The Indigenous Archives Collective position statement on the right of reply to Indigenous knowledges and information held in archives

Abstract

On 9 August 2021, the Indigenous Archives Collective released its Position Statement on the Right of Reply to Indigenous Knowledges and Information held in Archives (the Statement). This Statement draws on outcomes of the ‘Right of Reply – Indigenous Rights in Data and Collections Symposium’. Collective members’ experience working and researching in collecting institutions holding archives and records relating to Indigenous peoples and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) also informed the development of the Statement. All of these themes raised in the Statement resonate with the aims and aspirations of the Indigenous Archives Collective. Kirsten Thorpe and Dr Shannon Faulkhead are founding members of the Collective, establishing the then Indigenous Archives Network in 2011 through the National Archives of Australia Ian Maclean Research Award. In 2018, the group was revitalised as the Indigenous Archives Collective. Current members include Indigenous and nonIndigenous professional archivists and researchers. It has been re-imagined as a place where Indigenous practitioners and researchers lead; as a place of support; and as a place where culturally safe collaboration, dialogue and reflexive practice, and advocacy for transformation in the Australian and international GLAM sector can occur. The Symposium was held in October 2019 at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence. Its purpose was to address developments in technology and the management and preservation of collections, which have the potential to either undermine or support Indigenous self-determination and data sovereignty. It was made possible through the leadership of the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, and sponsorship from University of Technology Sydney, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Monash University, the Australian Society of Archivists, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive, the State Library of New South Wales and the Australian Library and Information Association. The relevance of the event was clear in the response to it: it was oversubscribed, and attendees included Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples from the community, professionals, researchers, and representatives of organisations, which hold records about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples accessing and responding to records that pertain to themselves, their families and communities were asserted in the 1997 report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, and reiterated in the 2019