Bali 1928 Archives — FAQ’s
What is Bali 1928 Archives?
Bali 1928 Archives is an ongoing research, dissemination, digitisation, and repatriation project dedicated to historical Balinese documents and recordings from the late 1920s and 1930s.
Who leads the project?
The project is led by ethnomusicologist Edward Herbst, Marlowe Bandem (ITB STIKOM Bali), and Allan Evans (Arbiter of Cultural Traditions), in collaboration with institutions and archives around the world.
What materials does the archive focus on?
The project centres on the first commercial recordings made in Bali (1928–29) by the German labels Odeon and Beka, and also includes related films and photographs produced by scholars, artists, and storytellers who visited Bali during the 1930s.
Why are the recordings important for Balinese music today?
Among the archive’s 111 aural recordings are early examples of gong kebyar and tembang (vocal music) that in many cases had fallen out of circulation. These recordings allow contemporary musicians to study pre-war tunings, phrasing, ornamentation, and compositional structures, and to adapt or reinterpret them within current performance practice. What risked being lost becomes a living reference.
What does repatriation change?
Repatriation helps shift interpretive power. Materials once held mainly in European and American institutions are increasingly accessible in Bali, so educators, and village communities can interpret and use them on their own terms—as tools for local reflection, pedagogy, and cultural strategy, not only as objects of foreign scholarship.
Why is this considered both healing and generative?
Because repatriation can be healing, by repairing some fractures created by colonial collecting and displacement, and also generative, by creating new ground for experimentation, imagination, and cultural renewal.
Is it just an archive?
No. Bali 1928 is not only a repository of historical media. It is an evolving relationship between archival materials and present-day Balinese communities, shaped through return, listening, community engagement, and reinterpretation.
How does Bali 1928 support intergenerational dialogue?
Through Cinema Bali 1928, recordings and films are brought back to the villages where they were originally made. Descendants can see and hear the artistry of their grandparents and great-grandparents. These encounters often spark (1) new choices in composition, costume, and staging today; (2) family stories and local memories; (3) corrections to received historical narratives; and (4) renewed pride in village styles.
Does the project “preserve” culture in the past?
Not in a freezing sense. The restored materials are catalysts for new creativity: new compositions, dance reconstructions, films, theatre works, museum installations, and digital projects. The Bali 1928 Archives demonstrates that looking back can open new aesthetic and intellectual paths, rather than locking culture into 1930.
How can I access the archive or get involved?
If you wish to engage more directly with the archive or its repatriation activities, personal access and further information can be arranged by contacting Marlowe Bandem, the program manager in Indonesia.
