Just what you wanted...another source to read.

Hi, Alexandra.

This is a great start so far, and I am very intrigued to read more as we go along. I wanted to share an ahhh-mazing dissertation I found last year while working on our arrangement and description paper:

• Rydz, Michelle. “Participatory Archiving: Exploring a Collaborative Approach to Aboriginal Societal Provenance.” University of Manitoba (Canada), 2010.

You may consider including something about participatory archiving with First Nations communities to ensure that the systems of knowledge for those communities are incorporated into the arrangement, description, etc. This is sort of related to the issue which you raise of treating First Nations cultures as contemporary and not static or a thing of the past. Rydz also does a survey of archivists working with First Nations materials to find out how many are from First Nations communities themselves (not many), and this might be an interesting thing to explore, too.

I hope this is helpful!

Thanks Chelsea! It's a good thing I really really like reading :) Thank you for the reference; I didn't have much literature for this topic, so this is perfect. I'll have to get back to you on the issues you raise after I've taken a look at it. This is most definitely helpful!

Hi Alexandra,

If you're looking for more sources you might want to approach members of SLAIS’ First Nations Interest Group or professor Lisa Nathan who runs the First Nations Concentration program. You might also want to look at the Squamish Lil'wat cultural centre ( http://slcc.ca/ ) located up in Whistler.