Indigenous Digital Archives: Mukurtu and Other Tools

As part of the Public History in the Digital Age series of workshops, attendees will learn about digital archiving and other foundational guides for working with Indigenous communities.

In this workshop, we will discuss four major concepts that have motivated the development of specifically Indigenous digital archives:

• data sovereignty — who owns archival materials;
• the critique of archival metadata — how are archival materials described;
• participatory appraisal — who determines what goes into archives, and
• digital repatriation — returning digital surrogates of archival originals to the community of origin.

After briefly introducing the debates, we will show specific examples of digital archives that try to instantiate these concepts, such as Mukurtu. We will have extensive time for semi-structured discussion, focusing on the extent to which these Indigenous digital archives currently satisfy the needs and aspirations of Indigenous communities, how should non-Indigenous organizations collaborate with Indigenous communities, and where should further work in this field be directed.

Sponsored by: