Whose Knowledge? Representing Indigenous Realities in Library and Archival Collections

Abstract

Librarians are fond of the saying "a good library has something to offend everyone. " However, too often, in regards to Indigenous communities and knowledge, our collections seem to offer nothing but cause for offense. Indeed, Indigenous knowledge and perspectives typically reside outside the publishing mainstream-and often outside print traditions altogether-that are at the core of archival, library, and other institutional collections. When the long out-of-print Origin Myth of the Acoma Pueblo was republished in 2015, with Edward Proctor Hunt (himself of the Acoma Pueblo) as author and edited by Peter Nabokov (a UCLA professor who has written extensively on Native American topics), it surely seemed to many librarians to be an obvious and important addition to Indigenous studies collections. And yet, the then-governor of the pueblo, Fred S. Vallo Sr., called the republication of the 1928 text "an affront to Acoma" (Vallo Sr., 2015). The Acoma Pueblo attempted to have sales of the book (at least temporarily) halted, according to an article in Indian Country Today published under the headline "Don't Buy This Book!" (Jacobs, 2016) and members of Acoma Pueblo confronted Nabokov at book signings in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, demanding to know what right he thought he had to publish these Acoma stories (Villela, 2016). The issues in this case are complex-too much so to delve into in this introduction-but they raise questions about who has the moral right to share a culture's stories, who is considered an authority, and what are the ethical considerations when publishing cross culturally. Acoma, to give more context, had several years prior to publication requested that Nabokov submit the manuscript for review by the tribe and obtain tribal permission to publish. This is common practice for researchers publishing about the pueblos, according to Governor Vallo. What's more, Edward Proctor Hunt, the original source for the publication, had rejected Acoma religion and subsequently was expelled from both the Acoma and Santa Ana pueblos. At the time he gave his account of the Acoma origin story to Smithsonian researchers, he had been "performing different Native American identities for Anglo Americans" (Ibid.).

Indigenous librarianship: Theory, practices, and means of social action

“…Similar to the revision of the instruments of classification of indigenous content, culturally sensitive collection management practices emerged in response to the implications of the inappropriate care of indigenous content in nonindigenous institutions. These problems are manifold and range from placing materials in the public domain, and, by so doing, enabling the misappropriation of indigenous cultural and intellectual heritage, to services for indigenous patrons, who continue to feel unwelcome in non-indigenous libraries (Callison et al, 2016;Cherry and Mukunda, 2015;Duarte and Belarde-Lewis, 2015;Garwood-Houng and Blackburn, 2014;Gilman, 2006;Hurley et al, 2017;Moulaison and Bossaller, 2017). The efforts of dedicated professionals suggest a path toward change.…”

Exploring models for the management of indigenous knowledge in academic libraries of Ghana

“…However, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (1996) debunks this by explicitly explaining that IK is not confined to tribal groups or the original inhabitants of an area or rural people. In its totality, IK is holistic and dynamic, community-based and unique to societies, tacit in nature and shared through oral communication systems, based on experiential learning, runs through generations, and outside mainstream publishing and print traditions which are the core of library, archival and institutional collections (Cajete, 2000; Hurley et al, 2017: 124; IIRR 1996; Ina Hoi Riwa Foundation, 2000; Ngulube, 2003: 23; Ngulube and Onyancha, 2020; Raseroka, 2002: 3; Sharief et al, 2021).…”

“…Modern library and information systems are oriented towards a western logic of information retrieval and access without consideration to the cultural context in which it was created (Burtis, 2009). The problem of representing indigenous realities in the library and archival collections according to Hurley et al (2017) is stereotypical representations and classification schemes constructed from a western worldview. Organising information for easy access and retrieval is not only about cataloguing, abstracting, indexing and classification but the drive towards the management of IK is to develop a knowledge organization system (KOS) in a cultural context that can be usable and accessible to the owners of the knowledge system as well.…”

Potential research ethics violations against an indigenous tribe in Ecuador: a mixed methods approach

“…Because of their lack of genetic admixture and lack of contact with the developed world, indigenous populations are unique for genetic and biomarker clinical research. Several studies have already documented research ethics violations among indigenous populations [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”