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SEAPAVAA Newsletter |
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SEAPAVAA: two years on
Readers will recall that in previous issues, we have reported on the ASEAN training
seminar for AV archivists held at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra and later on the establishment of the South East Asia-Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA), which held its inaugural conference in
Manila, Philippines in February 1996. Since then, the annual conferences have been held in
Jakarta, Indonesia (March 1997) and Hanoi, Vietnam (March 1998). Membership has grown
steadily and a website and listserve established. If you haven't seen it yet, we recommend the
website at http://membersxoom.com/avarchives. There you can read the SEAPAVAA
constitution, its newsletters, get to know its members, and how to contact them. What is SEAPAVAA and why is it needed? In a nutshell, let us describe it to you. • SEAPAVAA relates to a specific contiguous region - Southeast Asia, Australasia, and the adjoining Pacific. Its agenda focuses on the needs of the countries which share particular climatic characteristics (most are tropical) as well as economic, historical, and political links. All full members must be audiovisual archives located within this region but SEAPAVAA also welcomes members from anywhere in the world. • It provides a forum for organizations and functions as a professional association for individual practitioners. Membership is diverse: it embraces commercial, as well as non-commercial and cultural organizations. • It embraces all the audiovisual media: film, television, video, radio, recorded sound. • The promotion of audiovisual archiving, both as a profession and as an important government priority, and the raising of public awareness, are the central concerns. In many countries, resources are limited. Audiovisual archiving still has a fairly short history and large amounts of the audiovisual heritage have already been lost. It is hoped that some material may survive elsewhere and, over time, can be recovered. There is an emphasis on sharing, cooperation, and self-help. This includes an active approach to training, sharing of skills and knowledge, adoption of regionwide standards, and building of a professional community and a communication network. The development of a shared cataloguing database began late last year; a workshop on vinegar syndrome (a major problem in the region) is planned this year. • We are building a wide global awareness on the audiovisual heritage of the region, and facilitating access to it. (This was the theme of the Hanoi conference this year.) What the world is not aware of for instance is that the Philippines has one of the world's most prolific film industries; Australia, one of the oldest; Vietnam (for linguistic reasons), one of the least known. A policy statement on access was adopted in Hanoi. It covers the areas of legal deposit, member cooperation, finance, and copyright. Structurally, SEAPAVAA has an elected Executive Council of seven members, four standing committees ( Technical, Training, Collection, Promotion), and a Secretariat based in Manila. It works in a three-year business cycle. The official language is English which is the shared language of trade and diplomacy within the region. Across the region, language and culture is diverse and, in many cases, very ancient. A formal SEAPAVAA occasion, such as a conference opening, in which everyone wears national dress, showcases a rich and colorful experience. During the last year or so, after a period of sustained growth, many countries in the region found themselves quite suddenly thrust into an economic crisis, as their currencies dropped in value. In these circumstances, culturally vulnerable areas like audiovisual archiving are among the first to feel the pain. Some SEAPAVAA members also have links to FIAF, IASA, or other associations. The SEAPAVAA experience is a particularly satisfying experience in that it allows the members to focus and share on this particular part of the world where they are culturally linked. Those from outside the region who have joined as associates also enjoy that link and their interest and desire to share in our task is greatly welcomed. The field of audiovisual archiving is becoming a more complex mosaic: the world is richer for it.
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