Glen Stasiuk

The weaving of narratives, landscapes, timelines and cultures is both a strength and a challenge of Many Maps. On the one hand it is exciting to traverse between the diverse geography of the Noongar boodjah or land in the company of esteemed Noongar leaders Mokare, Yagan or Midgegooroo, and then witnessing Jandamarra’s struggle in the Kimberley region or the uprising of the fearless stockman in the Pilbara. On the other hand it is confusing to jump between timelines across the chapters and to be ensconced in a particular place and time one moment and then flung far and wide into another region and/or narrative thread the next. This takes some getting used to, but when one does, the tapestry of eclectic subject matter, geohistorical gaze and counterargument is rich and rewarding...

This focus of this chapter is the state of the art of digitisation of cultural heritage in Australian archives and libraries from a comparative perspective. Globalisation, mobility and the new techniques that spin off from the digital age bring about new possibilities that stimulate and enhance our capacity to ask new questions about how we perceive ourselves and how we want to preserve our history. It also seeks to make this archival documentation accessible to scholars and community members alike looking for their own family’s history in its societal context—within and across the national borders that hold their records. As migration in all its forms can be seen as a metaphor for the journey of the self and the collective, migrant heritage can also serve as a way to prioritise digitisation projects in cultural heritage institutions. However, more global collaboration and partnerships are needed to achieve this “virtual reconnect” the cross-national scattered nature of migrant histories and heritage held in archives around the world.