Introduction

This introduction establishes the intellectual parameters that run through this book. The meeting of the archive and cultural technologies of the digital world extend both personal and social memory. In an archive like that of the Strehlow Collection, the artefacts and archives pose challenges where cultural values of the secret and sacred in Aboriginal cultural traditions sit alongside “open” records. This disconnect can cause angst among managers and users alike and needs to be negotiated. This chapter will summarize the main arguments and themes of the book and how contemporary thinkers in media archaeology and medium theory offer ways to rethink the archive. Each chapter is introduced and summarized. The book tracks the consequences when the maintenance and preservation of the past through artefacts and documents is re-imagined in the worlds of databases and new media.