Research Guides: Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) Digital Archive: Postcustodial Archival Theory

Overview

This model stems from a history of colonial-influenced relationships that involved removing cultural artifacts-- or pieces of cultural history-- from a community. In an effort to combat this, the postcustodial model works under the idea that archivists will no longer physically acquire and maintain physical records but rather act as managers and overseers for the collection of records, often providing a key source of support to advancing the group's work. Through this new reality, relationships between archivists and the record-holders are essential and built upon communication, transparency, and trust.

Literature

From Custody to Collaboration: The Post-Custodial Archival Model at the University of Texas Libraries
Explains some of the key aspects of a post-custodial archival model through the University of Texas at Austin's narrative about their decision to implement this model. Also details the implementation of this model within their first project: a collaboration with Guatemala's National Police Archive.
Toward a survivor-centered approach to records documenting human rights abuse: lessons from community archives
This article proposes a theoretical framework for managing records documenting human rights abuse based on five key principles learned from community
archives discourses: participation, shared stewardship, multiplicity, archival activism, and reflexivity. In shifting the focus of human rights archives to these core community-centric values, this paper proposes a survivor-centered approach to such records and argues that survivors should maintain control over the decision-making processes related to records documenting their abuse.

Partnering on Digital Archives and Human Rights in Guatemala
In this blog post, Hannah Alpert-Abrams and Alex Galarza describe how they have understood their roles in collaborative projects with Guatemalan partner organizations seeking justice for human rights violations committed during the country’s civil war (1960-1996). Both are CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellows in Data Curation for Latin American and Caribbean Studies whose projects focus on post-custodial archives in Guatemala City.

Hannah Alpert-Abrams is based at UT-Austin’s LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections where she is working to develop the repository and interface for the digital Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional, a collection of records relating to the national police of Guatemala.

Alex Galarza is at Haverford College’s Magill Library and leads the The Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo Digital Archive Project, an effort to digitize and provide access to materials from Guatemala’s oldest human rights organization following a post-custodial mode.