Tlou Setumu Inclusion of rural communities in national archival and records system: a case study of Blouberg-Makgabeng-Senwabarwana area Tlou Setumu (PhD) generally poor, less educated and underdeveloped. As Robben Island Museum a result, they are constantly involved in day-to-day
[email protected] struggles for survival, hindering them from participating in archiving activities. Abstract Key words: community participation, national archival and records system, Previously colonised, marginalised communities Blouberg-Makgabeng-Senwabarwana (BMS) rarely participate in the mainstream archival and area, indigenous communities records systems throughout the world. Archiving as it is known today is preserving records on paper, electronic, audio-visual and microfilm formats. These Introduction media were not present in the pre-colonial era hence the stories, histories and heritage of most The current archival records preserved in communities, such as those in Africa, are not South Africa’s mainstream archives largely represented in the mainstream archives. The African consist of documents and materials which tradition had always been oral in which stories and were generated after the arrival of heritage are transmitted and preserved by word of Europeans in this part of the world. These mouth. The purpose of this paper is to identify the records, which are stored in archives in factors such as the non-keeping of written records paper, electronic, audio-visual and microfilm which had been preventing previously colonised formats, reflect very little about the communities from participating in archiving their indigenous communities. That is because of histories. The paper seeks to find ways in which such the historical phenomena and factors which communities could be galvanised into participating in will be investigated and unpacked in this the mainstream archival and records systems.