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The Archive
Preserve and research - the body of work.
The Archive is the body of preserved and researched material the Institution maintains. Preserve is how we keep it; Research is how we contextualise it. Both serve a single function - strengthening the value of marginalised narratives so they survive in scholarship and in memory.
Preserve
Keep the record.
Field expeditions begin with community engagement and consent. Once permissions are in place, capture teams produce archival-grade digital records of artefacts, sites, oral testimony, and manuscript material - every record tagged with provenance metadata.
Photogrammetry & 3D captureLiDAR site surveyVolumetric videoOral history recordingManuscript digitisationConsent-first protocols
Research
Contextualise the record.
Preserved material becomes scholarship through ethnographic study, lineage analysis, and peer-reviewed contribution. Research is what turns a digital record into a citable cultural reference and gives the Archive its academic weight.
Ethnographic fieldworkLineage & provenance studiesPeer-reviewed publicationAcademic referencingCross-collection scholarshipConference contributions
The lifecycle from capture to citation
Field expeditions begin with community engagement - weeks of relationship building before any equipment is unpacked. Consent protocols are designed collaboratively, not imposed. Once permissions are in place, capture teams work alongside community members who guide priorities and interpret context.
Back in the lab, raw data becomes archival-grade digital assets: textured 3D models, georeferenced point clouds, transcribed audio, high-resolution manuscript scans. Researchers then build the contextual layer - lineage notes, ethnographic commentary, comparative analysis, peer-reviewed publication - that gives each record scholarly weight.
The result is a living archive that feeds directly into the Community pillar: nothing preserved here stays locked away.
Commission archive work
Have artefacts, sites, or oral traditions that need safeguarding - or research questions that need scholarly contribution? Get in touch.