Outdated and offensive language haunts archival and library catalogues, potentially causing harm to those wanting to access the material these institutions hold. In other cases, there are silences – people can’t find material because the search terms they employ have not been used by the Library. These, however, are not issues beyond fixing.

This presentation will outline 'He kupu pāmamae, he kupu ora', the Alexander Turnbull Library’s reparative description project, which was initiated in late 2023 to address the use of potentially harmful and outdated language in our descriptions for unpublished materials. Outdated language often relates to key aspects of individual and group identity, like race, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, class, political affiliation, and disability. We also see this project as a way to make searching our collections more accessible, opening the archives to more people across Aotearoa and the world.

Part of the work of this project will be developing ways to protect the research value of such language use without causing further harms. Drawing on the work of other institutions worldwide, including the State Library Queensland, Yale Library, and colleague Tui Raven, among others, we will discuss how we have approached this, aiming for transparency and accessibility above all.

Members of the reparative description group – or kaiwhakahaere – will speak about the need for a dedicated project to begin this work; the background and national/international context for the project; project objectives; the project definition, including scope and constraints; our approach, and the nitty-gritty; project logistics such as tracking, communications, reporting, and timeline; and the outcomes and next steps.

We are eager to publicise 'He kupu pāmamae, he kupu ora' and ground it within an international context in the hopes that our work may be useful for other institutions to adapt and expand on to suit their own unique environment and needs.

Outdated and offensive language haunts archival and library catalogues, potentially causing harm to those wanting to access the material these institutions hold. In other cases, there are silences – people can’t find material because the search terms they employ have not been used by the Library. These, however, are not issues beyond fixing.

This presentation will outline 'He kupu pāmamae, he kupu ora', the Alexander Turnbull Library’s reparative description project, which was initiated in late 2023 to address the use of potentially harmful and outdated language in our descriptions for unpublished materials. Outdated language often relates to key aspects of individual and group identity, like race, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, class, political affiliation, and disability. We also see this project as a way to make searching our collections more accessible, opening the archives to more people across Aotearoa and the world.

Part of the work of this project will be developing ways to protect the research value of such language use without causing further harms. Drawing on the work of other institutions worldwide, including the State Library Queensland, Yale Library, and colleague Tui Raven, among others, we will discuss how we have approached this, aiming for transparency and accessibility above all.

Members of the reparative description group – or kaiwhakahaere – will speak about the need for a dedicated project to begin this work; the background and national/international context for the project; project objectives; the project definition, including scope and constraints; our approach, and the nitty-gritty; project logistics such as tracking, communications, reporting, and timeline; and the outcomes and next steps.


We are eager to publicise 'He kupu pāmamae, he kupu ora' and ground it within an international context in the hopes that our work may be useful for other institutions to adapt and expand on to suit their own unique environment and needs.

Access to the Archives of International Organizations: Challenges and Opportunities
It is proposed to present on the efforts of international organizations to enhance access regimes since the landmark 1987 UNESCO publication “Access to the archives of United Nations agencies: a RAMP study with guidelines”. Focus will be on the myriad of international criminal tribunals but specifically the Rwanda (UN-ICTR) and former Yugoslavia (UN-ICTY) ad-hoc Tribunals, the Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (UN-IRMCT) and the hybrid courts such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC & UNAKRT), to mention a few, as well as the EU institutions, IMF, UN Secretariat and NATO. This is last case highlights how even a secretive organization by the nature of its tasks can find good reasons to open up its archives
to public consultation.
While generally advocating for wide access as a prime reason for the existence of Archives, it will also be posited that restrictions go hand-in-hand with archival access. Sensitivities such as witness protection, acknowledgment of the rights of survivors and victims, ex parte proceedings,
privacy concerns, business considerations, Member States concerns, evidence management, and so forth, will be discussed as why access is not as straight forward as applying blanket declassification policies to an Archive in a temporal sphere.
Another aspect of the proposed presentation will briefly reflect on the Freudian concept of “better off forgetting” and when this may be applicable to the protocols of Archives access management. Is it ever justified to destroy Archives and how does this concept intertwine with a persons "right be be forgotten"?

In 2023, with the assistance of funding from a University of Otago Alumni Appeal General Funds, the Otago University’s Hocken Collections embarked on a programme of digitisation work with the intent to increase visibility and access of archives relating to and selected by the local iwi, Kāi Tahu (or Ngāi Tahu). After initial kōrero (discussions) with local rūnaka (tribal councils) and the Ngāi Tahu Archive, the decision was made to digitise the James Herries Beattie papers (ARC-0162), a collection held by the Hocken Collections which was listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Register in 2018. This paper discusses the cultural considerations which the Hocken Collections undertook in starting the Kāi Tahu digitisation programme, including establishing a Kāi Tahu digitisation advisory group to discuss tikanga (protocols) around care and handling of archival taonga, description, cultural statements and digital access. The Herries Beattie digitised collection was launched in June 2024 on the Hocken’s Digital Collections Recollect website. The digitised material will also be made available on Ngāi Tahu Archive's digital repository, Kareao.