The 2016 sitrep on Canada and reconciliation.
As many are noting, it’s been a year since the Liberals won the election with promises of implementing the TRC calls to action in their entirety.
Ian Mosby spent a few days tweeting each Call with their respective status; here’s the storify:
[View the story "Status of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action " on Storify]
When Mosby got to the Calls that related to archives and museums, I chimed in to say that the ACA has chosen its Taskforce on recommending responses - or at least, I know that I didn’t make the cut, as of August. They haven’t announced it officially yet.
TRC Call to Action #57 Status: ❓ Uncertain pic.twitter.com/lI8CDNVXfL
— Ian Mosbγ (@Ian_Mosby)
October 26, 2016
@Ian_Mosby @ArchivesOntario is working on identifying, reproducing and sending all of its Residential School materials to the NCTR
— Desmond (@desmondcwong)
October 26, 2016
Here’s what I recommended during a listserv discussion about this last year (which occasioned this resource list on archives, decolonization, and indigenization):
Call #70 promises federal funding to the ACA to undertake a review of archival policies and practices to align them more with providing access to records about human rights violations in residential schools. There are also a number of Calls that indicate archives must begin working in earnest to prioritize services for Indigenous knowledge - for public school curricula, journalism, artistic projects, annual commemorative events, and anniversary exhibits in 2017.
Call #57 is for education for public servants at all levels on Aboriginal issues (which I take to mean education both for and by archivists). Call #76 and others imply that Aboriginal communities will guide many of the efforts of cultural-heritage professionals.
In terms of [the] question about how we as a profession can respond, I have a few suggestions on ways to make this a bigger priority (ones that don't require separate funding, only a realignment of values):
1) Archivaria could dedicate space in each issue going forward to dealing with the issues of Canada's Indigenous history and current affairs. A themed issue in 2016 or 2017 may stimulate discussion and responses in future issues.
2) We could have a stream at our annual conferences, in this and future years, that provides dedicated space for presentations on these issues. I would also welcome major keynotes from Indigenous community members and scholars.
3) The CCA and other groups that offer professional development could find Indigenous speakers to give webinars, workshops, and other services. I'd love to hear about lessons learned from other regions who are farther along in Indigenous reparations than we are.
4) It would be nice to see existing working groups nod to Aboriginal representation regardless of their focus: perhaps a commitment by the CCAD to incorporate Indigenous knowledge or languages into their revision of RAD?
I’m reposting this not just because I think I’m right, but because I feel like we’re lacking in some serious public discussion here. Grant Hurley’s editorial in Off The Record, the AAO’s newsletter, cites this listerv discussion as a “turning point” in Canadian archival silence about reconciliation. As much as I wish that was true, I think the silence is still winning.
TRC Call to Action #69 Status: ❌ Incomplete pic.twitter.com/isNq8kqReD
— Ian Mosbγ (@Ian_Mosby)
October 26, 2016
I want the ACA to issue an update on their progress, announce the Taskforce members, and show us some initial ideas. With or without federal funding, the good-faith action to take is to start working. Decolonization will mean restructuring entire work habits from the ground up, not just an event here and an exhibit there and some articles every once in a while. (Although do read the OTR issue on reconciliation; it’s great.) We have to move the concept out of the scholarly record and into our practice, and help each others do so by talking about it.
It means we need to be constantly interrogating our practices and standards. That means we don’t wait for special money for special projects; it means we each change what we’re doing, right now.
Oh hey did I mention that the ACA now has a funded archives scholarship for indigenous students? Did I mention it’s funded by Ancestry?