Reclaiming Memory

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Reclaiming Memory  how can Caribbean archives
contribute ?

• A Martinican example
• Dominique Taffin, Archives départementales de la
  Martinique

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I The rise of historical consciousness1.1 An
overview of Martinique

• 403 000 inhabitants
• A French territory since 1635
• From the colonial status to that of overseas
  region
• Citizenship since 1848

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1.2 Public history history as a leisure or as a
need?

• 1.2.1 Searching and teaching history in
  Martinique from the XIXth c. to present
• 1.2.2 New practices Amateurs and general
  public, genealogy

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1.2 Public history history as a leisure or as a
need?

• We were never taught our history the our
  ancestors, the Gauls syndrome
• Teaching Martinican and Caribbean History at
  school
• Decolonization, nationalism and identity the
  role of history
• The slavery issue

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1.2 Public history history as a leisure or as a
need?

• 1.2.5 New practices Amateurs and general
  public, Genealogy
• First clubs the béké club
• The migrants club
• Local clubs family history, friends of
  Archives

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II First responses of Archives to the demand

• 2.1 Flashback on the history of archives in
  Martinique
• 2.2 New directions for outreach since 2000
• 2.2.1 Knowing more about the audience
• 2.2.2 The action plan
• 2.3 Outreach programs in education
• 2.4 Outreach programs for the general public
• 2.5 Assessing outcomes

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2.1 Flashback on the history of archives in
Martinique

• Established 1949, building in 1973, extended 1998
• Most old documents kept overseas
• Educational programs since the beginning
• But keeping themselves beside the public debate
  on history and its public usages

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2.2 New directions for outreach since 2000

• 2.2.1 Knowing more about the audience
• Reading-room users
• Visitors
• 2.2.2 The action plan

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2.2 New directions for outreach since 2000

• 2.2.1 Knowing more about the audience
• 2.2.2 The action plan
• how to reach new audience and reflect social
  diversity in the use of archives
• How to address the urgent claims for memory
• How to develop trust and make the Archives the
  Archives of the people outreach and donors

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2.3 Outreach programs in education

• Meetings with the teachers
• The 2007 conference on  teaching history in the
  Caribbean 
• Visits and workshops with schoolchildren
• Publication of educational thematic books
• Indian immigration
• Women
• World War I

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2.4 Outreach programs for the general public

• Exhibitions
• Free colored people,
• Catholic church and popular religion

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Conferences, presentations
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2.5 Assessment

• Success of the education program
• Improvement of the media image of the Archives
• Exhibitions
• What is left to do
• Moving from an  elite  audience to a popular
  audience
• Developing traveling exhibitions
• Conferences targeting public expectations

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III New perspectives

• The Banque numérique des patrimoines martiniquais
• The Martinican cultural Heritage Portal

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3.1 Goals

• 3.1.1 External objectives
• a way to reach our distant public
• a response to the urging demand for direct access
  to documents and knowledge an ATM to history
  and culture?
• reaching a younger audience
• tuning old world notion of cultural heritage
  with a new world approach

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3.1 Purpose and objectives

• 3.1.2 Internal objectives
• Revising our notion of Archives resource
  services
• Refining the skills of the staff in interacting
  with the public
• Learning how to work together with people having
  other skills

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3.2 Merging access strategies to cultural heritage

• 3.2.1 Archives, historical landmarks, artworks,
  untangible heritage altogether in one portal
• 3.2.2 Networking and partnership wanted!

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3.3 A tentative user-friendly approach

• Integrating a GIS system
• Easy search and filtered search
• Multilevel approach for different audiences
  general public, specialists, education
• Collaborative indexation

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The GIS
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A multilevel approach for different audiences
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A multilevel approach for different audiences
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Collaborative indexation
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As a conclusion

• A renewed reflection on our 2002 outreach
  objectives
• network and partnership a better investigation
  on the social networks, and now the virtual ones
  that Facebook etc. have allowed
• a deeper impact assessment of our actual audience
  so as to keep up with priorities of action
• An efficient communication
• And, above all, keeping from routine!

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Thank you for your attention. Look forward to
your questions

• Dominique Taffin, Archives départementales,
  taffin_at_cg972.fr