Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen
Today we have come together to celebrate the presentation of a published copy of the fifth volume of the Grote atlas van de Verenigde Oost-Indishche Compangie, or, the Comprehensive atlas of the Dutch United East India Company to the Western Cape Archives and Records Service in Cape Town.
This volume, published as a collaborative project between the Netherlands National Archives and other parties - the Royal Dutch Geographical Society, Utrecht University and Explorkart - is a book of facsimile reproductions of maps, charts, illustrations and town plans created by generations of mapmakers and illustrators for the Dutch United East India Company (1602 - 1799).
These historical records have been drawn from archival repositories around the world; and for the first time have been presented together in a single volume linked by a scholarly introduction, and discussion of the many reproductions that grace this volume.
Our gathering here, today, is the result of a journey that is both historical and, simultaneously, one still unfolding. The favourable geographical positioning of the Cape, more or less at the middle of a journey between Western Europe and the trading centres of South and South-East Asia, led to the establishment of what was intended only to be a victualling and refreshment station for ships and their crew travelling the lucrative trade route to and from the Asian continent.
The increasing importance of De Caabse Vleck, or Cape township in the supply of provisions and respite for ship's crews expanded from a settlement embracing a fort, hospital, vegetable garden and a few dozen souls - into a larger and increasingly permanent urban settlement.
The increasingly complex administration of this settlement has bequeathed successive generations an enormous record of historical documentation that draws scholars from all over the country, and the world, to the Western Cape Archives and Records Service where a large portion of these records are held.
In bringing a diverse range of historical documentation together in a single volume, this volume provides us with a glimpse through a window that allows us to see the Cape, Cape Town and other parts of the African coast through the sensibilities and attitudes of people across an unbridgeable expanse of time.
It is remarkable to see Cape Town represented in a way that is familiar to its current residents, yet in many respects very different to the Cape Town we have gathered in today. While the majority of this volume consists of maps, charts and plans - the human dimension that can so easily be overlooked - is included in a few precious illustrations of Cape Town's early street life.
In paging through this volume one cannot escape an additional presence within this volume: that of the keepers of this history - both the history that celebrated and that which is contested. It is because these records have been kept in care for future generations by heritage institutions such as the Archives where we stand today that volumes such as this can be produced and acknowledged for the understanding they bring to bear on a historical period that has had a defining influence on the South Africa of today.
In this spirit I would like to pause here to acknowledge the ongoing efforts by the staff at the Western Cape Archives and Records Service in caring for the historical records held in the care of the Archives.
Most of us here today will know the Archives through visits to the Reading Room. While the Western Cape Archives and Records Service hosts many scholars, academics and researchers using its documents for a variety of purposes that range from researching academic dissertations from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels; to land claim research projects and research for publication purposes. However, it is gratifying to note that much research done here is by the descendants of the successive waves of displacement, immigration and settlement that have characterized the peopling of empires, and nations such as ours.
The Western Cape Archives, like many of its sister institutions around the world remains mindful of the important role that archival institutions can play in redressing past imbalances. Ironically, often through the very documentation that was used to administer systems of exclusion and oppression.
Researchers from all walks of life are using the Western Capes Archives' records to assist in the understanding and reassessment of our country's difficult and often violent past. Many researchers at the Archives are using records to investigate land claims, traditional leadership disputes and to reassess the idea of history and heritage in the Cape; and, many descendents of slaves are today using colonial-era Slave Office records to trace their family histories.
Therefore, this occasion is a welcome opportunity to celebrate the work the Western Cape Archives: and an appropriate place to acknowledge the enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes at the Archives. There are many aspects of the Archives' functioning that operate unseen and often unacknowledged from the outside. All form a vital part of enabling the public and researchers to access the records.
The service provided to the public in the Reading Room is the result of extensive teamwork on the part of the different components at the Archives. The Stack Room staff provides the essential service of retrieving archival records to researchers from the 46 store rooms here at the Archives. It is due to their efforts that 7 845 (seven thousand, eight-hundred and forty-five) researchers were able to be supplied with 65 647 (sixty-five thousand, six-hundred and forty-seven) archival documents since the start of this reporting year in April 2009.
Archival documents require organizing and ordering - the coding, arrangement and description of records, the ordering of these coded records within finding aids and indexes in order to facilitate researcher's ability to access these records underpins the ability of the Western Cape Archives to provide a service to the public; for without these, any archives would simply be a mass of undifferentiated paper on shelves - completely inaccessible to all. Many of the documents at the Archives are in need on ongoing conservation care and repair due to their age and their use over the centuries; specialist trained conservators using specialist repair materials and techniques work towards maintaining the ability of researchers to continue to access records in the Reading Room.
However, the care of important records by the Western Cape Archives can be said to begin even before records arrive at the Archives. The Records Management Section works to promote sound records management principles that enable for the control of state/government records from the moment of their creation to their ultimate archiving for use by future generations. This includes the inspection of records at their point of origin (or, "client offices"), and the training of personnel in the creation of appropriate filing systems, disposal authority and electronic records management.
Ladies, gentlemen and honoured guests I would like to thank you for taking the time to attend our celebration. I would like give thanks for the presentation of this wonderful volume to be held in care by the Western Cape Archives and Records Service, alongside many of the original records reproduced in same volume; and for the contribution towards further understanding of our mutual history that this volume will undoubtedly make.
