From Time Immemorial: Centering Indigenous Knowledge in Archival Practice

Speakers: Jennifer R. O’Neal, University of Oregon; Michael Pahn, National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center

This presentation will examine the traditional Indigenous knowledge systems that are at the center of Native American lifeways and culture. We argue that it is imperative that these traditional knowledge systems must be the foundation for the overall care and management of Indigenous archives in non-tribal repositories. Further, we show that applying a decolonizing practice approach will ensure that Indigenous ways of knowing will be centered in the stewardship of collections. Examples of how this work can and should be implemented in repositories are presented to show specific examples and as a call to action.

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This session is part of the “Stewardship of Indigenous Materials in AV Archives” program stream at AMIA 2019.  This program stream, in collaboration with the Association of Tribal Archives Libraries and Museums offers collaborative methods, technologies, tools, and workflows to ethically preserve and provide access to indigenous audiovisual heritage materials. The programming is funded by a contract with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), with funds provided by the National Film Preservation Board.

November 16, 2019 | Baltimore, MD