Diana K. Wakimoto, Christine Bruce, and Helen Partridge, “Archivist as activist: lessons from three queer community archives in California”

This paper by Wakimoto et. al. explores the idea of activism in archives and examines how activism is used in three queer community archives. It details the expansion of the role of the archivist, which connects to the Kreps article on the expansion of the curatorial role. It is maintained that the role of the archivist is to preserve accountability and evidence as an impartial record-keeper. Instead of being passive, the archivist should challenge discrimination and be involved in social justice. One form of activism that community archivists should engage in is to be mindful of appropriate language use and descriptive practices by continuing to connect with community members and community archivists.

Community archives are distinguished from other archives by their emphasis on representing marginalized groups. They also depend on donations, so they reflect specific community interests. The queer community archives are vital in creating and sustaining community memories. Curation in these archives is a conscious political statement in itself, as it serves to rectify the historic exclusion of queer narratives. These queer community archives illustrate the importance of personal collecting to preserving queer community history. They offer public programming in order to increase audience accessibility and visibility, and they maintain ongoing community involvement to ensure that diverse voices are heard.

The paper also challenges the neutral status of archivists. This argument reminded me of an article that contained a plea for and a caution against scientists running for political positions. The concern was that having more scientists in politics would change the perspective of scientists from being neutral, impartial keepers of evidence. However, Wakimoto et. al. offers a contrasting position to this argument, stating that: “…archivists who are concerned with preserving the diversity of voices in the archives… must be activists in creating and collecting records.” There is a call for the archivist’s role to involve a greater focus on “outreach, communities, and activism”.