Wongatha Heritage Returned: The Digital Future and Community Ownership of Schoolwork from the Mount Margaret Mission School, 1930s–1940s

Abstract

Abstract The construction of national identity through historical narrative is inextricably linked to archival keeping, access and privilege. In settler-colonial contexts, archives and the way they are used are always political. Drawing on decolonising methodologies and critical archival theory, this paper examines challenges faced by an interdisciplinary project team who received University of Melbourne Engagement funding to initiate a process of repatriation. This project has been grounded in the process of consultation and engagement with the Indigenous communities from which these records originated, and the process of reconnecting former students of Mount Margaret, and their families. In confronting the inherent cultural biases of archives, this paper considers particular problems for institutions in developing methods of repatriation alongside record collection and keeping.