Indigenous Librarianship

In the last twenty years, many collecting institutions have heeded the calls by Indigenous activists to integrate indigenous models and knowledge into mainstream practices. The digital terrain poses both possibilities and problems for Indigenous peoples as they seek to manage, revive, circulate, and create new cultural heritage within overlapping colonial/postcolonial histories and oftentimes-binary public debates about access in a digital age.

The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is committed to working respectfully with the originating communities from whom the Museum’s collections have originated. Discussions regarding repatriation are governed by this principle. MOA considers all requests for repatriation seriously and on a case-by-case basis.

This first edition of the handbook was written by the Indigenous Collections and Repatriation Department of the Royal BC Museum and the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay, and it was reviewed by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the Royal BC Museum Indigenous Advisory and Advocacy Committee. The handbook was created in response to the feedback received during the 2017 Repatriation Symposium hosted by the Royal BC Museum and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council.

Moira G. Simpson is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. She has written extensively on the subjects of museums, Indigenous cultural politics and repatriation.

This policy has been developed in the spirit of the recommendations of the Assembly of First Nations/Canadian Museums Association Task Force on Museums and First Peoples. This policy applies to human remains and associated burial objects, archaeological objects and related materials, ethnographic objects, and records associated with these held in the collections.

Third edition is complete. The TRAILS Tribal Library Procedures Manual is currently undergoing revisions by the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the ALA Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds Committee (RNTLOAK) towards a new 4th Edition; as work proceeds, the working document available.

The AABC Archivist's Toolkit offers access to a wide range of on-line and published resources for Archivists and archives workers at all levels. Special care is taken to provide resources for small and medium-sized archives.

The Indigenous Archives Network was established in 2011, by Dr Shannon Faulkhead and Kirsten Thorpe through a National Archives of Australia Ian Maclean Research Award. In 2018, a group of researchers and practitioners – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – came together to revitalise the network under the new name of the Indigenous Archives Collective* to reframe the site as an open blog to encourage discussion about Indigenous archives.

Slides, resources, and documents outlining the issues and awareness of Indigenous archives.

The purpose of this page is to present a selection of resources to support Indigenous organizations, cultural memory-keepers, and archivists who find themselves working with community records and to further the care, access, and preservation of heritage materials within Indigenous communities.

Information management resources from the First Nations in BC Knowledge Network site.

Mukurtu is a content management system and digital access tool for cultural heritage, built for and in ongoing dialogue with Indigenous communities. Mukurtu offers the ability to provide differential access to community members and the general public and to create space for traditional narratives and knowledge labels that foreground Indigenous knowledge in the metadata of digitized cultural heritage materials.

Slides, resources, and documents outlining Indigenous issues within Records Information Management (RIM).

Developed in collaboration with University of Lethbridge and Red Crow Community College to celebrate Akaitapii through various forms of media, to help and support the Kainai and other students of today and tomorrow. The Blackfoot Digital Library is a venue for sharing our families and our communities stories, past and present.

The project is led by an interdisciplinary co-facilitation team of researchers with the Sound Studies Institute at UAlberta, whose mandate is to preserve and make accessible cultural materials and to increase cross-cultural understanding.

Indigitization is a B.C. based collaborative initiative between Indigenous communities and organizations, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the Museum of Anthropology, Northern BC Archives (UNBC), and the School for Library, Archival and Information Studies, to facilitate capacity building in Indigenous information management.

McGill University Library's exhibition The Moravian Beginnings of Canadian Inuit Literature traces the beginnings of literacy and written literature for the Inuit living in Nunatsiavut (Labrador) and, to a lesser extent, in Nunavik.

A multimedia interactive map that highlights hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ place names throughout Musqueam’s Traditional Territory. It also provides audio of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language from Musqueam elders past and present, as well as historical photographs.

Created by the Musqueam Indian Band, the Stó:lō Nation/Tribal Council, the U’mista Cultural Society, and the Museum of Anthropology. It is an online tool to facilitate reciprocal and collaborative research about cultural heritage from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia.

Includes the BC Multicultural Photograph Collection at the Vancouver Public Library; the Bill Reid Centre Collection; the Northern Justice Society Native Crime Bibliography; the Rodeo Collection; the Scowlitz Artifact Assemblage Project; and the White Mountain Apache Collection.

Squamish Public Library manages a digital collection, which includes historical photographs, newspapers (1948-2001), and other materials related to First Nations history.

A collaborative project of the Sq’éwlets and a team of archeologists at UBC. The virtual museum displays nearly three decades of collaborative work, sharing Sq’éwlets stories, history, language, and the deep connection between people and place as a way of situating Sq’éwlets people in the world.

Offers a variety of research and informational materials on Indigenous peoples and the law; land rights; the Joint Indian Reserve Commission; the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission; and the history of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and First Nations in British Columbia.

Includes the ANCS Aboriginal Film Collection; the Aboriginal Veterans' Archive; Douglas Cardinal Fonds; Dene Crafts; the Stampede Archives; the Arctic Institute of North America Photographic Archives; Galileo Educational Network - Aboriginal Resources; Artistry of the Land, Ancient Stories and Art of our First Nations' People; and more.

Include the Henry Budd Letters; the Centre for Settlement Studies fonds; the Connie Macmillan Collection; the Kenneth Hates Collection (North-West Rebellion); the Jill Oakes fonds; the Red River Cartes de Visite Collection; the Louis Riel Photograph Collection; the Walter Rudnicki fonds; and the Nan Shipley fonds.

An online public space, created by the Edmonton Public Library in collaboration with Indigenous communities, which supports the community to create, share, discover, and celebrate local Indigenous content in the form of digital text, videos, sound files, and images.

An initiative to digitize and describe hundreds of thousands of Indigenous-related collection items in Library and Archives Canada's (LAC) holdings. This content includes textual material, photographs, artwork, maps and publications related to First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation, and comes from private donors, government records and published works. The initiative's goal is to make the content accessible to everyone through LAC's website, social media and other online tools.

Library of Congress: advice, tips, and resources for starting your own archival project,

The purpose of the Toolkit is to provide a reference document as well as a series of templates for BC First Nations communities interested in undertaking digitization projects. The Indigitization Toolkit also fits into a broader goal to provide support to First Nations communities in the management of their information.

York University: learn the basics of what to consider when planning your digitization projects.

Documents created for the National Heritage Digitization Strategy or in collaboration with its members.