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This issue of
the Bulletin does
two important things. First, it sees the publication of President Martin
Hall’s ideas about what WAC is and does, and where it should head in the
immediate future. This is a critical matter for the organization as it
heads into the new millennium. Martin’s proposals have been thoroughly
discussed by the Officers and with Peter Ucko, and I ask all members to
give the issues serious attention. Martin’s piece makes reference to the
Ilisu Dam in Turkey, a subject often addressed in the Bulletin, and
a letter from Martin to the Council of Europe regarding the dam follows
his statement about WAC’s future. A longer piece about Ilisu by Maggie
Ronayne will appear in the next Bulletin. I note, though, that the
UK company Balfour Beatty, its Italian partner Impreglio and the Union
Bank of Switzerland have now withdrawn from the Ilisu project as a result
of the efforts of WAC and many other groups to highlight the project’s
problems.
The second
important feature of this issue is that it heralds the publication of the
introductory chapters of Routledge’s One World Archaeology (OWA) volumes.
In addition to providing an ensured supply of quality copy for the
journal, it is hoped the dissemination of the chapters in this manner will
help spread the word about the OWA series, about WAC’s endeavours and
about Routledge’s very great assistance with our efforts over the years.
The first OWA
volume to be showcased is The Dead and their Possessions: repatriation
in principle, policy and practice. It is thus a happy coincidence that
this issue also brings news of the long-awaited and much-publicized return
of Sara (Saartjie) Baartman’s remains from Paris to South Africa. This
welcome development renders Fforde and Hubert’s (this volume) observation
that “the Museé de l’Homme in Paris does not allow the return of named
individuals, such as Sara Baartman to South Africa…or Vaimaca Pirú to
Uruguay…” at least partly obsolete. The ungracious might think that the
return ultimately had less to do with emerging ‘best-practice’
repatriation policy than with the inconvenience of having to find new
homes for controversial material now that the Museé de l’Homme is being
disestablished. I am not going to quibble about motives, though, if it
means people are returned home when it is requested. I would rather
congratulate the French on the move and concentrate on seeing the rest of
the extraordinary collections in Paris appropriately cared for. Nick
Shepard’s observations in this issue regarding the 2001 Mapping
Alternatives conference in Cape Town takes off from Sara’s return to
discuss other matters concerning South Africa’s heritage.
Another recent
‘win’ of a similar nature in France concerns the decision by the incoming
French Government to reconsider plans for a new Paris airport in the Somme
Valley. This region was the scene of unspeakable slaughter during the
First World War. Hundreds of thousands of war-dead are buried in the Somme
and surrounding areas, including one of my great-grandfathers, who was
among the great many Australians killed on the Western Front. There was
international agitation against the airport by those concerned about the
proposed destruction of war graves, but it seems it was local French
objections to noise and the like which actually stopped the development (a
local mayor is also the new national Minister for Transport). I am very
glad it happened. I cannot imagine what a constant stream of aircraft
movements would do to a visit to the Windmill at Pozieres (http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/pozieres.html)
or the Australian Memorial at
Villiers Bretonneux, near
Amiens (http://www.dyadel.net/~landos.y/memorial.htm).
I wonder, though, if media focus on the issue has had any positive effect
on the generally skeptical and sometimes still hostile views of many
‘middle Australians’ towards Indigenous people’s concerns about cultural
patrimony. I hope that some, at least, would make the connection.
Finally, I relay disturbing news from João Zilhão in Lisbon regarding
the closure of the Instituto Português de
Arqueologia (IPA). As underlined by João’s
contributions in the last issue of the Bulletin,
the Instituto has been centrally involved
in the preservation of the palaeolithic
rock art threatened by the damming of the
Côa Valley. It is puzzling that the Portuguese
government would chose the course of action
João describes below. It may just be another
sign of our times, when governments with
little knowledge of and less interest in
archaeology and cultural heritage pay no
heed to professional advice and continue
to make short-sighted, politically-expedient
decisions about these sensitive matters.
Perhaps this trend is tied to the much-remarked
‘turn to the right’ in Western liberal democracies,
which has seen Centre-Left and Centre-Right
administrations adopting elements of Far
Right agendas to mute the electoral impact
of such odious characters as Jean-Marie
Le Pen in France and Pauline Hanson in Australia.
I urge all readers to make representations
to the Portuguese Government about the ...
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World
Archaeological Bulletin