Skip to main content

Post #6: Being Attentive to Culturally-Sensitive Collections in Special Collection and Archival Spaces

 

In Ellen M. Ryan’s Identifying Culturally Sensitive American Indian Material in a Non-tribal Institution (2014), the accessibility to the contents of a collection pertaining to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho found within the Special Collections and Archives of Idaho State University are called into question. This collection, the “J.A. Youngren Papers,” includes photographs of Shoshone-Bannock practices such as the “Sun Dance” (a ceremony of the Great Plains tribes) taken and acquired by the university in the early 20th century without the consent of Shoshone-Bannock members.[1] In 2013, an undergraduate student and sun dancer tasked with processing and housing these photographs took note of the rituals captured within the photographs and the problematic nature of displaying these photographs online without the consent of tribal members. He thus brought this concern up to the Head of Special Collections of ISU and the photos were soon after shown to the Fort Hall Tribal Archivist and its Ancestral Researcher to configure future accessibility and care of the collections respectful of the tribes wishes.[2] The outreach shown by the student and ISU Special Collections staff adheres to positive ethical practices as it acknowledged the accessibility preferences for the collection Shoshone-Bannock Tribes whereas the original donor did not. However, if the student researcher did not notify the Head of the Special Collections of the problematic nature of allowing open access to these photos without tribal consent, when would this issue have been brought into light? With an increased understanding of past archival practices and mistakes such as open access to culturally-sensitive photographs, archivist can be more active in practicing cation when providing the public access to these collections in the future. Having extensive knowledge of who donated a collection and whether the groups mentioned in these collections provided consent for the measures of access in place can be a good place to start.


[1] Ellen M. Ryan, Identifying Culturally Sensitive American Indian Material, SAA Case Studies in Archival Ethics, 2014, https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/AmericanIndianMaterial_CEPC-CaseStudy3.pdf, 2.

[2] Ibid., 4.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post #10: How Can We Promote Diversity and Cordialness In Archival Spaces?

  In the article What’s Wrong with Digital Stewardship: Evaluating the Organization of Digital Preservation Programs from Practitioners’ Perspectives (2020), a study conducted in 2018 unveiled certain issues that archival practitioners found to be hindering the staffing and efficiency of their program’s digital preservation methods. Amongst the thoughts expressed by the participants via interview were concerns about microaggressions, prejudice, and misogyny within their work environments. [1] Though incidents of misogynistic and prejudice behavior are found in a multitude of career pathways, many archives and special collection practitioners today push for diversity of staff within their work and research spaces. In one of these interviews, an anonymous participant pointed out a negative factor of the nature of tenure. The participant stated that due to the tenured status of the practitioner they work with, when they hear said staff member making misogynistic comments towards othe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Post #8: Important Discussions of Copyright and Digitization in Archival Spaces

  This week’s discussion in Temple’s Archives and Manuscripts course concerning the protocols of copyright in the archival realm is one that many a researcher might find vital. As a traditional historian, I tend to utilize physical books and monographs. However, I often utilize more contemporary research materials for my papers such as online articles, audio, and countless of other digital sources to input into my papers and assignments. I, like many other researchers, would like to avoid being guilty of copyrighting another’s work and or utilizing a work when it should be restricted or was wrongfully, whether intentionally or unintentionally, made to be used publicly. In Dharma Akmon’s Only With Your Permission: How Rights Respond (Or Don’t Respond) to Requests to Display Archival Materials Online , it is disclosed that many archives try to take multiple measures to ensure that works with complicated rights issues are not digitized to mitigate potential cases of copyright. [1] Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Post #7: Archival Ethics and Decisions on Document Preservation

  After reading Timothy D. Pyatt’s article The Harding Affair Letters: How One Archivist Took Every Measure Possible To Ensure Their Preservation , I pondered upon the way that the letters were handled by archivist Ken Duckett and also how letters disclosing an affair of someone out of the public eye may have been treated during Duckett’s lifetime. For instance, if Duckett received a box which included documents about the life of someone who was a well-respected figure in their hometown, but not so much on a national or universal scale, would the same measures to preserve the Harding letters be illustrated in the case of this hypothetical figure? Would these measures have been different in Duckett’s time vs. what would occur today? Pyatt discloses that Duckett believed in preserving the letters to allow a fuller understanding of Harding’s narrative. [1] In contrast to the Harding letters, it can be argued that the letters of people who are not affiliated with political or public-r...
Post a Comment
Read more