Paper short abstract:

Following the returning of British anthropologist, Gregory Bateson's archives to the Iatmul communities where he worked, I will explore how putting in discussion the “archive” and the “field” provoke frictions with the status of the archives are interrogate what can be done with them.

Paper long abstract:

Working both with the “archives” (Library of Congress, Washington D.C., US and University of Cambridge, UK) and in the “field” (Iatmul region, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea), my project forces me to rethink the boundaries between historical and ethnographic methods. Driven by the desire to highlight past and present marginalised voices and epistemologies, I investigate how bringing an ethnographic sensitivity to the archive cracks open its apparent dryness and intends to listen to the humans behind the documents. Against the vision of archival interpretation as a solitary practice, the return of archives to the related communities showcases overlaps, tensions and frictions between my own understandings of the “Archive” as defined and discussed in academia and the local definition of the Archive and its relevance for the present and future community. This project highlights “informants” as co-creators and critical thinkers, rather than passive providers of knowledge. Taking them and their (hi)stories seriously brings to the forefront new epistemologies that have the potential to redress colonial and racial narratives and erasures. Research therefore not only illuminates the complexity of interrelationships across time and place but also helps us to critically reflect on Western extractivist epistemologies and methods. These frictions have helped me to critically rethink knowledge dynamics of power. In this way, I will argue that historical and ethnographic methods should be used with respect and consideration of Indigenous protocols around sensitive material and knowledge in order to protect their right to remain ‘opaque’ following Edouard Glissant’s concept.