Description:
Burma Archives Project
"In the early morning on the day of my house arrest [July 20
1989], a hundred or so armed military personnel surrounded my
house. Why they didn?t immediately enter the compound I don?t
know, but those extra hours gave my wife and other family
members the time to tear up and flush down the toilet every NLD
document, letter and address that was in my office."
Early summer ?98 a group of Burma related librarians, scholars,
journalists and activists, together with IISH? Asia Department
launched the Burma Archives Project.
The Burma Archives Project exists to support and actively encourage
the compilation, collection and safe preservation of documentation -in
written and audiovisual form - particularly, but not exclusively, of
material on Burma deriving from the 1980s onwards. A coordinated
effort is needed to seek out material such as posters, photographs,
pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, memoirs, political and ethnic
groups? records. The creation of archives that preserve what has been
called the ?collective memory of development? - material documenting
social movements and social transformation, minority peoples and
other subjects relevant to civil society - is essential to Burma?s future
development.
The International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam
offers a safe archival repository for the preservation of such material.
Members of the Burma Archives Project (academics, librarians, and
independent scholars and researchers) are concerned to use their
contacts and expertise to help locate material and to ensure, on behalf
of the individual or group from which it emanates, that it is
safeguarded. It is planned that, as material accumulates, archival and
conservation training and assistance can be given to those from whom
the material originates, and that research, documentation and
publication projects will develop.
The Burma Archives Newsletter is designed to keep BAP members
in touch with latest developments and to become a forum for the
exchange of ideas and reports on progress.
For more information, please contact the Asia Department at
[email protected]
Source/publisher:
International Institute for Social History, Amsterdaam
Date of entry:
2010-11-16
Grouping:
- Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Language:
English