Curating the Nation: Reflections from Archival Research on the Early Colonial Philippines

• In Event: 61. Whither the Southeast Asia Research Archive? Sponsored by the AAS Southeast Asia Council (SEAC)

Abstract

Historiography in the 21st century is complicated by the sheer number of potential historical sources. Any scholar seeking to examine the past is faced with a wide array of possibilities from “traditional” archives with hand-scribed colonial-era documents in dusty collections, to selectively digitize rare collections of manuscripts, photographs, video, and other artefacts now available online, to the dissemination of recorded and transcribed oral histories, among others. I argue that the expansion of what we regard as ‘source material’ is an inevitable and largely positive development. However, with so many more sources within our reach, it is no longer possible contemplate a delimited “history” in quiet isolation. The hyperconnectivity of the internet and social media presents often unexpected challenges as scholarly work is exposed to nationalist readings as well as populist interpretations of the past that, in turn, may exert disproportionate influence over how we present and disseminate our findings. Based on my own experience, these factors are particularly salient when studying the more peripheral and historically unexplored pericolonial areas, as new forms of knowledge creation carry the potential to both break down and reinforce old paradigms. Re-examining inclusively our definition of “the archive” opens up space for a parallel re-examination of “the past,” especially within the surprisingly persistent nationalism of Southeast Asian historiography.

Author

• Oona MT Paredes, National University of Singapore