Truth and reconciliation leader to advance decolonization work at UVic reports the university website..
Decolonizing the library
Part of the TRC’s mandate was to focus on the acquisition of digital and physical records, to capture the provenance of each record where possible, and to input extensive metadata with each record. This important work will now serve Moran well, as he provides leadership and guidance for the Libraries’ strategic and operational responses to the UVic Strategic Framework (priority 4: Foster Respect and Reconciliation), and the university’s Indigenous Plan.
Moran will work closely with the Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement (IACE) to support their initiatives, particularly as they relate to the TRC’s calls to action; be involved with the Diana M. Priestly Law Library in support of the Faculty of Law’s joint degree program in Canadian Common Law (JD) and Indigenous Legal Orders (JID); and develop best practices on decolonizing library subject guides.
“We have to recognize that Indigenous knowledge comes from many sources—some is written down but much of it can only be accessed through relationship, dialogue and listening,” explains Moran. “If we’re actually going to start to embrace the concept of decolonizing our archives and libraries, we have to reallycreate space for non-paper-based documentary heritage and start creating spaces for knowledge retention within those library and archive spaces. We have to start changing how we think about where knowledge is kept, what it looks like when it’s kept, and what we need to do in order to preserve it.”
One example of the current and ongoing work in the University Libraries in the area of decolonization can be seen with the Faculty of Humanities-led project, Colonial Despatches, a free online database containing the correspondence between British authorities and the governors of Vancouver Island and BC from 1846-71. In collaboration and consultation with the First People’s Cultural Council and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, work is ongoing to decolonize the archive with enhanced and revised search terms.
Recently, library intern Karine St-Onge, developed a digital ethics and reconciliation report that explores ethical approaches based on repatriation and decolonization of materials, and ethical issues related to digital libraries and the curation of digital objects.
In addition, librarian Pia Russell was inspired by findings from the TRC to focus on digitizing BC Historical textbooks. Upon hearing the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair speak about the TRC in 2016, Russell was moved by his declaration of how decades of exclusionary and biased curriculum within the Canadian school system had impaired how Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians relate to one another.
Read the full article at https://www.uvic.ca/news/topics/2020+indigenous-libraries-rymoran+news
