A year from now this will all be fog-gotten, lost in the way that memory goes vague of detail, and ceases - really - to matter. It is how the future is cast in replicating patterns, and becomes increasingy ingrown.
Sometime in the last week or so the Mulberry Bush Archive online catalogue site went down as a publicly-accessible resource. As per the Mulberry Bush practice and pattern (see "A Clean Break With (Others) Pasts)", there was no consultation - and in a sense why should there be, unless you are trying to build up a post-Closure community; and no warning. Fortunately, the Internet Archive has saved most of the catalogue, with some loss of content and functionality (For a list of the captures of the catalogue landing page, see here. For a list of the urls actually saved, see here).
It does hinder an element of research and accountability, and it might be a nuisance to archives which have taken in collections from the Closure, who might want to refer back to the original catalogues and catalogue descriptions; but perhaps these were sent with the collections themselves, or perhaps they have been given log-in details for the site that is still there. In any event, it is worth noting as a movement in history.
It was followed on July 29th by an email update on events "since the closure of Mulberry Bush Third Space, and the Archive at the end of May" from Dave Roberts, the Mulberry Bush Organisation's Deputy CEO. Dave notes that 90% of the archive collections have found homes across England and Scotland, and says that "Although this means the collections are no longer together, the majority are now in archives where they will be easier to access." Easier? Dispersed across the U.K.?
Of the 10% not yet homed, some have in fact found homes, but are in storage until those homes are ready for them. There is another group, however, which "were repeatedly declined by the organisations we approached. These are currently being held in off-site archival storage for six months while we continue our efforts to secure suitable new homes for them. I must emphasise that this is a temporary solution."
One imagines how this would transpose to the work with traumatised children. Indeed, I handled files in which just this discussion went on between the residential community and referring services. A child has outgrown what the provision can offer, and for their sake, and for the sake of the other children and the adults who look after them, they really need to find another home. But the referring agency, for whatever reason, is not playing ball. "We will hold onto them for another six months", the residential community says, "but we must emphasise that this is a temporary solution."
What then?
Lives to Landfill?
