SHORT PAPERS: THEME – OCCUPATION AND EXTRACTION

Chair: Kirsten Wright

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://unimelb.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModOGsqTooH9GnOXJHbo5v-HcNLcmspJJo

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Papers:

Yarning about Indigenous Cultural Safety in Australian Libraries and Archives

Speakers:

Kirsten Thorpe, Monash University (PhD, Faculty of IT) Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, University of Technology Sydney

Abstract: This paper discusses the methods utilised in the doctoral research project which focuses on Indigenous Archiving and Cultural Safety in Australian libraries and archives. Broadly, the doctoral research investigates the ways in which libraries and archives can negatively impact Indigenous peoples wellbeing through a failure of producing information and recordkeeping systems that can best meet their cultural and community needs. It explores the ways in which colonial legacies continue to be embedded within the structures of libraries and archives and how these legacies impact the cultural safety of Indigenous peoples in Australia. This includes examining the potential for information and records to cause harm to those people who work, access and use the records. Whether within physical spaces, systems, policies, or procedures that support library and archive structures. This presentation will discuss the research design utilised in the doctoral studies to support respectful engagement with Indigenous research and engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research topics. This includes utilising yarning (Bessarab, 2012) as a method, the use of autoethnography (Bainbridge, 2007) for deep reflection as well as drawing on Archibald’s (2008) Indigenous Storywork principles as method to present relational research.

Settler Colonialism and Archives in Rhodesia: A Case Study of the Delineation Reports 

Speakers:

Chido Muchemwa, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto (Ph.D. student)

Abstract: In 1980, Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain and inherited the National Archives of Zimbabwe. The colonial legacies within the Zimbabwean archives have primarily been studied through the postcolonial lens. However, in the paper, I make an argument for the utility of examining the archive through the settler colonial lens. Settler colonial studies as a field has primarily interested itself in the histories of North America and Australasia at the expense of the settler colonial projects of 20^th century Africa. However, the failure of these settler projects does not minimize their lasting influence on the archives of postcolonial states like Kenya and Zimbabwe. I use delineation reports, chieftaincy records collected by colonial officials, as a case study for the enduring legacies of settler colonial archives. While delineation reports are often cited in scholarship, there have been few studies of them as an object. There is no published history of their creation, use or how they are treated in the archive. In this paper, I argue that it is important to contextualize the delineation reports as an administrative tool of the settler state to understand what the treatment of these records in the Rhodesian archives tells us about the archives role in supporting the settler state. This article uses delineation reports as a case study for how the Rhodesian settlers used the archives to solidify their story of the natives, a story that would justify taking the land.

Aboriginal Archives in Italy – a space for reciprocal collaboration

Speaker:

Monica Galassi – PhD Candidate in International Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)/Research Associate at the Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at UTS.

Abstract: Displaced archives related to Aboriginal histories and experiences are widely disseminated across Europe, often unknown to communities and researchers alike. These archives are entangled in multiple layers of power and interests, therefore there is no agreed framework to manage their access and return to their communities of origin. But what happens when understudied Aboriginal displaced archives in Italy are redirected to their communities of origin? This paper introduces doctoral research about Aboriginal records displaced in Italian institutions. Through mapping and translating a sample of these records and facilitate access to their communities of origin, I reflect on the opportunities that this space provides. This analysis draws deeply from Indigenous Decolonising methodologies and approaches, as well as my own standpoint of being an Italian woman living and working with Aboriginal Peoples and Communities. I argue that opening spaces for dialogue between institutions and communities provides invaluable opportunities to support Aboriginal data sovereignty, increase knowledge of colonial history and contribute to the international theoretical debate around displaced archives.

Will this session be recorded for the AERI2021 YouTube channel? Yes