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.
>
>