Period of Darkness.'59 Other Second World War exhibitions were created around
the same time, and while they can still be accessed they are no longer linked to
from the website of the National Archives. One in particular deals with drawings
created by a British soldier while in a Prisoner of War camp - not exactly what
you would expect in a ex-colonial society.60 The other details the history of the
Indian National Army, created in Singapore by Indian soldiers in the British army
as well as local Indian populations and 'formed to liberate India from British
rule.'61 These exhibitions may be a result of Singapore's non-traditional ethnic
make-up, but to have an online exhibition related to India's independence, but
not Singapore's own, is surprising and shocking. This is but one example of how,
as Ashcroft puts it, 'European history is manifest in any history of a post-colonial
people.'62
Conclusion
The question archivists - and all information professionals - are left with is still
based around what can a single archivist do to reverse the effects of colonialism
in a nation's archives. While this is a major task and not one that an archivist at
a company or university could change, the link between colonialism and archives
is the same as any archive's link to its records' past. Records, once cataloged and
stored, are not frozen in time; they are still relevant and still have an effect on
the present. The records themselves are not only representative of the repositories
in which they reside, but so is the history of the record. We can see this in
some of the records in the National Archives of Singapore. Yes, they show the
history of Singapore, but given the provenance as purchased records from the
United Kingdom, the record behind the record shows the continuing legacy of
colonialism. All archivists must acknowledge what their records say about their
archive, and also must come to a strong conclusion on the power of archives.
Archivists understand that their records are important for organizational
memory, but when we look back at archives and colonialism it becomes clear
that records are far more than pieces of paper in acid-free boxes in a climate-
controlled basement with no sunlight.
It is vital that information professionals understand the importance of their
collection and their profession, as the authors of the following chapters obviously
have. Postcolonial theory is an area where this is most pronounced yet it is sadly
not recognized. Archives - physical, actual repositories of information attended
to by archivists - are one of the most crucial and yet most undervalued and
under-represented aspects of postcolonial theory and the contemporary state
of ex-colonial nations. The repercussions of this have the ability to be seen in
actions implemented by archivists and other information professionals who
understand, value, and promote the fact.
COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
59 'Battlefield Singapore/ National Archives of Singapore, http://www.sl942.org.sg/sl942/home/, accessed
January 22, 2012. No one would deny the darkness of that period, and the description of the massacre of
the Chinese population at the hands of the Japanese in heartbreaking, but one cannot help but wonder the
difference in history had Singapore never existed as a British colony. Of course, it was a British colony, and
while discussing the 'what ifs' is a moot point, one must expect that a battle over a colony would be much
different were it never a colony.
60 'Haxworth,' National Archives of Singapore, http://www.sl942.org.sg/sl942/haxworth/index.htm,
accessed January 22, 2012.
61 'Indian National Army: A Historical Journey,' National Archives of Singapore, http://www.sl942.org.sg/
sl942/indian_national_army/index.htm, accessed January 22, 2012.
62 Ashcroft, Post-colonial Transformation, 98.
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