but not so much about heritage.51 would like to add that archivists know even
less about heritage that can be claimed by two or more countries. Even so, the
Nationaal Archief is one of the main actors carrying out the Common Cultural
Heritage Policy of the Netherlands government. This policy aims at working
together with eight designated countries on the preservation and management
of the common cultural heritage, on the basis of reciprocal participation.
Although asserting to seek a mutual understanding of history, present and
future, the policy was positively drafted from a Dutch point of view. As it is
actively promoting a common history, bringing in archival heritage in the process
as well, there are some issues I would like to explore. First a preliminary matter:
the heritage value of archives as opposed to their informational value. Then the
real deal: the assumptions and consequences of the Common Cultural Heritage
Policy. Finally, the touchstone: two activities of the Mutual Cultural Heritage
Program of the Nationaal Archief to find out how the notions of the CCHP work
out in practice.
Constructing the past
Archives as heritage
At the 'Archives without Borders Conference 2010' (The Hague), the American
archivist Trudy Huskamp Peterson remarked that the importance of archives
not only resides in their informational value, but also in their significance as
symbol.6 Thomassen even observed that it 'is as if archives are ascribed nothing
but emotional and symbolic value. Archives are preferably no longer referred to
in terms of historical sources, but in terms of heritage'7. The heritage value of
archives has also become self-evident in national and international policies.8 It is
official then: archives have become heritage. But what is heritage?
Heritage can be everything, in material form or not, that is inherited from past
generations and is being preserved for future generations as representations of
the imagined past. Its value is not fixed but constantly in flux. Emerging out of
the dynamics between remembering and forgetting, its value is always temporary.
Also, as it is all in the mind, it cannot exist without active participation. What
is being imagined, though, varies from person to person, from time to time, and
from place to place. After all, heritage is not about facts but about experience and
the choices made in the present with regard to the chosen past. In that sense,
heritage is more related to the appreciation of memory than to the construction
of history. Intention, not fact-finding, is holding the key to a past which only
serves to sustain the future.9
In theory, heritagization, that is, the process of assigning heritage value, can be
inclusive, practised by and for everyone in relation to everything. However, in
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COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
5 Thomassen, Archiefwetenschap, 20. Available at: http://www.oratiereeks.nl/upload/pdf/PDF-
1713Thomassen_text_HR.PDF (accessed March 4, 2012).
6 Huskamp Peterson, 'To have and to have not', pagenumbers still unknown.
7 Translated by the author from: 'Het lijkt wel of archieven alleen nog maar emotionele en symbolische
waarden hebben. Over archieven wordt bij voorkeur niet meer gesproken in termen van historische
bronnen, maar in termen van erfgoed.' See: Thomassen, Archiefwetenschap, 6.
8 For example: Archiefbeslu.it 1995, article 2.c. Available at: http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0007748/geldig-
heidsdatum_04-03-2012 (accessed March 4, 2012); Universal Declaration on Archives 2010 (English): http://
www.ica.org/6573/reference-documents/universal-declaration-on-archives.html (accessed March 4, 2012).