The MECCA Archive
The MECCA Archive serves as a dynamic digital timeline of Australian women's cultural history, starting from the 1900s and growing annually with new chapters. Our creative agency collaborated with MECCA's M-Power initiative to develop the archive from scratch, which included establishing the archival framework, conducting extensive research and writing about over a century of history, obtaining visuals and permissions, and launching both the digital platform and a multi-channel campaign to encourage community involvement. Central to the archive are several key questions that guide its mission: prioritizing perspectives that have been historically marginalized. The archive's purpose extended beyond mere documentation; it was essential to create a space for every viewpoint, particularly those that are underrepresented, all while maintaining rigor, credibility, and the potential for growth. This required embedding accountability into the process from the outset—not merely as a formality, but as the cornerstone of trustworthiness and longevity. To genuinely showcase beauty as a facet of culture and to encompass varied perspectives throughout Australia's history, accountability had to precede content development. We implemented a cultural framework to direct each phase of the project, including research, writing, and curation. This framework, informed by feminist archival theory, decolonial practices, and insights from scholars such as Dr. Diana Taylor, Dr. Ann Cvetkovich, and Dr. Kate Eichhorn, established the archive's guiding principles and ensured that those principles were consistently applied in all decisions, rather than just mentioned in the introduction.