Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Sat, 3 Sep 2005 09:59:32 +1000 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
I think Ron is right.
The sheer scale of the disaster and the apparent problems in dealing with
them are likely to result in wide-ranging changes to a whole host of laws
and arrangements that will directly and indirectly affect cultural heritage
places and ways of working. The message that archaeologists and
organisations that can affect policy change can now take is to plan, plan,
plan and commit to worst case events taking place and push this as a case
for more thoughtful allocation of resources. We now have a string of major
calamities that show that fundamental systems - such as land tenure records,
town admnistrative records and archival repositories - are under threat and
can be irretrievably lost. Archaeo-politicians may have to remind
politicians who only live in the present that these represent losses of
major financial and social consequence, and use that as a lever to get
better arrangements for archives to be at least copied, if not more securely
housed.
The importance of sending in crack squads of conservators was highlighted in
the Aceh province of Indonesia which suffered from the recent tsunami - a
death toll dwarfing Katherine in human loss and probably economic loss as
well. All land tenure records for several regions were lost when local
government buildings were destroyed, resulting in people who had lived by
established right on land for several generations to have suddenly lost
their only written evidence of occupancy. How that ends up playing itself
out is still to be seen, but the analogy for Hurricane Katherine is likely
to be apt. The people who appear to have been most affected were not owners
of land and buildings but ones whose livelihoods depend a lot on bits of
paper and the willingness of their landlords and insurers to accept their
claims of loss.
Denis Gojak
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron May" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: Ignore Previous Post (yeah, that'll happen)
> Archaeo-politics, that is what Tom King used to call it. Without national
> politics, we would not have the archaeology laws of today. Please take
> care to
> study the legislation that spawns from Katrina and the levees, as it will
> affect
> how archaeology is done in the future. Not to mention historic studies.
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>
>
|
|
|