Information Institutions and Organizations

How can colonial information institutions begin to fulfill their obligations to represent Indigenous materials and knowledge in more respectful, informed ways?

Many information institutions in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and myriad other regions are deeply steeped in the “colonial tradition.” (This means that they, whether explicitly or implicitly, continue to reflect the value-systems of people who settled upon and staked claim to lands at the expense of the cultures who have lived on those lands since time immemorial.) As such, these institutions, despite their “best intentions,” may still unwittingly perpetuate harms to Indigenous cultures through appropriation, omission, and/or misrepresentation of Indigenous intellectual property and knowledge systems.

One direct way to increase representation of Indigenous knowledge in an information institution is to hire more Indigenous people to the institution. It’s important to recognize that Indigenous staff will not automatically be familiar with everything there is to know about Indigeneity. They should not be treated as all-knowing oracles for the vast expanse of Indigenous knowledge. However, they will likely be attuned to Indigenous concerns with relation to historically colonial institutions in ways that non-Indigenous staff may not immediately recognize. Institutions should stop and listen to Indigenous staff and patrons when they call out inappropriate representations of Indigenous intellectual property, and not drag their feet when those same staff and patrons call them in for discussions to rectify these errors in judgment.

Consulting critical library and archives theory can also help articulate and solidify information institutions’ senses of responsibility to Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property. There is a growing body of work at the conjunction of information studies and Indigenous studies that confronts the gaps between traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and the ways in which information institutions organize, name, and provide access to Indigenous materials. This body of theoretical work suggests that because the information professions inherit the massive store of information and materials as a result of the “colonial project,” they have an obligation to participate fully in Indigenous reconciliation, repatriation, and representation to help mitigate the lasting harms of colonization.

Finally, information institutions should synthesize the input of their Indigenous staff and critical theory readings into actionable strategic plans. Policy writers at information institutions should use critical theory’s broad outlines to identify and address Indigenous concerns specific to their patronage. Some information institutions could also look to existing Indigenous-run institutions as models for Indigenous knowledge organization. Through iteration and imagination, information institutions can use the capital they have inherited to provide “figurative and literal spaces for the work of building, analyzing, and experimenting with Indigenous knowledge organization.”

Content from this module addresses iSchool Graduate Competencies 1.4, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2

Information Institutions and Organiztions: Projects

Resources

Information Institutions and Organiztions: Features

Maina, C.K. (2012.) Traditional knowledge management and preservation: Intersections with Library and Information Science. The International Information and Library Review 44, 13-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iilr.2012.01.004

This resource seeks to align Indigenous culture preservation needs with information institutions’ stated mandates. Maina interviews Indigenous elders to identify their “needs, concerns, and wishes” in preserving and transmitting the knowledge they hold. All of the elders Maina interviews agree it is of utmost importance to preserve traditional knowledge so that it does not disappear. Preserving it in information institutions, however, may pose another set of problems. According to the elders, information institutions’ typical preservation protocols would extract “[traditional] knowledge from its contextual production and use,” which “poses challenges to its authenticity and validity.” It also “makes the knowledge more easily accessible and therefore likely to be construed by outsiders as public knowledge” (bearing in mind there are some pieces of knowledge that are restricted by custom). Nuanced questions of naming, context, ownership, governance, and access are all at play within Indigenous notions of knowledge organization. Maina argues that libraries, archives, and other information institutions should work closely with different Indigenous communities to develop customized systems and tools, instead of relying upon existing tools that cannot adequately meet the needs of Indigenous patrons.

Fraser, C. and Todd, Z. (15 Feb 2016). Decolonial sensibilities: Indigenous research and engaging with archives in contemporary colonial Canada. L’Internationale. Retrieved from http://www.internationaleonline.org/research/decolonising_practices/54_decolonial_sensibilities_indigenous_research_and_engaging_with_archives_in_contemporary_colonial_canada

Fraser and Todd’s essay takes a highly theoretical bent to the question of “decolonising” Indigenous materials held within Canada’s local, provincial, and national archives. Fraser and Todd indicate that the influence of the Canadian nation-state still towers unavoidably over efforts to give Indigenous materials room to “speak” for themselves. As such, the authors question whether Canadian archives can possibly be totally decolonised. They warn that there is “there is no single approach in decolonising or Indigenising the archives” and that the process “will require nuanced, thoughtful, and contextual approaches that tend to specific relationships, locations, histories and legal-political realities.” This emphasis on nuance and context is referred to as a “decolonial sensibility”—a sensibility that resists unilateral notions of what decolonisation is supposed to look like.

Blair, J. and Wong, D. (2017). Moving in the circle: Indigenous solidarity for Canadian libraries. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research 12(2), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i2.3781

In this article, Blair and Wong address possibilities for “solidarity and relationship building” among non-Indigenous library staff and Indigenous patrons in consideration of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. The authors say “solidarity” can be generally defined by a commitment to continual self-education and a willingness to “accept direction” from Indigenous communities with which one is allied. By putting in the work themselves, non-Indigenous staff can then turn what they’ve learned outward to non-Indigenous patrons and become better resources for the broader process of reconciliation.