Increasing Partnerships and Connections – the work of the ARA International Section
Prepared by ARA International Committee members Isabel Lauterjung, Secretary, and Chloe Anderson-Wheatley, Chair
16 January 2026
It has been almost two years ago since the UK & Ireland Archives and Records Association (ARA) established its International Section. We would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our achievements and highlight our work connecting an international community of archivists and recordkeepers. Our founding Chair Chloe Anderson-Wheatley, Corporate Records & National Archives Manager at the Jane Cameron National Archives in the Falkland Islands, decided to approach ARA with the idea of setting up a new section: the International Section.
ARA already had an international membership category but did not have much in the way of a network for international members. There is a slew of archivists and recordkeepers who have an international background and work in the United Kingdom or Ireland, or simply those who maintain an interest in international archival practice. This is where Chloe’s idea stemmed from: based on her personal experience working in a fairly remote location, she wanted to enable British or Irish professionals working outside of the UK, to British/Irish professional standards, to feel supported and provide a space to share experiences and professional challenges and opportunities.
The aim of our International Section is to provide a forum for ARA members, especially those based abroad or working abroad to UK/Irish standards, to exchange ideas and knowledge, provide training, and create a welcoming space to connect with other professionals who may have experienced similar challenges or can provide opportunities and advice. In order to achieve this, we decided to create a training series, the first session of which took place in May 2025: In Conversation: Around the World in Oral History Practice. Professionals working in the Netherlands, United States, and the United Kingdom came together to discuss oral history practice they’d encountered throughout their career. We’re excited to plan a further training session in this style for 2026!
As part of our second AGM in July 2025, we invited Kirsten Wright, Program Manager of the Find & Connect Project at the University of Melbourne, to speak about international collaboration on trauma-informed practice. This built off the work started with the ICA, and provided a great insight into how the international community, and our members, can promote and implement this practice into their own institutions. This is a topic of interest that we would love to expand upon in further training and conversation around cross-cultural trauma-informed practice.
A further training opportunity we were excited to be involved in was organised in collaboration with ARA Northern Region (the group of the Association’s professionals in the north of England): ‘Regional Archive Bodies in the UK and Europe’ was an informative event between the Northern Region’s Chair, the German archival association (Verband deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivare) and the Catalonian association (Associació d'Arxivers-Gestors de Documents de Catalunya (AAC-GD)). It was a great insight into the opportunities of challenges of regional archival bodies in different national systems and how best to utilise the group’s reach.
Global distribution of ARA International Section membership.
To inform our future training and event planning, we created a membership survey to gauge our members’ professional background, challenges and opportunities of their jobs, and what they would need from us. At the time of the survey, we had 75 members across 5 continents, demonstrating a need for ARA members to connect at a global scale. This has increased by 20 people since this survey was conducted.
The survey identified several ideas around future engagement opportunities: international exchange around the difference in archives education. Some respondents noted that in their geographic location, there was not a requirement for an official archival or recordkeeping qualification. It would be fascinating to have further conversations around how this informs professional practice in different countries. Furthermore, we would like to look into how established archival practices help inform and challenge existing standards, e.g. around Indigenous knowledge keeping and records.
2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for us – plenty of ideas around training and international recordkeepers’ exchange that will need organising! We would also like to create a space for a more informal exchange for our membership – consistently attending hour-long training sessions and meetings isn’t feasible and is a lot to ask of our membership, so another informal space would be great to encourage conversations and exchange. Our section is distinct from the ICA in terms of our membership, which is open for all members of the UK & Ireland Archives and Records Association – you don’t need specifically international membership, but you can merely be interested in international archival affairs! We are keen to continue to collaborate and connection with internation professionals to support our sector promote archival practice.
