INDIGENOUS DATA SOVEREIGNTY
“In January, Kimberly Murray, Special Interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves, convened the third of a series of national gatherings. The focus of the meeting was Indigenous data sovereignty. As undocumented graves continue to be discovered at Indian Residential School sites, and as communities seek records related to unmarked graves, the issue of the ownership, access and control of Residential School records has emerged. Murray observed that Indigenous data sovereignty was vital in ensuring that “Indigenous values, rights, [and] interests,” inform decision making about these records.
The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre’s Interim Executive Director, Kristin Kozar, presented at the conference. She noted that colonial frameworks and policies had kept Residential School records out of reach of most Indigenous communities and she called for legislative reform that prioritized communities’ sovereign rights. Kozar drew attention to the growing number of archives in Indigenous communities, a trend that ensured archives were “accountable to their own citizens in the use and management of community information.”
Image source: CBC. Used with permission.
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The records offer diverse perspectives (former students, officials, journalists, scholars) and include Survivor testimonies, Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, photographs, maps, government documents, church documents, and newspaper articles.
Responding to Survivors’ desire to have a single point of access to residential school records, the Centre provides access to an online database containing digital copies of records from partner organizations. This single access point brings together records that are otherwise dispersed online and in physical spaces.
The Centre is located on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam people). We are privileged to work with the Musqueam First Nation and the Musqueam Archives as community partners.
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