Tag Archives: archives

M3, P5: Reconciliation and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations

Library & Literacy Services for Indigenous (First Nations, Métis & Inuit) Peoples of Canada Position Statement

The Canadian Federation of Library Association represents library and information professionals from across Canada, from public, academic, and special libraries. The CFLA has been committed to developing policies and position papers to provide best practices and guidance on all issues related to libraries. The Committee on Indigenous Matters develops plans, policies, and position papers to help libraries address and implement TRC Calls to Action, implement the CFLA Truth & Reconciliation report recommendations, promote learning opportunities and engagement with colleagues. CFLA collaborates with Indigenous peoples to address library, archival, and cultural memory issues and engage in reconciliation. They use a medicine wheel to represent the working groups and their priority areas; they prepare materials, PD, policies, and position papers; and they promote courses and learning opportunities for library and information professionals.

For my final project, I want to create an action plan for my library and the CFLA policies and positions will help develop the strategic foundation necessary for a well-designed, professionally-sound strategic plan. My library serves people from across Canada, so having a less immediately local and more cross-country approved approach would best inform my planning process.

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

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.