Course:ARST573/First Nations Archives

First Nations Archives refers to cultural institutions that contain records about Aboriginal peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. A record can be "any documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, created by or for an individual or organization during the pursuit of normal activities." Federal, provincial, and local archives, museums and libraries, universities, and genealogical societies often hold materials relating to First Nations peoples. The archives of major religious denominations and of businesses such as the Hudson's Bay Company also possess records that supplement or compliment the holdings of archival institutions.
First Nations Archives can also mean the body of recorded information created by a group or community of First Nations peoples. An example of this is the Library and Archives of the Musqueamin Vancouver, which "maintains a growing collection of works relating to aboriginal rights and history with a focus on the North West Coast and Central Coast Salish."

Government Commissions and Impact on Aboriginal Archives

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

The Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was established in 1991 to investigate issues of aboriginal status in Canada. It published its 4000 page report in 1996. One of the recommendations calls for the creation of an Aboriginal documentation centre. It states that “records and recollections of history, both the good and the bad, should be collected, preserved and made more accessible to all Canadians, before it is too late. We see an Aboriginal-controlled documentation centre as the best way to do so."
This raised a serious issue for archives in Canada. As the report noted, “a substantial portion of the history of Aboriginal people resides in government files, church storerooms, and archives across Canada” and the logistics of gathering, arranging, and describing the material were too complex. In addition, many institutions faced the challenge of how to balance their responsibility to the records in their care with their responsibility to Aboriginal peoples.
RCAP includes two other recommendations that affect cultural institutions that hold Aboriginal records. The Commission states that Aboriginals have made justifiable demands for:

• repatriation of artifacts of great importance
• prevention of appropriation (or theft) of songs, stories, and other intellectual property by non-Aboriginal people

In addition, the report urges museums and other cultural institutions to adopt ethical guidelines in the collection, display, and interpretation of artifacts related to Aboriginal cultures. It further encourages the institutions to provide Aboriginal peoples with better access to their cultural heritage.
These last two issues have been addressed by individual archivists, by the Association of Canadian Archivists, and by various cultural institutions. The current thoughts on this will be discussed in the section on Approaches to Aboriginal records.

Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Interim Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or TRC) was established in 2008 to acknowledge, witness, document, and promote education and awareness of the experiences, impacts, and consequences of the Residential Schools, which were run by the Government of Canada and many church denominations within Canada.
The TRC has had a direct impact on many archives in Canada; Schedule N states that “Canada and the churches will provide all relevant documents in their possession or control to and for the use of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission” subject to privacy legislation, to privacy and access to information legislation, and to solicitor-client privilege. Canada and the churches are also “required to compile all relevant documents in an organized manner for review by the Commission and to provide access to their archives for the Commission to carry out its mandate.” The TRC also required photocopies of all the documents relating to Residential Schools, which would be housed in its collective archive, or research centre.
The first requirement raises many legal concerns that archivists have to tease out before they can give the commission access to records. They must become familiar with the applicable legislation and must check each record individually to determine whether it falls under the legislation. In addition, there is the sheer amount of time it takes to identify and retrieve all the records before vetting them. Preservation issues may also arise as some records could be too fragile for photocopying.

Importance of Aboriginal Archives and Records

Many Aboriginal communities do not have their own archives or records management programs. The Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Special Interest Section on Aboriginal Archives lists a number of reasons why establishing an Aboriginal archives is of significance to communities. Some of the points are similar to those raised by both RCAP and the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The creation of Aboriginal managed archives and the preservation of Aboriginal materials in other archives offer the following benefits: they can help preserve culture and aid in self-government, they allow Aboriginals to control their own histories, they can act as legal evidence in courts, in particular in land claims proceedings, and they can lead to reconciliation and heal the wounds of the past.

Preservation of Culture and Identity

Historically, First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people have been separated from their languages, culture, and heritage. Many oral traditions have been lost through the diminishing number of Elders who speak Aboriginal languages.
Until recently, much of the archival material about Aboriginal people is administered by non-Aboriginals, thus creating archival captives, because “to be because to be an Indian is to have non-Indians control your documents from which other non-Indians write their version of your history” However, a number of Aboriginal communities in BC, Nunavut, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories have concluded self-government negotiations with the Government of Canada. Preserving archival records for the use of future generations can help these communities in fulfilling their responsibilities in basic self government. In addition, and perhaps even more importantly, records administered by Aboriginal groups can allow them to control their own history and take possession of their identities. Preserving records in archives fosters and protects languages, traditional knowledge, and other cultural heritage. Below, Alvin Dixon of Bella Bella in British Columbia gives a few reasons why preservation of cultural material is important. One of them is that seeing the photographs sparked names and words which he had previously forgotten.

Reconciliation

As part of the ethical belief that archives have a duty and responsibility to uphold social justice, archives provide evidence and memory of injustices or crimes that are committed by individuals, institutions and governments. This evidence can help to hold those responsible accountable and can aid the process of reconciliation for those who were victims. For example, the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) specifically states that one of its central goals to it “identify sources and create as complete an historical record as possible of the IRS [Indian Residential Schools] system and legacy. The record shall be preserved and made accessible to the public for future study and use.” The importance of documents to the work of the TRC was upheld by an Ontario court that ruled the federal government must provide all the relevant documents to the Commission.
Another example of archival records being used to confront the IRS past is that of artwork done by students who were in residential schools. The art survived in the Archives of the University of Victoria and was recently rediscovered. The artwork will be repatriated to the students who created it.

Legal Evidence

Both the physical archival institution, and the records that are protected by it, serve to defend valuable assets, ranging from material things such as land or buildings, to intangible things, such as rights and knowledge. In the context of Aboriginal archives, the struggle to defend the rights of Aboriginal peoples requires that records be well preserved. Recorded words and histories can defend collective rights in the courts, as is evident in cases where communities have launched land claims.
In addition to oral accounts that have been recorded, oral accounts may be performed in court rooms and thus be admissible as legal evidence. The precedent for this was set in the 1987 ruling in the Demalgamuukw v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia case. The Court ruled that the relevant oral history of a people can be given in evidence under an exception to the Hearsay Rule for it could not otherwise be proven, that is, it satisfies the test of necessity.

Land Claims

There are two main types of legal proceedings related to land claims. The first are comprehensive claims which deal with unfinished business of treaty-making in Canada. These claims arise where Aboriginal land rights have not been dealt with through past treatise or any other legal means. These claims are often addressed through forward-looking modern treatise that are negotiated between the Aboriginal group, Canada and the province or territory. The second are specific claims which address past grievances of Aboriginal peoples related to Canada’s obligations under historic treaties or the way the government managed Aboriginal funds or other assets.To honour its obligations, Canada negotiates settlements with the First Nation and (where applicable) provincial and/or territorial governments. In either case, land claims must be accompanied by a series of documents supporting the claim, including historical documents that are relevant to the claim.

Unique Characteristics of Aboriginal Records

Some records created by or about Aboriginal peoples have unique characteristics that set them apart from other types of archival records. Specifically oral records, which have been accepted as legal evidence in Canadian courts, present challenges to archival science and raise questions of preservation and interpretation of these records. Another characteristic of Aboriginal records is the idea of "cultural copyright" which has been applied to them.

Oral Records

Oral records differ from traditional records in their lack of materiality. In other words, they are not tangible in the way that a paper document is. Instead, these records are passed down from one generation to the next. Maintaining reliability of oral records over time is an issue when spoken words become things, or when spoken words are recorded. "Treated as independent things, oral accounts may be disembodied from their appropriate arena of transmission and preservation, their interrelationships could be endangered, and their uniqueness-in-context may be abandoned."

Preservation of records

Since oral accounts are, by their nature, perpetually "current", the issue of preservation becomes a complex one. There is an inherent paradox in trying to preserve something that keeps changing over time. For Aboriginal people, objects and oral records are part of their living culture. Objects become meaningless if they are not used in daily life and ceremonies. In contrast to this, an archivist's approach to preservation is to consider how best to prolong the lifespan of the object, rather than how the object can be used.

Interpretation

Oral accounts can be difficult to interpret for those of different cultures because these accounts contain spiritual concepts and other ideas that are foreign. As already stated, Aboriginal oral accounts can change over time, for example when notions from European systems of thought or belief are adopted.

Intellectual and Cultural Copyright

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has defined Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) as cultural materials created by a community, which demonstrate that "community's cultural and social identity" and form part of a "community's heritage.... handed down from one generation to another." According to this definition, First Nations' TCE could include any records or materials that represent their cultural heritage, or any knowledge that has been developed and passed down among First Nations. According to Kay Mathiesen, First Nations should be given the right to control access to their TCE, in spite of the fact that this goes against the ACA Code of Ethics, which states that archivists should "encourage and promote the greatest possible use of records in their care." Matheisen argues that the concept of group privacy provides an ethical justification for allowing Aboriginal groups to control who can access records about them. The idea of cultural property, which is "the material manifestations that relate to a civilization, especially that of a particular country at a particular period" is another concept which gives First Nations a moral right to restrict access to their records.

Approaches to Aboriginal Records

Diplomatic Analysis of Oral Records

Mary Ann Pylypchuk has argued, "to analyze an oral document as an archival document and record, the principles of archival and diplomatic science must be applied within a predominantly oral juridical system." A juridical system is "a collectivity organized on the basis of a system of rules. The system of rules is called a legal system.... Each juridical system differs from all others and itself varies over time." The juridical system in Canada currently is a literate one in which the written word is more important than oral accounts.

Anthropology and Archives

Archives that hold materials about First Nations are beginning to think about their holdings in a new way. In the past, these items were seen as museum artifacts that were representative of a culture that no longer existed. Now archives and museums recognize that First Nations cultures are not relics from past eras, but that First Nations cultures are contemporary. Archivist can learn from anthropological approaches to knowledge about First Nations, and especially the representation of this knowledge.

Participatory Archives

Both RCAP and the TRC advocate for the creation of Aboriginal archives and for the repatriation of records and artifacts. This approach is not always realistic or practical, given the sheer amount of items held in various archives throughout Canada and the lack of resources amongst many Aboriginal groups to properly care for them. Many archives with Aboriginal records have established programs in conjunction with Aboriginal groups. Following the principle of cultural copyright, archivists agree that Aboriginal groups have the right to decide who has access to their records or records about them. According to principles of archival science, tapes and transcripts of oral accounts should be given to First Nations groups in order to ensure the reliability and authenticity of the records. Raymond Frogner agrees with McRanor's analysis, but also pushes her arguments further. He states that, by employing a postmodern analysis to records, archivists can discover more about provenance and the socially constructed nature of the record than can be revealed through the use of archival science and diplomatics. Frogner concludes that archivists should employ "distributed description" and use web 2.0 and crowdsourcing. He states that "the best response is to insinuate Aboriginal participation into the contextual representation of the colonial archival record."

Some archives have already established cooperative programs with Aboriginal people to describe the records in their custody. See, for example, Project Naming which is a collaborative effort between Nunavut Sivuniksavut, Library and Archives Canada, and Nunavut’s Department of Culture, Languages, Elders and Youth. The University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology has a collaborative program with First Nations on the West Coast, called the Reciprocal Research Network