Author Archives: JordenHabib

M2, P5: X̱wi7x̱wa Library

UBC’s X̱wi7x̱wa Library is the first (and, at present, the only) Indigenous branch of an academic library in Canada. The library, once headed by the brilliant Gene Joseph, is a leader in Indigenous academic library work. For classification, they use a variation of the Brian Deer Classification system, a method of Indigenous Knowledge Organization, that prioritize place in the classification.

In this video, Gene Joseph talks about knowledge and libraries. X̱wi7x̱wa translates to the English ‘echo’ and it’s perfect for a library, a place where knowledge is ready for the next person to access it.

M2, P4: Co-Lab(orating) in Making History Accessible

https://co-lab.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng

While investigating Indigenous library initiatives, I came across the Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) Co-Lab, a crowdsourcing tool to tag, transcribe, describe, and translate Canadian heritage documents. This looks like the sort of project that could be used for a hack-a-thon or edit-a-thon project for a Canadian heritage project or event or even in a social studies classroom. This would be a great tool to teach about metadata, knowledge organization, issues with classification, and access to primary sources.

The Co-Lab (LAC, n.d.) intro hook very effectively caught me!

Imagine transcribing handwritten letters like the one that Louis Riel wrote the day before his death to his wife and children, asking her “to make them pray for me,” or tagging the names of soldiers in photographs from the First World War. You can help to unveil a great part of our history by using Co-Lab.

Transcribe, tag, translate and describe digitized records from our collection. The more work we collaborate on using the Co-Lab crowdsourcing tool, the more accessible and usable our digital collection will become for everyone using the Library and Archives Canada(LAC) website.

Library and Archives Canada. (n.d.) Welcome to Co-Lab! Co-Lab Home. https://co-lab.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng

M2, P3: Indigenous Heritage Action Plan (LAC)

Library and Archives Canada collects, preserves, and provides access to historical materials documenting the Canadian experience. In 2019, they worked with members of the Indigenous Advisory Circle to create the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Indigenous Heritage Action Plan. The plan outlines 28 concrete actions LAC will take to engage, collaborate, manage, identify, support, and promote Indigenous heritage materials within the LAC collection. The action plan introduces their approach to institutional change and how they intend to fulfill their commitment to the TRC calls to action.

Per the Action Plan (LAC, 2019):

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is committed to playing a significant role in reconciliation between the Government of Canada and First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation based on a renewed nation-to-nation or government-to-government relationship, particularly with regard to human rights. These rights include international Indigenous rights, as defined by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), a Declaration to which the Government of Canada is fully committed. LAC has an important role to play in ensuring Indigenous rights to culture and language preservation, and in managing information relating to Indigenous peoples. International rights extend to include victims and survivors of human rights violations, as set out by the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles (UNJOP). Through the preservation of information documenting human rights abuses, such as those that took place within the Indian residential school system, LAC supports Indigenous peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why.

Library and Archives Canada. (2019). Indigenous heritage action plan. Indigenous documentary heritage initiatives. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/initiatives/Pages/actionplan.aspx

M2, P2: Raven Trust Podcast

Raven (De)Briefs: A Podcast

These podcasts are fantastic. The content is interesting; they feature Indigenous musicians; and the speakers are brilliant.

I was searching for some more information on Nikki Iyolo and Nancy Turner and both were interviewed for the Raven (De)Briefs podcast. It’s a really fascinating mix of law, the environment, contemporary issues, and Indigenous perspectives. In the Season 2, episode 7 podcast, they speak with Judge John Reilly, an Alberta judge who advocates for Indigenous legal frameworks and restorative justice circles. He’s the author of Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canada, and in the podcast they talk about criminalized Indigenous peoples and the Indigenous populations in Canadian prisons. According to the Podcast, Indigenous peoples represent 5% of the overall population in Canada but 30% of the incarcerated peoples in Canada. Reilly talks about the deep flaws of the Canadian legal system, systemic discrimination, and the value of restorative circles. He committed to learning about the community with whom he worked, and engaging with his local Indigenous community (Treaty 7, Canmore), changed his perception of the Canadian legal system. He talks about how the legal system ignores emotions and systematically discriminates against Indigenous people and resolutions that might be more effective. One quote that really stuck out to me was: “we sacrifice human lives on the alter of deterrence,” (Reilly, 19:07).

In some ways, I think Western education has many of the same problems. Curriculum often values the colonialist worldview and we push punishment over restorative practices. We penalize people for not following the rules or laws, and don’t often offer opportunities to demonstrate learning afterwards (e.g., hand in a paper for a MET class and that’s it– no chances to revise and resubmit). I’ve been wondering lately how many adult learners leave my institution because they don’t get those opportunities. That practice doesn’t reflect our realities. If I make a mistake or miss something at work, that’s a learning opportunity. Shouldn’t education operate the same way?

Reilly, J. (2019). Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canada. Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.

M2, P1: Decolonizing is for everyone

In this Ted Talk, Nikki Sanchez talks about our collective responsibility to decolonize our present and work toward a better, equitable future. She talks about the historic and social reasons for decolonizing; why it’s so essential; and what decolonization looks like. In her talk she says:

“This history is not your fault, but it is absolutely your responsibility.”

This really resonated with me and is going to form the basis of my library decolonization action plan.

M1, P5: IsumaTV & Oral Language

IsumaTV, launched in 2008, is “Canada’s first media distribution company specializing in Inuit and Aboriginal films.” The programming originated from a coalition including: Igloolik Isuma Productions (heavily referenced in Ginsburg, 2002); Nunavut Independent TV Network (NITV); Arnait Video Productions; Artcirq; ImagineNATIVE Film+Media Arts Festival; Vtape; Native Communications Society of the NWT; and other non-profit agencies.

The IsumaTV platform is really beautiful. It’s a collaborative multimedia space, where each user can “design their own space, or channel, to reflect their own identity, mandate and audience.”

The platform and search functions rely on icons and colour-coded language, with menu options in Inuktitut Roman, Inuktitut Syllabic, English, French and Spanish. IsumaTV “honours oral languages” and “emphasize[s] oral Inuktitut uploads rather than syllabic texts.” Take a look at the record for this story about Ptarmigan and Snow Bunting , for example. They have the title, links, and a tag in Inuktitut.

All citations above are from: IsumaTV. About us. http://www.isuma.tv/about-us

M1, P4: Indigenous Screen Memories – Archives

I wanted to see if I could track down digitized versions of some of the content mentioned in Gingburg’s (2002) Screen Memories.

Nanook of the North was pretty easy to find and widely available, although the quality was not great. The film, originally produced in 1922, was among the first 25 films selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for it’s cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance. The essay that accompanies the Library of Congress record for the selection describes the documentary as “one of the most significant American documentaries: it operates as a Rosetta stone for debates about documentary ethics, representation, ethnography, orientalism.” You can read the full essay supporting the selection decision here.

As such a prominent film, it was quite easy to come by. The others were more challenging, but I used the IsumaTV platform to track down lots of other amazing items, including some pieces mentioned in Gingsburg (2002).

Nanook of the north (1922) Full film, https://vimeo.com/42775802

Qaggiq (Gathering Place, 1989) Full film, http://www.isuma.tv/isuma-productions/qaggiq-gathering-place

Atanarjuat (The fast runner, 2000) Trailer, http://www.isuma.tv/isuma-productions/atanarjuat-trailer

Nanook of the North, excerpt, http://www.isuma.tv/vintage-inuit-movie-collection/excerpt-nanook-north-first-documentary-ever

Ginsburg, F. D. (2002). Screen memories: Resignifying the traditional in Indigenous media. In F.D. Ginsburg, L. Abu-Lughod, & B. Larkin, B. (Eds.), Media worlds: Anthropology on new terrain (pp. 37-57). University of California Press.

Zimmermann, P. R., & Zimmerman Auyash, S. (2015). Nanook of the North.[Online]. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, National Film Preservation Board.

M1, P3: Decolonizing Collections: A Map-based Interface

After reading the Marker’s (2006) paper this week, I was thinking about how a map interface might respect Indigenous ties to place more than a plain, old Western index. After a few searches, I came across this paper by a prof at the University of Alberta:

Shiri, A., Borys, C., & Huang, C. (2019). Mapping Canada’s Indigenous Digital Collections. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of CAIS / Actes Du congrès Annuel De l’ACSI. https://doi.org/10.29173/cais1060

The objective of this paper is to report on a comprehensive study to examine, identify, and map Canada’s Indigenous digital collections available on the web in order to provide a metadata-rich, map-based interface that supports unified, organized, and systematic access to the Indigenous digital collections.

Below is a prototype of the mapping interface Shiri et al. (2019, p.7) propose to develop:

Marker, M. (2006). After the Makah whale hunt: Indigenous knowledge and limits to multicultural discourse. Urban Education, 41(5), 482-505.

M1, P2: Recorded Stories: CBC Legends Project

This week I’ve started looking at how Indigenous stories have been recorded, digitized, and indexed. I came across the CBC Legends Project and was excited to listen to some recordings.

The CBC Radio’s Legends Project (2013) “compiles traditional oral stories, legends and histories of Canada’s Inuit and First Nations, gathered in communities across the country.”

However, I was initially so disappointed with the site. The first site I was directed to, CBC Aboriginal, was somewhat defunct. The site wasn’t displaying properly, it had not been maintained, and the recordings requiring installing Flash.

I reran my search and found the records on CBC Radio with a modern, pleasant display and the audio played well. It was clear and high quality.

The CBC changed their sub-site label from Aboriginal to Indigenous in 2016 and it looks like the first link was the previous, cached, iteration. It reflects poorly on repositories and archives when the site is poorly maintained, and the items are inaccessible. It does a disservice to the collections and the users. With the decision to record and make stories available, an organization needs to commit resources to maintain access and minimize digital obsolescence. CBC did follow through but how many people will go back and try the search again? How many would assume the CBC did not invest in a long-term commitment?

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio. (2013, July 26). Legends of the Ahtahkakoop. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/legends-of-the-ahtahkakoop-1.2913531

M1, P1: On Including Indigenous Stories

In this video, Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald (Q’um Q’um Xiiem; Sto:lo Nation) introduces protocols, processes, and procedures for including Indigenous stories in a classroom and identifies questions educators should ask when including Indigenous stories. Some of the questions include:

What are some of the cultural protocols or guidelines for various stories?

What are some of the purposes of stories?

Who can tell the stories?

What types of stories exist in their communities?

How to use the stories?

These protocols could have implications in how repositories of oral traditions identify and annotate records, and could affect how they make them available.