Challenge and Opportunity: The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials
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The document discusses protocols for handling Native American archival materials, emphasizing the importance of culturally responsive practices developed by a group of Native American and non-Native archivists. It references international declarations and specific U.S. laws that protect indigenous rights and cultural heritage. The text highlights the unique status of indigenous knowledge systems and the selective transmission of knowledge within Native communities, contrasting it with Eurocentric views of information accessibility.
![United States
• Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act [NAGPRA] (1990)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/wolfe200protocols-140216160150-phpapp02/85/Challenge-and-Opportunity-The-Protocols-for-Native-American-Archival-Materials-4-320.jpg)
Challenge and Opportunity: The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials
- 1. The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials Challenge and Opportunity
- 2. International Declarations • UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership and Cultural Property (1970) • United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1994)
- 3. Australia • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services (1995)
- 4. United States • Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act [NAGPRA] (1990)
- 5. Protocols for Native American Archival Materials • Developed by a group of 15 Native Americans, First Nation and Aboriginal information professionals, scholars and 4 non-native archivists at Northern Arizona University (2007) • Goal to develop best practices for culturally responsive care and use of American Indian archival material held by non-tribal organizations.
- 6. United States • Freedom of information is a basic right • Archives mission to collect and conserve cultural records
- 7. Native American Tribes • Knowledge is traditionally transmitted selectively within communities • Unique status as Sovereign Nations
- 8. Eurocentric Values Organized religions are widely recognized as sacred… • Knowledge found in religious texts: e.g. Torah, Bible, Qu’ran; • Items: e.g. rosaries, crucifixes, statues; • Rites: e.g. baptism, bris, Adhan …all these are mystical, but they are not private, not privileged, secret knowledge.
- 9. Indigenous Knowledge Systems Native communities would not willingly shared knowledge outside of their own people, let alone allow it to be on display, and freely accessible by the public in Western archives.
Editor's Notes
- #10: This idea of saving for the “greater good” is in itself a Western ideology.