Southeast Asia Hearing platform aims at gathering material from SEA both other European sound archives, as well as Southeast Asian sound archives, positioning itself as a discussion platform about access to, agency over, and dialogue about heritage curation and participation. It builds on existing expertise with metadata aggregation and multilingualism of the europeana.eu project, and it conforms to intellectual property rules concerning public domain data such as the "Rights Labelling Guidelines". While working closely with europeana.eu partners, the Southeast Asia Hearing portal has the objective to accentuate curatorial practices that might be unarticulated within mainstream Europe-based heritage discourses. The digital platform Southeast Asia Hearing is part of the transnational DeCoSEAS (Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives) research project, funded by JPI-CH (see Institutions and Partners). It executes the project's objective of renegotiation of established understandings of heritage curation. Through Southeast Asia Hearing among other working packages, DeCoSEAS is a pilot study to adopt a knowledge chain with three formative orientation points: the improvement of access to heritage, the transfer of agency to stakeholders of heritage, and the diversification of the dialogue about heritage curation, while interrogating the colonial patrimony of archives. The collaborative digital curation, online access, and community building will enable the DeCoSEAS team and the global academic community in heritage studies to implement changes in the curation of cultural heritage by adjusting criteria for inclusion and exclusion and for the establishment of taxonomic archival categories. The focus on the sound that can be heard, sonically adapted and reiterated by many actors simultaneously, both individually and collectively, secures this rethinking of heritage curation as polyphonous and time-bound. DeCoSEAS, therefore, employs a paradigm-shifting methodological approach focused on hearing and listening as dialogical modes of knowledge formation. The project strives for the inclusion of voices, stances, and interpretations that have hitherto remained unheard in existing discourses about heritage by attending to multiple, time-bound and intricately entangled voices simultaneously (those recorded from the past and those from SE Asian partners today). The objectives constitute DeCoSEAS envisaged decolonization of heritage curation that acutely responds to current public and academic debates on de/colonization and heritage restitution. These action plans, aim to provide new insights into new practices of heritage curation and participation. 
URL https://decoseas.lsd.tn/search
 
Description "Racialization and Colonial Experiences," at the conference "Diasporic Futures: Sinophobia, Techno-Political Strife, and the Politics of Care." 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Organized by the Asian-American Research Center at UC Berkeley. San Francisco, 11 November 2022, Prof Lee gave an introduction to the Project as a case study in Digital Repatriation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS)' Contribution to the Roundtable 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Titus, Barbara 2021. 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS)' Contribution to the Roundtable Archival Processes and Social and Historical Practices of Listening at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference Atlanta (USA) [online].
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives' Contribution 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives' Contribution to the panel Activism, Academic Research and Decoloniality at the conference The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past, Amsterdam Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam (NL).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description 3-day Formal Working Group on Decolonising South East Asian Sound Archives in Cavite, Philippines 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact In August 2022, partners and media practitioners from all over South East Asia, gathered at a three-day working symposium on the theoretical and practical steps that need to be taken toward decolonizing South East Asian sound archiving. The workshop was able to gather a consensus on the real needs of sound archivists from the region as they try to get access to or engage with both colonial archives deposited in the West, but also their own regional and trans-regional archives. The workshop resulted in a draft Manifesto for South East Asian Sound archivists, and a collaboratively produced metadata structure for knowledgebases.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Archives and Anthropology Workshop : Sound Archiving and Pratinada Platform, Universitas Indonesia 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Anthropological studies rarely make use of sound archives, despite their value as historical sources. The neglect arises from the absence of systematic documentation activities on the numerous recordings made by prior anthropologists/ethnomusicologists. In addition, researchers in ex-colonial state frequently encounter difficulties accessing record archives due to the closure of vital resources that have been created in Western countries with established archive infrastructure and institutions. This session provide an introduction to the significance of sound archives in the field of anthropology and the activities of Pratinada, an archiving platform that has been developed as part of the Decolonizing Sound in Southeast Asia project (DECOSEAS).

The Workshop is organized by Imam Ardhianto, Hestu Prahara (Universitas Indonesia), Pierre Prouteau (Nanterre University) and Joséphine Simonnot (PRISM, CNRS).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04764239
 
Description DeCoSEAS Archives Committee 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact DeCoSEAS Archives Committee kicked off its activities in october 2024 with a training session on licensing opportunities for digital heritage and a debate on the ethical and legal issues surrounding the sound archives available online on the pratinada.net common portal. The discussion led to the creation of the platform's "Ethical and legal usage" page : https://pratinada.net/legal

The license chosen for the Jaap Kunst archives is << No Copyright - Other Legal Restrictions >> from the Rights Statements organization:

https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-OKLR/1.0/?language=en
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.decoseas.org/news/decoseas-archives-committee/
 
Description DeCoSEAS Workshop 2023 in Kuala Lumpur 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The DeCoSEAS consortium gathered in person for the second time for a five-day workshop in August in Kuala Lumpur. Our consortium partner, Prof. Mayco Santaella, at Sunway University, graciously hosted us. During the workshop, DeCoSEAS partners discussed the various work packages embedded in the project. Among other activities, the team paid a courtesy visit to the Arkib Negara Malaysia (National Archive of Malaysia) and forged a possible future partnership.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.decoseas.org/workshop/report-decoseas-workshop-2023-in-kuala-lumpur/
 
Description DeCoSEAS Workshop 2024 (Bali). Organized with Citra Research Center. 1-6 July 2024. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact This was the culminating event for the DECOSEAS project. In it we published a manifesto, planned for future engagements and set up committees as working groups to maintain the work and seek further funding.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.decoseas.org/events/report-decoseas-bali-workshop-2023/
 
Description DeCoSEAS bi-weekly Seminar Series November 2021 - May 2022. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Institutional Partners as well as other potential partners were able to gather together to discuss particular. problems related to accessing sound archives or using these for engagement with source communities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Digital Repatriation of Sound Archives to Peliatan Theater Group, Bali Indonesia 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A small handover ceremony reunited the BBC recordings of Anak Agung Gde Mandera and his band's 1952 performance at the Winter Garden, London, with his son, Anak Agung. The recordings were made available by the BBC through a copyright agreement and given to Balerung Peliatan, a traditional theatre group in Bali, Indonesia.

The handover also sparked discussions on future digital repatriation requests. The BBC's copyright officer directed the group to an official pathway within the BBC's policies, which allows direct descendants of recorded artists to request repatriation of archival recordings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/contributor-access-application-form/#/Eligibility
 
Description Digital Repatriation of Sound Archives to the Tboli, Lake Sebu, Philippines 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Decoding sounds and remembering old friends triggers new, bittersweet memories as Benjie Manuel and Maria Todi both members of Tboli cooperatives, listen to a few of an Englishwoman's (Billie Riley) repatriated recordings of speeches and chants from the late 1970's. Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. January 2024
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://vimeo.com/914416726/eaacba7d1e?share=copy
 
Description Digital Reptriation of Jaap Kunst Collection to East Nusa Tenggara Archive and Library Service 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Jaap Kunst Collection at the University of Amsterdam were restituted digitally to the Government of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) through the NTT Archive and Library Service (Dinas Kearsipan dan Perpustakaan NTT). The Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC) with dr. Dominggus Elcid Li (Executive Director) and Ragil Sukriwul (Director of Arts and Culture) were the driving forces behind this handover. It is a milestone in ongoing attempts to reconnect heritage collected and transported in colonial times (in this case, in the Dutch East Indies of the 1930s) with source community stakeholders in Indonesia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.decoseas.org/events/digital-reptriation-of-jaap-kunst-collection-to-east-nusa-tenggara-a...
 
Description Hoebe, Marleen 2021. Interview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Hoebe, Marleen 2021. "Twee UvA'ers proberen beroemd geluidsarchief weer bijeen te brengen" Interview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo, Folia (7 May).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Intersections of ethnography and historiography 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Titus, Barbara 2021. 'Intersections of ethnography and historiography in the constitution of sound archives from Indonesia' at the Symposium Rethinking the History of Indonesian Music, University of California, Davis (USA)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Interview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo, NRC Cultureel Supplement 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Gandolahage, Rahul 2021. "Grote archieven koloniale geluiden amper toegankelijk" Interview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo, NRC Cultureel Supplement (25 February), C14-15.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Launch Event of 3 DeCoSEAS Websites 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In this online event attended by 150 people, Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS) launched its three new websites/knowledgebases to the public.At the launch event, the three websites/knowledge bases were introduced, the curators and developers gave interviews , stakeholders gave their user reviews, and issues and recommendations were discussed with the broader audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.decoseas.org/events/launch-of-3-decoseas-websites/
 
Description Layan Nijem, inspirational speaker at EuroSEAS 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Layan Nijem, DECOSEAS' project coordinator, presented the project's achievements, highlighting its methodologies, partnerships, and impacts. Through collaborative approaches to sound archives in/from Southeast Asia, the presentation outlines DeCoSEAS' commitment to decolonization in actuality beyond mere theorization. This was presented at the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS) 2024 conference in Amsterdam.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://euroseas2024.org/program/inspirationalspeakers
 
Description Omeka and Wordpress Workshop with Tboli High School Students 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Dr Cristina Juan did 2 workshops at the Sbu High School for Indigenous Peoples by presenting a film and collective editing and did several sessions on creating digital tools. At Tboli Lake Sbu IP School and some guests.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1834369273661863&set=pcb.1834370290328428
 
Description Omeka workshop with Malaysian Partners 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The Omeka workshop was conducted as a partner led participants experience and expectations. Determine goals. Refine content around reaching those goals. Break up concepts and tasks to learn in a logical order.
Slide preparation Organise content into a sequence of slides with visual aides to assist understanding. Make slides functional with all the links working. Write up a simple one page summary that can be referenced later by students.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Press Release on Repatriating Jaap Kunst Recordings 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact "UvA returns sound recordings and film footage from colonial collection to Indonesia" an online article published on the University of Amsterdam Website (October 2024).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/faculteiten/en/faculteit-der-geesteswetenschappen/news/2024/10/...
 
Description Radio Show 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An audio feature show was aired on Deutschlandfunk (German National Radio) on the topic of Archive as Resistance. mele yamomo was interviewed by Emilie Sophie Beha on the DECOSEAS project. As an example of restitution of sound and body, the simultaneous singing voice of Sri Margana and Raden Mas Jodjana was included in the piece.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/suche?drsearch:searchText=yamomo&drsearch:from-date=&drsearch:to-date...
 
Description Reconnecting material culture with source cultures for Frankfurt museum 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Working with an early 20th century sound instrument from the Frankfurt Museum in Germany, we reconnected this instrument in storage with Ms Vicky Macay of the Ibaloi Center in Baguio, Philippines. In this video, she teaches the audience how the Pakkung is used to produce sound and its vital connection to Ibaloi way of life and their material culture. The video became part of the Sound Sources. Everything is Music Exhibit at th e
Weltkulturen Museum 11 Novembre 2023 - 1 Septembre 2024. https://www.museumsufer.de/en/exhibitions-und-events/exhibitions/klangquellen-everything-is-music/
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://vimeo.com/914416726/eaacba7d1e?share=copy
 
Description Roundtable Discussion on Archival Practice at the International Council for Traditional Music 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The roundtable discussion on revisiting Archival Practices Of Southeast Asian Heritage: Repatriation, Access, And Community Engagement was presented to an audience of Ethnomusicologists from all over the world. There was a lot of interest sparked by the presentations on digital repatriation and community engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://ictmusic.org/ictm2022/programme
 
Description Seminar with SOAS Postgraduate Students Sonic Interventions: Reparative Approaches to Decolonizing South East Asian Sound Archives 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Dr Cristina Juan discusses reparative approaches to dealing with Sound archives.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Sonic Entaglements Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The Untangling Philippine Sound, Archive, and Knowledge Workshop, led by Mele Yamomo, held on August 5-6, 2023 featured the sound archives and theoretical reflections of a diverse group of scholars, engineers, and musicians. The workshop aimed to explore and interrogate the scientific, academic, cultural, and social knowledge embedded in Philippine sound recordings. This workshop was organized in conjunction with the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research - Sonic Entanglements Project and the UP Center for Ethnomusicology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.decoseas.org/initiatives/outreach/untangling-sound/
 
Description Sonic Returns- Repatriating Sounds in Exile 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Several events in a series called Sonic Returns. First at SOAS University of London. Prof. Verne de la Peña (Tunog At Tinig) who presented the repatriation project of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. This will be followed by a conversation between MeLê Yamomo (PI Sonic Entanglements/DeCoSEAS) and Cristina Juan (PI-UK, Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives - Decoseas) about their work on the digitization work on Southeast Asian historical sound recordings and their ongoing initiatives for sound repatriation.

The rest of the series were archival encounters, lectures, and panel discussions at the BBC/British Library, CNRS France, Jaap Kunst Ethnomusicology Collection, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Berlin Phonogram Archive, Sound Archive of Humboldt University-Berlin.
Sonic Returns mediate in the repatriation of sounds on exile.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://sonic-entanglements.com/sonic-returns/?fbclid=IwAR1Tj0uEGFsHo7pJZjBBlDBzhLCaQ1B-7k4Ql-leFh4h...
 
Description What to do with field recordings? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Dana Rappoport, 2021 What to do with field recordings ? American Institute for Indonesian Studies, www.aifis.org, Michigan State University (MSU), 22th June, 2021
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description You tube Channel with over 15K views 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Youtube channel in total has amassed over 15,000 views, exposing general audiences and interested researchers to the largely undocumented musical traditions of these communities. It serves as not only an archive of sounds, instruments, perspectives, and musical practices to be used by researchers but also as a practice-based ethnographic research project.

The "Atauro's Heritage Timor-Leste" Youtube channel is a part of a larger project by Dana Rappoport, an Ethnomusicologist at the French Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Paris, to catalogue and analyze the musical heritage of Atauro Island, Timor Leste. This data was collected from 2019-2023, and includes recordings of dances, musical performances, and other rituals and cultural events with a musical component. This project catalogues not only the musical performances themselves, but also centers them within their cultural context through interviews with practitioners and other ethnographic methods.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.youtube.com/@atauropopeitimor-leste3716