judgement and repair. This could be supported by legislation, professional codes, or civic charters. It would mark a shift from technical governance to relational accountability.
The Archive as Infrastructure Finally, the archive must be understood as infrastructure. Not a back-office function, but a public good. It supports learning, accountability, and trust. It allows institutions to see themselves clearly, to recognise patterns of harm and care and to have the ability to respond. It is not just what we keep, it is how we remember, how we answer and how we build again.
The author closes this section with a civic truth: "the archive is not passive, it is a site of presence, when built with care, it becomes the foundation of repair".
