Returning love to Ancestors captured in the archives: Indigenous wellbeing, sovereignty and archival sovereignty

This paper explores the holistic needs of First Nations people in the archives to control their cultural heritage materials with dignity and respect. It highlights the importance of the archives supporting Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous people’s spiritual and emotional needs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archival science 2024-06, Vol.24 (2), p.125-142
Main Author: Thorpe, Kirsten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archives & records
Archiving
Case studies
Computer Appl. in Arts and Humanities
Cultural and Media Studies
Cultural Heritage
Cultural resources
Indigenous peoples
Information Storage and Retrieval
Library Science
Literature
Native peoples
Original Paper
Sovereignty
Well being
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Summary:This paper explores the holistic needs of First Nations people in the archives to control their cultural heritage materials with dignity and respect. It highlights the importance of the archives supporting Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous people’s spiritual and emotional needs are addressed by considering the support for Indigenous people’s wellbeing in the archives. Models of social, emotional and cultural wellbeing are presented as alternatives to discussing the need for Indigenous cultural safety in the archives. A definition of Indigenous wellbeing, sovereignty and archival sovereignty provides an approach to caring for historical records with dignity and respect and a framework for the local care and protection of Indigenous people’s knowledge into the future. The concept of Returning Love to Ancestors Captured in the Archives (Thorpe 2022 ), extending the work of (Harkin 2019 ) and Baker et al. ( 2020 ), is offered as a significant reform needed in the approaches to managing historical archives. The paper concludes by sharing a case study of the In Living Memory photographic exhibition, drawn on images created by the former New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board to demonstrate archival approaches supporting principles of trust, benefit sharing and reciprocal relationships. Combined, they respond to the pressing need for designing respectful archiving approaches for future generations that do not reproduce harm.
ISSN:1389-0166
1573-7500
1573-7519
DOI:10.1007/s10502-024-09440-2