The Archive Problem
On preserving endangered social groups and their historic identities
“Silence can be a plan
rigorously executedthe blueprint to a life
It has a presence
a history a formDo not confuse it
with any kind of absence”
— Adrienne Rich, “Cartographies of Silence”
Deafening Absences
Rodney Carter coined the term “archival silence” in 2006, writing about the silencing of groups in the archives. He quoted Adrienne Rich’s poem above to open the article, describing a powerful means of social control established and reinforced by archives.
“… it is now undeniable that archives are spaces of power. Archival power is, in part, the power to allow voices to be heard…. The power of the archive is witnessed in the act of inclusion, but this is only one of its components. The power to exclude is a fundamental aspect of the archive. Inevitably there are distortions, omissions, erasures, and silences in the archive.”
— Rodney Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Of Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence”
