5.4.1 Consultation

When describing material related to Indigenous communities, key factors such as privacy, ownership, access, and permissions are crucial. These communities may have specific rules governing the dissemination of information, including restrictions based on timing, recipient’s identity, or gender. Cultural knowledge might be exclusively shared within the community under certain conditions. Therefore, it’s advisable to directly consult with the concerned groups when organizing and describing a collection containing Indigenous materials or knowledge. See Section 2.1 for some initial considerations. Further questions to ask include:

  • What contact do we currently have with the community and cultural context the material describes, and how might that contact help ensure materials are accurately contextualized within the community’s knowledge traditions? Is there interest from the community in collaboratively developing the description? Can we compensate individuals for this work? 

  • Is there information included in the archival material that should only be available to Indigenous peoples, or specific groups? Through conversations with community members, is there identified information or material that should be returned? Have we asked questions about culturally appropriate handling of the material? In what ways might limited access to information within this archival material affect description (e.g. are restrictions or content warnings required?).

  • To what extent do we understand how the Indigenous communities involved or implicated in the archival material will use or need the information? Are there immediate needs, such as answering specific research questions or providing digital access to community members, that should be prioritized? Are these expressed or assumed needs? How can our arrangement, description, or access provisions serve these purposes? Ensure this is done in collaboration with the community.1 

  • For a specific collection, where are other related archival resources held? Are there other locations that individuals would look for this material, and can the descriptions be connected, referenced or highlighted to improve discoverability? Actively gather information to accompany Indigenous archival collections.

Endnotes

  1. As an example, see the First Nations Principles of OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) which helps to guide how First Nations’ data and information should be collected, protected, used, or shared. ↩