Australian mining projects frequently undertake cultural salvage, involving archaeological consultants and Aboriginal Elders to identify important artefacts. However, the storage conditions within shipping containers present challenges, such as weather, insects, and limited access for Traditional Owners. The author, reflecting on his experience working as a project heritage advisor in Western Australia's Pilbara region, emphasises the need for collaborative engagement between the mining sector and Aboriginal communities to develop effective storage strategies that prioritise both scientific integrity and cultural significance. The author raises questions about the purpose and sustainability of storing cultural artefacts in containers, while highlighting the need to balance safeguarding heritage with the evolving needs of Indigenous communities. Ultimately, the author emphasises the importance of empowering Traditional Owners in decisions about artefact storage and engaging in meaningful consultation to preserve cultural heritage. The author suggests that the process should prioritise not just tangible artefacts but also intangible aspects like stories and songlines that make up the living Indigenous culture.
This chapter details a practice-based investigation of a 19th-century astronomical device known as 'Janssen's apparatus'. It questions traditional narratives of linear technological advancement and 'sole inventor' to reframe the historical artefact as a site which makes visible a network of technological knowledge interconnecting astronomy and visual culture. Approached from this perspective, the Janssen artefact is reframed as an 'intersite of knowledge', exploring how the various know-how contained within the device is located across disciplines rather than within a single field. Originally developed to calculate the Astronomical Unit during the 1874 Transit of Venus, Janssen's apparatus failed in its endeavour as a measuring instrument, but its motion mechanism was successfully adapted into early cinema technologies. This chapter applies praxis through the development of a prototype artwork and the concept of 'techne' as speculative means of understanding how this mechanism was transferred from astronomy to the Western cultural realm. It proposes that the development of the apparatus was partially gleaned from moving image techniques already in use within 19th-century visual culture. The development of the prototype artwork is discussed in relation to the specific timing mechanism of the Janssen apparatus and how it establishes its own 'intersite of knowledge' relevant to its contemporary context. Finally, this chapter elaborates on how witnessing the Janssen mechanism in motion provided unique insight and how creating a dialogue between historical and contemporary apparatus facilitates a reconsideration of how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] and other host institutions that contain artefacts might share their hidden stories.
The chapter engages in womanist musings to critically examine the intertwining of race, class, and gender within the realm of motherhood. Employing the rhetorical tool of "snips" to "read" intersectional experiences, the author underscores the significance of the public library and motherhood as institutions of meaning-making in the realm of knowledge production, which is essential to womanist work. The chapter illuminates the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the complexities of navigating public spaces within private realms and vice versa. Overall, this chapter offers an insightful examination of the interplay between race, class, and gender, within motherhood, emphasizing the pivotal role of public libraries in supporting mothers in pursuit of knowledge production, meaning-making, and empowerment.
This chapter presents an exploratory case study focused on how public libraries serve or fail to serve the information needs of the immigrant population in the Queen's Borough of New York City, a region that COVID-19 is acutely impacted. This study examined immigrants' desired types of public library services, public librarians' role in meeting their needs, and the challenges they faced in providing services. Findings confirm immigrants' multiple service needs and add new insights about how the public library staff plays a critical role in helping the immigrant population cope with different forms of assistance. The results further indicated that librarians face institutional and cultural barriers in serving immigrant customers that may lead to the underutilization of library services. Widespread public crises related to the COVID-19 pandemic deepened information needs and disparities.
