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What could and should be the relationship between research archives of endangered cultural heritage materials and the originating community? This paper argues that recent developments in distributed computing in a networked environment have allowed us to re-imagine this relationship in a way that profoundly changes the role of the archive and reinforces the desirability of establishing ongoing reciprocal relationships with cultural heritage communities. Some possibilities are suggested drawing from experience with PARADISEC (the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures, established in 2003 as a collaborative venture between the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and the Australian National University) and with local community-based digital archives in the remote Australian communities of Belyuen and Wadeye. Repatriation and rights, planning principles for establishment and sustainability of local digital archives in community cultural centres, and models for a staged approach in setting up ongoing relationships with rights holders are discussed. The paper argues that digital archives, as distributed virtual institutions, need to engage with a number of different communities of interest: not only the individuals, communities, and institutions that own the cultural heritage objects we preserve, but also the wider academic community and international standards-setting bodies. Planning for our archives' digital future means imagining ourselves as actors and creators within that virtual society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the Ballata grande per Francesco Fantin, a piece of musical theatre performed by the Italian Folk Ensemble (IFE) in Adelaide in March 1990 to accompany a photographic exhibition on the life and death of the Italian anarchist, killed by Fascist countrymen in 1942 in South Australia's Loveday Internment Camp. This quintessentially Australian Italian story is recounted through a mixture of spoken word and narrative song: for the latter, the IFE set new words to melodies taken from the recorded repertoire of the cantastorie (travelling popular singers) of Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. Through discussion of the textual and musical changes evident when comparing the IFE's performance with the source recordings, issues of reproduction and adaptation of traditional musical practices are addressed. The focus of the musical discussion is on the extent to which the Ensemble's performance has in fact maintained the ‘same tunes’, while the textual analysis points to the ways in which these ‘differentvoices’ have incorporated new material within the formal constraints of the musical model adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focusses on the interaction between transcribers and performers of traditional songs before the ready availability of sound recording. What acts did the collectors perform to produce the written documents that are our only record of the performing traditions of that time? How did they represent this activity to themselves and others? Although the purposes for which these documents were made may be no longer relevant, exploring how they were shaped by the historical context of their collection may enable contemporary researchers to revalidate an often rejected resource, as well as reminding us that our own work is shaped in similar ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]