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This panel is about to get started at noon CST! https://twitter.com/ACAUBC/status/1388171135636754433
In addition to TAVP's @gabe_solis, the other panelists are Verne Harris of the @NelsonMandela Foundation and @ng_yvonne of @witnessorg. As Gabe says, it's an honor for us to be on a panel with Yvonne and Verne! #ACAUBC2021
The first question for the panel is, "What motivated you to do this type of work? Was there a specific event or opportunity that got you started?" #ACAUBC2021
Verne says it's hard to talk about origins with any certainty but that he was "shattered at many levels" by his experience being conscripted into South Africa's apartheid army #ACAUBC2021
Memory was a powerful instrument of struggle against the apartheid, Verne says. "What we were doing was very much about keeping memories and voices alive." He says his archival work and his participation in fighting the apartheid were connected. #ACAUBC2021
"I worked with @txafterviolence many years ago as an unpaid intern," says @gabe_solis. He was doing interviews with family members of people sentenced to death. He says, "As a human we can't help but bring that suffering into ourselves." #ACAUBC2021
That experience of trauma, says Gabe, made him realize the transformative potential of this work. He says in the years in between of being an intern and coming back to TAVP, he took that lesson of the power of memory and narrative. #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says he's not a credentialed archivist, but he loves memory work and is committed to it. We do have a professional archivist, as Gabe mentions: @JaneRogersField #ACAUBC2021
2011 was a pivotal year for @witnessorg says @ng_yvonne, because of the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War, which is sometimes called the YouTube war, because of the amount of documentation uploaded to YouTube #ACAUBC2021
Because of this, @witnessorg has been creating more resources for people who wish to do their own documentation, rather than just focusing on maintaining its own archives. #ACAUBC2021
Archival theories and practices have a lot of application outside of traditional archives, Yvonne says. Many people have needs for these resources. #ACAUBC2021
The next question is, "What legal and ethical concerns should we be aware of when documenting, preserving, and providing access to evidence of injustices, violence, human rights violations, etc.?" #ACAUBC2021
The call of justice doesn't ever allow you to simply document, it calls you to support and be a part of struggles for justice, Verne says. He says ethics can be tricky in these situations, so having a moral compass is absolutely fundamental. #ACAUBC2021
In this work you need comrades, people you choose to be accountable to, says Verne. #ACAUBC2021
Doing memory work around state violence the risks are amplified in a lot of ways, Gabe says. We learn from our mistakes and from other people doing similar work, so that we can push forward in doing our work ethically and responsibly. #ACAUBC2021
"It's always best when we can have people in our community who are directly impacted not just be the people documented, but lead the project. We're embracing a participatory approach to our memory work," Gabe says. #ACAUBC2021
TAVP also thinks about the risks, like the inadvertant creation of evidence that can harm the people we document. This is why we for a long time didn't document active death penalty cases, so that it couldn't be used against the people sentenced to death. #ACAUBC2021
"It's important to consider what one's motivation is," says @ng_yvonne and "being critical about one's own suitability, are you the best situated to do this work, or is there someone you could be supporting instead?" #ACAUBC2021
Be realistic about your capacity and what you're promising. Don't overcommit or make false promises about what you're able to deliver, Yvonne says. #ACAUBC2021
Understanding what unintended consequences comes from having a familiarity and relationship with the community, says Yvonne. #ACAUBC2021
"When you see work in this area in archives and/or cultural institutions, what are you most wary of? What excites you?" is the next question. #ACAUBC2021
"Speaking for others rather than amplifying their voices" is what Verne is most wary of. "That trap of taking on a savior role." #ACAUBC2021
Verne says he's also wary of letting the work take over your life. #ACAUBC2021
"What excites me the most now is the belief and the evidence that one is contributing to making a difference in the world ... You do this work and you encounter people doing the most extraordinary things," Verne says. #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says we sometimes have to get out of the way and let people who are experts in their own lived experience take the lead. We've created a group of directly impacted people to learn about co-designing projects that are important to them. #ACAUBC2021
"I genuinely believe in the power of community archives to change the world," Gabe says. "It seems like resources are finally beginning to flow to community archival work" because of the hard work of people like @BergisJules #ACAUBC2021
"The danger is that it's not happening out of malice," says @ng_yvonne when it comes to exploitation in documenting violence. "It can be really easy to reproduce the existing power dynamics because that's the default." #ACAUBC2021
Yvonne and Gabe both mention that they're inspired by the panels taking place at #ATBW2021 #ACAUBC2021
Next question: "Are there individuals or organizations which have been instrumental to your work? If so, which ones and how did they support you? What qualities do you believe are key to successful partnerships and other collaborative efforts?" #ACAUBC2021
Verne says an example is early childhood development. So many practitioners don't have the resources to archive their work in early childhood development in South Africa. "We have to find ways, especially in places where the state is failing, to work across sectors." #ACAUBC2021
Some of the people who have been TAVP's great partners and/or influences have been @professorcaz, @jmddrake, @ZZcollier, @BergisJules, Yusef Omwale, Verne Harris, Southern California Library, and Don't Shoot Portland. #ACAUBC2021
Yvonne says the key to successful partnerships comes down to trust, being consistent, reliable, transparent, and open. #ACAUBC2021
"What is the role that language has had on your work," is a question from the chat. #ACAUBC2021
"At @witnessorg we work in multiple languages," says @ng_yvonne, but English is the dominant language. However WITNESS is trying to decentralize English, not always creating materials in English first and then translating. #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says that language is an area where we're improving the collection. We're currently translating metadata into Spanish. We've been discussing what we can do around increasing accessibility. Gabe says he's been inspired by other people doing language justice work. #ACAUBC2021
"The dominance of English is fundamental to a resiliant white supremacy" in South Africa says Verne. @NelsonMandela employees are taking language classes to work on pushing back in that dominance. #ACAUBC2021
Verne says @NelsonMandela has 37 people, only 2 employees are white, yet English is the language of their meetings. "It's something that we're owning now, but it's far too slow." #ACAUBC2021
Next question: "What does justice (either through the archives or through other channels) look like for you and the community that you serve?" #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says, "When we do these interviews with survivors of violence, we open space for people to retell stories of their lives in their own way," so generally we don't ask a lot of questions, but we do ask, "What does justice look like to you?" #ACAUBC2021
TAVP is trying to figure out how we can contribute to building transformative justice. It's easy to say you're doing that, but on a concrete level we want to know how our small organization can contribute. #ACAUBC2021
"Archives can play an important role" in contributing to justice, but a lot of work has to go into that, Yvonne says. #ACAUBC2021
"What justice looks like is redistribution" in South Africa, says Verne. It doesn't always look like democracy, and the challenge is to look beyond democracy. We have to find other ways of imagining what it would look like. #ACAUBC2021
Next question: "What considerations should non-community members take into account when they are working as allies and co-organizers to document community struggles/experiences?" #ACAUBC2021
An example, @ng_yvonne says, is this toolkit, which helps people document digital violence, but takes into account that the people harming them may have access to their electronic devices: https://bcsth.ca/digitalevidencetoolkit/ #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says that, for example, TAVP can't build a rapid-response network to document state violence, but we can support other people's work and be a resouce. #ACAUBC2021
Verne says you want to be responsive, but you have to have something to bring, which might be helpful. Sometimes people need institutional partners to do some of the work for them rather than spending the money to recreate it. #ACAUBC2021
"Never call yourself an ally; let others call you an ally and call you into the role that they determine for you." Verne Harris's excellent advice for supporting the work of others. #ACAUBC2021
When it comes to self-care, @ng_yvonne says she avoids watching traumatic videos unnecessarily. She says for people whose work involves a lot of watching those videos, creating a filter, like turning off the audio or playing it in black-and-white can help. #ACAUBC2021
Yvonne says it's important to have people you can decompress with. #ACAUBC2021
Gabe says that getting outside, trying to work in the sunshine, going for a run everyday, these small things make a difference to him. He says organizationally TAVP tries to disrupt traditional models of work. #ACAUBC2021
"As an organization we try to be as flexible as we can to recognize this is really difficult work that we do," says Gabe. #ACAUBC2021
Verne says walking, being in the wildness, being with species other than human beings. Verne also recommends the work of Trica Hersey of @TheNapMinistry: "Rest is a radical act of resistance." https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/about/ #ACAUBC2021
Sometimes the mission of the organization and the collective versus a particular community member who's experienced violence can be in conflict, so we must evaluate accountability on different levels, says Gabe. #ACAUBC2021
Yvonne uses as an example @witnessorg's work with @Copwatch411 in creating a database that Berkeley Copwatch can use in their advocacy work. #ACAUBC2021
Verne says the struggle for access to information in South Africa continues. He says most importantly we're accountable to the communities we work in. Are we making a difference in their lives? Is the work helping? Is it being done in a way they're comfortable with? #ACAUBC2021
"How do non-archivists urge archivists to document injustice that is being neglected?" is a question from an audience member. #ACAUBC2021
"It's hard to know who's collecting what in the world," says @ng_yvonne, but one solution can be for people to begin archiving what's going on in their own communities, after taking into account their suitability for that role. #ACAUBC2021
WITNESS has developed a lot of tips on how to make videos more easily verifiable says @ng_yvonne https://library.witness.org/product/video-as-evidence-verifying-eyewitness-video/ #ACAUBC2021
"The walls get higher and higher," between those protected by walls and those outside in South Africa, says Verne. The pandemic makes this clear. "In the streets around us are desperate people." COVID has deepened inequality. #ACAUBC2021
