Archives Assemble! Activating the archives to collaboratively reimagine volcanic geoheritage
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Environmental Sciences
Abstract
Our research during Curating Crises has shown that the memories and 'lessons learned' of past volcanic crises get lost because they are fragmented across archives, governments and countries. Furthermore, archival fragmentation makes it difficult to realise the heritage value of past geocultural events. We have seen that communities at risk value archival integration, especially when it demonstrates their own cultural responses and lived experiences of risk. Until Curating Crises, many of these experiences and contributions were buried in specialist or personal archives, including the physical notebooks and correspondence of scientists and government officials.
Through this work an opportunity has arisen to create and mobilise an enhanced cultural archive of volcanic eruptions and unrest in Montserrat (Eastern Caribbean) that can greatly contribute to the island's cultural and heritage development. We contend that repatriating archival materials via accessible digital repositories can be particularly impactful when materials are integrated around significant historical events. The main aim of the project will be to integrate and make visible in new ways the impacts and experiences of the 1990s eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, in a way which directly contributes to geocultural development and commemoration around its 30th anniversary. This will serve as a 'proof of concept' for new ways of archiving and remembering past volcanic crises, and this project will be a testbed for further collaborative work spanning the longer history of volcanic unrest in Montserrat and in the wider Eastern Caribbean region.
New partnerships developed during Curating Crises have the potential to transform record-keeping and digital archival practice in Montserrat, and our aims align with aspirations on Montserrat to develop a new National Archive Facility and to maximise volcanic geoheritage. We aim to test that potential by developing an event-based logic for digitisation, archival repatriation and public sharing which will serve as a proof-of-concept not only for other historical volcanic events which we have studied, but also for the digitisation and sharing of Montserrat's wider political and cultural archives.
By capitalising on this unique moment of commemoration and partnership-building, the project will: (1) digitally integrate disparate archival collections held physically in the UK, US and Montserrat, capitalising on emerging relationships between project partners and the Digital Library of the Caribbean; (2) emphasise the value of and inform geoheritage developments on the island, particularly the proposed development of the Caribbean's first Geopark; (3) inspire new creative responses to the island's geoheritage that shed light on both the stories contained within the archives, and their silences.
Through this work an opportunity has arisen to create and mobilise an enhanced cultural archive of volcanic eruptions and unrest in Montserrat (Eastern Caribbean) that can greatly contribute to the island's cultural and heritage development. We contend that repatriating archival materials via accessible digital repositories can be particularly impactful when materials are integrated around significant historical events. The main aim of the project will be to integrate and make visible in new ways the impacts and experiences of the 1990s eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, in a way which directly contributes to geocultural development and commemoration around its 30th anniversary. This will serve as a 'proof of concept' for new ways of archiving and remembering past volcanic crises, and this project will be a testbed for further collaborative work spanning the longer history of volcanic unrest in Montserrat and in the wider Eastern Caribbean region.
New partnerships developed during Curating Crises have the potential to transform record-keeping and digital archival practice in Montserrat, and our aims align with aspirations on Montserrat to develop a new National Archive Facility and to maximise volcanic geoheritage. We aim to test that potential by developing an event-based logic for digitisation, archival repatriation and public sharing which will serve as a proof-of-concept not only for other historical volcanic events which we have studied, but also for the digitisation and sharing of Montserrat's wider political and cultural archives.
By capitalising on this unique moment of commemoration and partnership-building, the project will: (1) digitally integrate disparate archival collections held physically in the UK, US and Montserrat, capitalising on emerging relationships between project partners and the Digital Library of the Caribbean; (2) emphasise the value of and inform geoheritage developments on the island, particularly the proposed development of the Caribbean's first Geopark; (3) inspire new creative responses to the island's geoheritage that shed light on both the stories contained within the archives, and their silences.
