This Keynote Address will explore self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and how protection and safeguards of their Traditional Cultural Expressions through Indigenous legal traditions including customary laws protocols codified laws and Indigenous designed guidelines strengthens the protection safeguards and preservation of cultural heritage despite the complexity with acknowledgement of past and current harms. Additionally taking into consideration the emergent of new technologies that can lead to new challenges and risks of misappropriation and misuse to Indigenous Peoples’ Traditional Cultural Expressions and leading to ways of appropriately appreciating and supporting cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples.

Professor Sara R. Benson, Dr. Melissa Ocepek, Siyao Cheng (PhD student), University of Illinois (Presented by Professors Benson and Ocepek)

Sara R. Benson is the copyright librarian and an associate professor at the Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an affiliated associate professor with the Center for Global Studies, European Union Center, and the School for Information Science at the University of Illinois. She currently serves as Head of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization. She holds a JD from the University of Houston Law Center, an LLM from the School of Law at Berkeley, and an MSLIS from the School of Information Science at the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the library, Sara was a lecturer at the University of Illinois College of Law for ten years. Sara is the best-selling editor of the ACRL book titled “Copyright Conversations” and author of the ALA Editions book titled “Compact Copyright.”

Melissa Ocepek is an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. Her research interests include everyday information behavior, critical and cultural theory, and qualitative methods. She has a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from Pepperdine University where she was also involved in the school's debate program. Much of her work has addressed the intersection of information and culture with a strong emphasis on food. She has published two books on this topic, Food in the Internet Age and Formal and Informal Approaches to Food Policy, with her coauthors William Aspray and George Royer. Her current research focus addresses the totality of everyday life by exploring information behaviors across life contexts through shadowing and participant observation.

Siyao Cheng is a Ph.D. student at the School of Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). With a keen focus on the intersection of law, education, and information sciences, her research is dedicated to unraveling the complexities of copyright education and everyday information behavior.

Ulia Gosart is a descendent of Udmurts, Indigenous people of south-eastern Siberia (Russia). She holds advanced degrees in Library and Information Science (LIS) and has training in human rights through her postdoctoral studies. Her scholarly work emerged from her advocacy; she served an umbrella Indigenous organization Russia until it was impossible to conduct Indigenous rights work in Russia. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion to Ukraine Ulia supports Ukrainian library colleagues. Her current scholarly work focuses on preservation of Indigenous intangible heritage, and representation of Indigenous faculty and students in LIS.

Valmaine Toki (BA/LLB (Hons), LLM, MBA and PhD) is of Ngati Rehua, Ngapuhi descent at Te Piringa. Professor Toki is faculty of Law, University of Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand. Valmaine Toki was the first New Zealander and Māori appointed by the President of the UN Economic and Social Council to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Indigenous nominated representing the Pacific, where she served two three-year terms. Professor Toki is currently in the second year of her first three-year term on the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, appointed as the first New Zealander and Māori.

This project explores library and archival mechanisms and practices of protecting Indigenous intangible knowledge. It focuses on the elements and expressions of knowledge that fall under the category of the Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE). The project treats the TCE category as a legal instrument, created by the intellectual property (IP) community of international scholars and policy makers. Currently this instrument is offered as means of protecting rights of Indigenous source communities to their cultural and intellectual creations. The elements and expressions of knowledge falling under TCA category include non-textual forms of Indigenous knowledge, dance and music, artwork and handcrafts and designs.

The authors argue that TCE would not be the legal tool of protection for the majority of Indigenous groups, given a choice. Conventional IP tools are ill-fitted to support communities’ needs in preserving their intangible heritage. These tools also are ill-fitted to support culturally appropriate practices of caring for Indigenous collections located in non-Indigenous institutions. At the same time, norms supporting protection of TCE allow employment of the IP tools and human rights instruments to support defensive protection of communities’ knowledge expressions, and communities’ rights to their cultural practices. The project employs examples from New Zealand (Maori) and Ukraine[MOU1] (Crimean Tatars) to explain (a) how the problems of protection manifest in different socio-cultural and legal settings; and (b) share practices that may serve as some solutions to the current issues associated with misuse and misappropriation of Indigenous knowledge.

Featured Speaker Dr. Tshepho Mosweu is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information studies, University of Botswana, where she teaches archives and records management modules to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as supervise their research. Before joining the University, Dr. Mosweu worked as an Archivist at different levels at the Botswana National Archives and Records Services. She is a Y2- rated researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. Dr Mosweu serves as the Deputy Editor of the Journal of the South African Society of Archivists. She has published academic papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters on digital records, archives, electronic records management systems, liquid communication, cloud- computing, research methods and oral history. Dr Mosweu is the co-editor of the book, Cases on Electronic Record Management in the ESARBICA Region published in 2020 by IGI Global.

With a focus on colonial subjugation this paper questions the absences and silences in the archives regarding indigenous knowledge stewardship. Colonialism entangled African countries within colonial structures that have largely survived even after their independence to govern their new states. One of these structures is the preservation and archiving of the documentary heritage of the indigenous people of Botswana. An ex-colony of the British Botswana had to inherit both the alien British way of archiving people's histories and colonial archives accumulated during the colonial period. Given this the national repositories do not accurately reflect the diversity of the population since most of the country's historical records come from government offices and colonial times. Constitutional discrimination (inherited constitution) of other tribes contributes to gaps and absences in the national repositories as well resulting in most of the information preserved in the National Archives coming from the prominent Tswana groups; another is the issue of language as most archives collected are in English an official language as well as Setswana a local language spoken by the so called "8 major tribes" at the expense of other languages. As a result of this scenario the history of other ethnic groups is not adequately documented and preserved for future generations nor is it generally available to researchers and other interested parties in the country. As part of the sustainable development of indigenous cultures knowledge systems and social engineering in an ethical manner this paper proposes an inclusive archiving practice that considers the diversity of the people in the country. Through the documentation of indigenous peoples' histories through African traditional and cultural practices oral histories of indigenous peoples and those of other marginalized communities the study recommends praxis-oriented measures for sustainable ethical stewardship of indigenous knowledge of the people of Botswana.

Cecilia Lizama Salvatore (PhD; The University of Texas at Austin) is Professor in and Coordinator of the Archives and Cultural Heritage program at Dominican University. As an indigenous “Chamorro” of the Pacific Islands (Guam and Saipan), she looks at how indigenous traditions can challenge, as well as inform, dominant, Western archival traditions. She has served as Territorial Librarian/Archivist of Guam, as well as Special Collections Librarian at the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. Her edited volume, Cultural Heritage Care and Management: Theory and Practice (2018), brings together multidisciplinary perspectives on cultural heritage management.

Description:

Representing a significant portion of the “Big Blue Pacific Continent,” members of IPIKU are Micronesian scholars who seek to elevate their indigenous dialogue, leadership, and scholarship. Included in the mission of IPIKU is the desire to preserve, perpetuate, and protect their indigenous languages, cultures, traditions, and knowledge. In addition, IPIKU seeks to create a centralized virtual repository of records capturing and depicting their languages, cultures, traditions, and knowledge. But as island nations with a rich, oral, tradition, that have been governed by other countries (Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States), capturing and recording their cultures and traditions – often moving them from the intangible to the tangible, presents a challenge to fulfilling their mission and goals. Who do they go to for the resolution of their problems, for answers to their questions, when, after years of colonization, they are not completely trusting of the laws, policies, and regulations presented to them? Where do they go for resolution of their problems, when while they know that they have to tell their stories, they are also wary of acculturation and even theft? What resources are more pertinent to their needs – their current government’s (the United States’) resources or the more global resources of the WIPO? The experience and perspectives of the IPIKU members, their collaborators, partners, and gatekeepers are described in this presentation. Members of IPIKU include the presenter, a former governor of one of the island groups, a long-time leader in the field of education, a sustainable engineering instructor and expert, etc.

Nancy E. Weiss is the fifth Abraham L. Kaminstein Scholar in residence at the U.S. Copyright Office. Weiss joined the Office on January 14, and will be serving in this position for the coming year. She will focus her activities on advancing scholarship, engagement, and research on the protection, preservation, access to and use of diverse forms of traditional cultural expressions.

Prior to joining the Office, Weiss served as general counsel of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an executive branch agency that provides federal leadership and support for the nation’s more than 140,000 museums, libraries, and archives, including tribal and native-led cultural organizations. She has served as a high-level advisor in the context of domestic and international policy on cultural activity and digital inclusion, including as a key drafter of several international agreements and partnerships, and as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Weiss held the position of senior advisor for innovation and IP to the chief technology officer of the United States at the White House. She also served as the secretary to the National Museum and Library Services Board, a presidentially appointed policy advisory board.

Weiss received a BA in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, before clerking for the Hon. William Schwarzer and practicing law at Williams & Connolly.

Josiline Chigwada, Tavhiringwa Tryson Chabvutagondo and Jacob Mapara (presented by Featured Speaker Josiline Chigwada)

Featured Speaker Josiline Chigwada is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA). She is a librarian with 17 years of experience in academic librarianship. She holds an Information Science doctorate from UNISA and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education. She is a member of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), the SPARC Africa management committee, the Zimbabwe Library Association (ZIMLA), the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), the International Association of Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST), and the Rotary Club of Msasa. She has authored on indigenous knowledge, open science, research data management, information and digital literacy, academic librarianship, and contemporary library and information science issues.

Tavhiringwa Chabvutagondo is a distinguished professional in the realm of data governance, blending technical prowess with a profound passion for cultural heritage inventorying. One of the defining aspects of Tavhiringwa's career is his unwavering interest in cultural heritage inventorying. Recognizing the importance of preserving and understanding cultural richness, he has dedicated his efforts to leveraging ICTs to safeguard and promote cultural legacies. The development and management of the Southern African Intangible Cultural Heritage Platform is a testimony of his work in this domain which reflects a deep appreciation for the intersection of technology and the human experience. Tavhiringwa holds several qualifications in Computer Science, Media Studies, an MSc in Big Data Analytics and MSc in Journalism and Media Studies.

Jacob Mapara is a professor of indigenous knowledge and living heritage at Chinhoyi University of Technology. He is the coordinator of the Southern African Intangible Cultural Heritage Cooperation (SAICH) platform in Zimbabwe.

The study investigates the profound impact of indigenous data governance principles on managing indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous communities worldwide possess rich knowledge systems crucial for cultural preservation sustainable development and community well-being. However managing this knowledge faces challenges that are exacerbated by colonial legacies including inadequate data governance frameworks that often fail to align with indigenous values protocols and ownership rights. Through a cross-cultural analysis this research explores how integrating indigenous data governance principles into knowledge management practices enhances cultural autonomy strengthens community resilience and fosters sustainable development. Drawing on a qualitative methodology including document and web content analysis a case study of the Southern African Intangible Cultural Heritage Cooperation (SAICH) Platform was done to elucidate the complexities and potentials of indigenous data governance in facilitating effective knowledge management. The FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles were utilised as the guiding data governance principles to document how indigenous knowledge in the seven participating countries is managed and the challenges being faced. The findings highlight the importance of culturally sensitive data protocols, community-driven decision-making processes, and reciprocal partnerships between indigenous communities and the database managers. By centering indigenous perspectives and values in data governance frameworks, this research offers insights into transformative approaches for advancing indigenous knowledge sovereignty and promoting equitable, ethical, and sustainable knowledge management practices. The authors recommend the need to involve the indigenous knowledge-holders in managing indigenous knowledge to comply with the FAIR and CARE indigenous data governance principles.

Professor Sandy Littletree, Professor Miranda Belarde-Lewis, Nestor Guerrero (MLIS Candidate), Professor Carole L. Palmer

Sandy Littletree (Navajo/Eastern Shoshone), Assistant Professor, is an LIS educator, scholar and Indigenous librarian focused on the intersections of Indigenous systems of knowledge and the LIS field. As a past president of the American Indian LibraryAssociation and former director of the Knowledge River Program at the University of Arizona, she has engaged with tribal and Indigenous librarians across the USA and Canada. Her pedagogy as an LIS educator is informed by relationality and focuses on teaching others about Indigenous issues in libraries and information institutions.

Miranda Belarde-Lewis, (Zuni/Tlingit) Assistant Professor, is the inaugural Jill and Joe McKinstry Endowed Faculty Fellow of Native North American Indigenous Knowledge at the University of Washington’s Information School. Her research focuses on the ways knowledge is documented and transmitted through Native art, and how information institutions are working to protect and respond to Indigenous data concerns. Belarde-Lewis is an independent exhibition curator who works with tribal, state, federal and international institutions and organizations to promote Native artists and their work. Her writing has been extensively published in numerous exhibition catalogues, art publications, and scholarly journals.

Nestor Guerrero is an MLIS candidate at the University of Washington, graduate research assistant for the DSISS project, and a 2023 ALA Spectrum Scholar. Formerlya processing assistant at University of Washington Special Collections, Guerrero worked on enhancing finding aids for the Jacobs Research Funds collections. With interests in digital humanities, data curation, and community-engaged research, Nestor has worked with digital community archiving initiatives (Sounds of California, ACTA) and was a recipient of the UCLA Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, where he studied identity formation and community building among Queer Latina/o/x DJs based in Los Angeles.

Carole L. Palmer (non-Indigenous) is Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the Information School at the University of Washington. She works in the areas of data curation and digital research collections, specializing in cross-disciplinary access and use and emerging best practices in research data services. She is currently PI on the Data Services for Indigenous Scholarship and Sovereignty (DSISS) project, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and the LIS Forward initiative, funded by IMLS. She is also co-PI on the NSF Qualitative Data Repository initiative. She holds a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Description:

The stewarding of Indigenous research data in library and institutional repositories requires a sophisticated approach that respects Indigenous values and needs. To this end, the Data Services for Indigenous Scholarship & Sovereignty (DSISS) project is working to support libraries and repositories in the implementation of the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. Through case studies with scholars of Indigenous language and culture, DSISS is exploring how CARE can be applied to research data in alignment with Indigenous research methods and Indigenous knowledge systems. This presentation will focus on a second phase of cases examining how CARE can be applied retrospectively to existing research collections in the special collections environment, based on the Jacobs Research Fund for linguistic and anthropological research and the associated data held in the University of Washington Special Collections. Originating in 1975 as a partnership between the Whatcom Museum and the University of Washington Libraries, the fund has supported more than 700 researchers studying Indigenous languages and cultures across the Americas. The cases reveal the complex decisions that scholars of Indigenous culture and language make as they collect and deposit their research data into repositories, addressing issues of preservation and access and highlighting the need for retrospective community building. The analysis also sheds light on the value of a collaborative curation approach that engages scholars and Indigenous communities, as well as the importance of coordination between special collections and research data services (RDS) within libraries. In this presentation, we share preliminary analysis of case studies and examine how library special collections and data repositories can benefit from a nuanced understanding of the different dimensions of the Collective Benefit element of CARE.

Dr. César Augusto Ramírez, Coordinador del Seminario de Información y Comunidades Indígenas, investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas y de la Información, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Dr. Harry Thomas, coordinador del proyecto Voces Indígenas de Mesoamérica – Guardar, Procesar y Evaluar Datos de Investigación. Universidad Libre de Berlín. (Online Presentation)

Mtra. Leticia Cervantes Naranjo, Universidad Intercultural Indígena de Michoacán, México.

Dra. Adriana Berrueco, investigadora del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM.

Blanca Aidé Cruz, consultora independiente en temas de pueblos indígenas, política pública y desarrollo comunitario.

The creation of recordings of Indigenous Peoples in sound and audiovisual recordings is a means to preserve part of the world's knowledge and worldview. The digital preservation of this heritage, in a context defined by the search for ecological solutions that reduce the technological impact on the environment, confronts the tension between community rights and the current legal framework to guarantee permanence and provide sustainable and ecological access to this form of digital heritage.

Jorge Espinoza Colón is a full-time academic at the Ibero-American University of Mexico City. He has 15 years of experience in research, teaching, cultural dissemination, and development promotion. His research interests are information literacy and social innovation.

Pedro Mario Martínez holds a Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Communication from José Vasconcelos University. Pedro is an indigenous person from Oaxaca, Mexico, currently dedicated to professional graphic design and visual communication.

This presentation discusses the potential of research in visual design as a means for recording and disseminating indigenous visual culture. To achieve this, the results of research aimed at recording the visual composition patterns of handicrafts known as alebrijes, which are made in "San Martín" Tilcajete, a region located in Oaxaca, Mexico, are presented. Alebrijes are carved wood crafts that represent imaginary animals decorated with indigenous symbology. To address the problem of appropriation of this symbology by national and transnational fashion companies, a collaborative visual design methodology was implemented where indigenous students from a bachelor's program in graphic communication worked with artisans to record the visual composition patterns. The research accounts for the empowerment of indigenous students in the generation and recording of information about their visual culture through research projects, which are preserved in local libraries.

Colleen Thurston is an Indigenous filmmaker and curator from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the founder of the Indigenous Moving Image Archive. Colleen has produced work for the Smithsonian Channel, Vox, illumiNATIVE and museums, public television, and federal and tribal organizations. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma, and the Project Producer for Native Lens, a collaborative Indigenous digital series for Rocky Mountain PBS and KSUT Tribal Radio. Her work has been supported by ITVS, Vision Maker Media, Firelight Media, Nia Tero, Patagonia, Sundance Institute and the Redford Center. Colleen is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Kate Dollenmayer is a non-Indigenous media archivist and filmmaker living in Richmond, California on Lisjan (Ohlone) land. Kate leads the development of culturally responsive descriptive practices at Prelinger Archives, which stewards thousands of home movies and other films from a diversity of communities and individuals, including many examples of Indigenous representation (both Indigenous-made and otherwise). Kate was previously Senior Film Archivist at the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles, where she co-led the consortium project “In Frame: Centering the Underrepresented in Moving Image Archives,” and is a Director of the Board at the Center for Home Movies.

Home movies Considering contemporary developments in Indigenous data sovereignty and visual storytelling, we will screen and discuss examples of how Indigenous home movies function as Traditional Cultural Expressions and artifacts of visual sovereignty. This session will also present approaches organizations and institutions can take towards digitization, description, preservation, display, and rematriation. Thurston and Dollenmayer invite conference participants to contribute their own[thoughts and protocols towards archiving physical and digital media in reciprocity with Indigenous communities.

Dr. Alexander M. Rusero, Head of Department of International Relations, College of Social Sciences, Theology, Humanities and Education, Africa University.

Featured Speaker Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita is a researcher, lecturer, author and editor at the Durban University of Technology in the Department of Information Systems. He has been working with different local and international organizations including LIASA, ZIMLA, LIAZ, AFLIA and IFLA. Currently he is a Secretary for the IFLA -Indigenous Matters section.

It is argued in this article that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a progressive force in the direction of preserving indigenous knowledge, languages, and histories. As suggested in the article, Artificial Intelligence is the greatest anachronism to the harnessed dividends inherent in indigenous knowledge, languages, and histories of the global south in general and Africa in particular. In the 21^st century, datafication threatens indigenous knowledge, languages, and histories because it erodes rather than preserves these aspects of human existence. A decolonial lens is applied to the study to make sense of how AI will never be a salvation moment for Africa. The paper further submits that a decolonised archive in its current state is found and or buried in Africa’s indigenous knowledge, languages and histories which all place the human being – the African as the primary custodian and unitary curator. Nevertheless, excessive pressure on Africa to adopt AI will have the identical domino effect of eroding the enduring memory of Africa, further dehumanizing Africa and destroying the continent's resilient epistemic landscape.

John Vallier (non-Indigenous) is curator and affiliate faculty in ethnomusicology at UW in Seattle. In that role he stewards the UW Ethnomusicology Archives and oversees the university’s participation in the Native Northwest Online project. He offers classes on topics such as music of Seattle and musical repatriation. Before coming to UW, John was an ethnomusicology graduate student and then archivist at UCLA, as well as a drummer for several bands "back in the 90s."

The UW Ethnomusicology Archives actively attempts to redress colonial legacies. We are committed to digitally and physically returning collections to Tribes, families, and communities of origin. Returning and repatriation have been cornerstones of the Archives since its founding in 1962. That said, simple returning neither absolves the field from this problematic tradition of extraction nor assuages harm that may have resulted from past unethical collecting practices. I aim to address these and other issues while highlighting specific Indigenous repatriation projects the Archives has stewarded, from returning films to The Hopi to the ongoing partnership with Kimberly Christen to digitally return collections to nine Tribes by way of collaboration and use of the Mukurtu CMS.

Featured Speaker Adriana Guandinango is Ecuadorian mestizo with 20 years of experience in the library field. She has a Master's degree in Document and Archive Management. She has managed the creation of innovative spaces for both libraries and archives.

Las bibliotecas populares y comunitarias en América Latina tienen como origen la autogestión y trabajo popular y comunitario por lo que “esta característica, muchas veces indiferente para el usuario final, le da un carácter muy especial” (Szafrán, 2016, 163 p.) de forma en que se convierten en recintos que responden a su realidad. Este tipo de trabajo comunitario y popular es tangible en países como Uruguay donde el trabajo bibliotecario popular funciona como agente de cambio separados al Estado y Argentina donde incluso cuentan con una Comisión Nacional de Bibliotecas Populares (CONABIP) por lo que cada una responde a su contexto. En Ecuador apenas se comienza a desarrollar este tema, por tal razón la Universidad Intercultural de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas Amawtay Wasi está creando un modelo de gestión para Bibliotecas comunitarias de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas del Ecuador.

Dr. Alisa Lipscombe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa (New Zealand) holds a PhD in Music from The University of Chicago. Her primary research explores intersectional experiences of medicalization, focusing on reimagining listening praxes through embodiment, relationality, and trauma. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Te Herenga Waka, she is building on her expertise in digital ethnography and the decolonization of research methodologies to explore ethical transformations of Indigenous archiving in Aotearoa. In this work, she centers community engagement and an ethics of care, guided by her own positionality as a queer, disabled researcher whose family whakapapas (traces their genealogy to) the Māori iwi of Te Whakatōhea.

Dr. Chern Li Liew, Associate Professor of Information Management, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa (New Zealand) received her MSc in Information Science from Loughborough University, UK and her PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research connects human-centered digital innovation, information sciences, and sociocultural and community informatics, with cultural heritage being one of her core domains of expertise. Her research contributes to the understanding of the potentials, challenges, and impacts digital technologies have on the care and use of cultural heritage information/knowledges, and how digital innovation in GLAM can contribute to cultural and social cohesion. She has ties to a Borneo Malaysian-Kadazan (the Indigenous people of Sabah, Borneo Malaysia) heritage.

This work is supported by the Royal Society Te Apārangi (Royal Society of New Zealand) Marsden Fund, Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden, Grant Number: MFP-VUW2122 (CL LIEW)—E4196)

We introduce the concept of “awhi”—meaning to support, cherish, or nurture—to guide a discussion on the ethical archiving of mātauranga Māori (Māori Indigenous knowledge) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Across our ongoing kōrero (dialogues) and hui (gatherings) with Māori users of Indigenous archival collections, many of our interlocutors have stressed the need for knowledge to be understood, preserved, and accessed in culturally-responsive ways (Liew & Lipscombe 2024). In this presentation, we build on discussions in the Information Sciences on responsibility (Drage et al. 2023) and decolonizing digitization (Membrilla 2024) to emphasize how cultural context is key, not only for understanding mātauranga Māori, but for ethically and compassionately caring for such knowledges.

Featured Speaker Dr. Leah Aboyoa, University of the Philippines Baguio, Dean and Professor of History in the Department of History and Philosophy in the College of Social Sciences.

Community archives is an important platform to strengthen heritage by effectively engaging local people to build a collection about their past using multiple modalities within their cultural frame. This paper reflects on the outcomes of a Community Archives collaborative project of the University of the Philippines Baguio and the National Archives of the Philippines from 2014 to 2019 that conducted seminar - workshops with local communities in a desire to help them set up their own materials that will eventually be archival collection. Processes were designed to allow for mutual learning engagements of communities that deepened our understanding of needs, desires and the requisites for an ethical and participatory development of a documentation and archives program. The team, lead by this author, is composed of historians, archivists and language and culture documenters from the humanities. The workshops we conducted resulted in the identification of important heritage ideas, practices and observances that have weakened, yet communities would like to revitalize due to their contemporary relevance. The project raised multi stakeholders’ interest in archives, produced ideas for responsible handling of Indigenous Knowledge and the shared concern for cultural promotion in archives education.

Oliver Tapaha is a citizen of the Diné/Navajo Nation from northeastern Arizona. He is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States of America. He earned his B.A. in Sociology and Elementary Education from Arizona State University and his Ed.M. and Ph.D. in Education from Oregon State University. He has over 20 years of teaching and administrative experience in K-12 tribally-controlled schools and a tribal college on the Navajo Nation. His research interests are Indigenous Leadership and Indigenous education sovereignty.

Elizabeth Sutton (non-Indigenous presenter), Director, Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, United States of America. Elizabeth Sutton is an anthropologist specializing in heritage management. She holds a BA in Art History from the University of California at Los Angeles and earned her MA and PhD at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She currently serves as the director of the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. With over twenty years of experience managing cultural collections, she and her colleagues at the Spurlock Museum seek to change museums and the museum field by centering Indigenous voices and building partnerships with Indigenous communities and artists.

Krystiana Krupa (non-Indigenous presenter) serves as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program Officer for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States of America. She holds an MA in Anthropology from Indiana University and is currently completing a Master of Studies in Law from the University of Illinois. She is also a Research Affiliate for the Center for Indigenous Science at UIUC, and her research areas primarily address NAGPRA, repatriation frameworks, academic colonialism, and research ethics.

Bethany Anderson (non-Indigenous presenter) is the Natural and Applied Sciences Archivist and Assistant Professor in the University Archives, and a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States of America. In her research, Bethany draws on anthropology, history of science, archival studies, and feminist theory. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, an AM in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology from the University of Chicago, and a MS in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her published work has appeared in Archivaria, American Archivist, Journal of Open Humanities Data, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, and Collections: A Journal for Archives and Museum Professionals.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a land grant university, a university established with funds from the sale of land given by the federal government of the United States of America to the State of Illinois. In essence, UIUC was founded with the proceeds from the sale of lands stolen from Native American Nations. The University’s Land Acknowledgement Statement notes that “the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a responsibility to acknowledge the historical context in which it exists” and promises that, moving forward, “we will be a vibrant community inclusive of all our differences, with Native peoples at the core of our efforts.” And while these words are aspirational, the University has not yet put forward a plan for how it intends to meet their goal to place Native peoples at the core of their efforts.

However, staff from several campus units including the Library, College of Education, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Office, and Spurlock Museum of World Cultures have been engaged in important work that centers Indigenous Knowledge Systems, builds collaborative relationships with Native and Indigenous peoples, and supports the efforts of sovereign Native Nations to access and manage their cultural heritage. Presenters will discuss a Community History Project (CHP) with K-8 students and teachers at a reservation-based school on the Navajo Nation in partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Collaborative for Harmony, Empowerment, and Innovation Inc.; the Spurlock Museum’s partnerships with Native and Indigenous artists and communities to develop exhibitions and programs; the University of Illinois Archives collaborations with Native communities to co-curate and co-develop access protocols for archival materials collected by anthropologists in the 1960s; and strategies developed between the University of Illinois NAGPRA Office and partner tribal nations for facilitating repatriation work on campus.

Dr. Rose Barrowcliffe is a Butchulla postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University, a member of the Global Centre for Indigenous Futures and the ENRICH Global Co-Chair for 2023-24. Rose was the inaugural First Nations Archives Advisor to the Queensland State Archives. Rose's work and research examines the representation of Indigenous peoples and the enactment of Indigenous rights in collecting institutions.

Indigenous knowledge has long been collected and managed by libraries around the world and there is mounting pressure to make those knowledges appropriately discoverable and accessible. Advancing digital technology, the push for open data, and increased recognition of Indigenous rights have created a perfect storm where Indigenous knowledge governance can either falter or thrive. How do libraries ensure it is the latter? In this address, Dr. Barrowcliffe challenges librarians to face the demands of supporting Indigenous data governance by thinking more holistically about the knowledge they manage.