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I’m Still Standing: Archives 2022

BC Archives Awareness Week: November 13-19, 2022


Come join the AABC in a series of events to celebrate, connect, and learn with the BC archival community! The past three years have been beyond difficult for many of us as we’ve navigated a deadly virus, burn-out, funding disruptions, and have had our capacities to engage with our professional practice diminished. Archives Awareness Week seeks to uplift archival workers, recognize the amazing work we’ve done throughout the pandemic, and leverage our capacities.

A full week of virtual activities include a workshop on Managing Oral History Programs, an exciting screening and Q&A co-hosted with the ACA featuring the creators and participants of the National Film Board of Canada’s film Unarchived, an engagement session with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliations (MIRR), an Indigenous Archives Forum, and an update session to hear from iSchool students and archivists across the province and the neat projects and ideas they’ve been working on.

So, grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit back while the AABC celebrates you, the archival community!


Registration

All Archives Awareness Week events are free, except the Oral History workshop. Pre-registration is required to indicate your RSVP for the individual sessions. Each session will have separate Zoom links and participant instructions sent in a registration confirmation email. We hope that you will be able to join us for at least one, if not all of the Archives Awareness Week events!


Donations

While almost all of the events for Archives Awareness Week are free of charge, we encourage participants to consider donating to the AABC. Your donations will help provide awards to UBC School of Information students and contribute to the annual ACA@UBC conference. Donations can be made via our website or through Canada Helps.


Schedule

RESCHEDULED

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Workshop: Managing an Oral History Program (9:30am-12:30pm PST)

Description: Join us to learn about this treasured record found within many archival collections. In this ½ day workshop, participants will learn strategies for managing legacy oral history collections and how to assess, appraise, and discuss best practices for digitizing existing interviews in your holdings. The second part of the workshop will go over the steps for establishing a new oral history program and review topics including interview questions, consent forms, copyright and privacy considerations.

Who should attend: This workshop is designed for archivists, curators and collections managers responsible for managing, participating in, or preserving oral history records. 


Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Unarchived Film Screening and Q&A (10:00am-12:30pm PST)

Description: The AABC and the ACA Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee are pleased to announce a joint event to host an online screening of the 2022 feature documentary Unarchived. A Q&A panel discussion with the filmmakers and film participants will follow the screening. 

From the National Film Board, in Unarchived, “co-directors Hayley Gray and Elad Tzadok highlight community archives across British Columbia to reveal some of what has been erased from the official record...Through a collage of personal interviews, archival footage and deeply rooted memories, the past, present and future come together, fighting for a space where everyone is seen and everyone belongs. History is what we all make of it.” 

Event schedule:

10:00am - AABC & ACA introductions and event welcome in Zoom.

10:10 - 11:30am - Unarchived film screening. Participants will be sent a VIMEO streaming link to view the film on their own device (computer/tablet/phone). Closed captioning will be available in VIMEO.

11:30am - 12:30pm - Q&A session with film makers and film subjects. Event participants will return to the Zoom meeting to engage with our guest speakers.

Registration:

Free for all participants, pre-registration is required to RSVP for this session. Participants will be sent a confirmation email with the Zoom and VIMEO links for the event.

Please note that there is a registration limit for this event so do not delay your registration in order to guarantee a spot!

Registration deadline: Sunday, November 13, 2022 @ 5:00pm (or when spaces filled).


View the Official Trailer for Unarchived 

Unarchived is available at no charge for other community screenings. Please contact Caroline Coutts, National Film Board, for more information.



Wednesday, November 16, 2022

MIRR Engagement Session (10:00-11:00am PST)

Speaker: Matthew Kinch works with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and is responsible as the Executive Director, Residential School Response. In this role, Matthew works with federal and provincial government partners to promote a coordinated and culturally safe response to findings at former Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals throughout BC.

Presentation Description: The Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation (MIRR) is supporting First Nations across BC as they lead the way to locate, document, and protect burial sites associated with former Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals in BC. A key part of the investigative process is locating state and church records that may be relevant to this research. This includes information specific to burial sites as well as information that provides context for the day-to-day experiences of Indigenous children at these institutions.

This research, combined with the increasing interest among former students, their families, and their communities to find records for personal, historical, or other purposes, has resulted in an exponential increase in the volume and complexity of record access requests. With the goal of supporting connections between communities and local BC archives, this session aims to provide an overview of the work currently happening across BC, discuss potential research barriers and challenges, and consider how BC archives and indigenous communities can work collaboratively to locate, access and transfer Residential School records.


Speaker: Naomi Lloyd (she/her) is the Metadata Team Lead at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at the University of British Columbia, which is located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is an immigrant to Canada and is of settler South African ancestry. Naomi holds a master’s degree in library and information studies and a doctorate in history. She recognizes that modern archival and library practice emerged from, and remains indebted to, a colonial context, and is committed to both exposing and disrupting the colonial parameters of these disciplines. 

Presentation Description: With the discovery in May 2021 of 200 unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, the call for the release of residential school records from government, church, and other archives, has been amplified. Researchers from Indigenous communities need these records to locate unmarked burials and identify missing children. Survivors need these records to see their experiences accurately and fully represented. Indigenous leaders have noted that healing for Indigenous communities can only come with a full understanding of the truth of the schools, and TRC Call to Action #70 draws attention to Indigenous people’s “inalienable right” to know the truth of what happened at the schools and why it happened. This truth is also crucial if meaningful reconciliation is to take place between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008-2015), government, church, and other archives were required to submit all records related to residential schools to the Commission. This requirement has yet to be fully met. In addition to this, only a fraction of the approximately five million records submitted to the TRC, now housed at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), have been made available to the public.

In the light of the above, and at the request of researchers from Indigenous communities in British Columbia, the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is working with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation (MIRR), to create a list for each of the eighteen BC schools of repositories (archives, libraries, museums, and other organizations) that hold records related to each school. It has recently made available a small list of core repositories for each of the schools. We are now looking to collaborate with archives, libraries, museums and other repositories to enhance these lists. This presentation outlines the steps we have taken thus far and describes possibilities for the future of this project.

Registration:

Free for all participants, pre-registration is required to RSVP for this session.


Thursday, November 17, 2022

Indigenous Archives Forum (11:00am-12:30pm PST)

Description: The AABC is pleased to provide this session as an open forum for Tribal/First Nations Government administrators, archivists, cultural memory keepers, and community members and students working to support Indigenous archives programs. Participants will have the opportunity to connect and support with each other through questions and updates. This will be an informal gathering so please join us with a cup of coffee and your lunch if you like!

Note: this event will not be recorded.

Host: Lisa Glandt, AABC Education and Advisory Services Coordinator

Registration:

Free for all participants, pre-registration is required to RSVP for this session.


Friday, November 18, 2022

Archives Awareness Week - Networking and Updates (1:00-3:00pm PST)

Description: Join your colleagues for an afternoon Roundtea to catch up, ask questions, and celebrate achievements over the past few years! This session brings together iSchool students to talk about their research and current projects and give an update on what's going on these days at UBC. Archivists will share trends, issues and interests within their work…we are the caretakers of stories after all! Our heritage colleagues - historians, librarians, curators, volunteers, and those interested in archives are welcome to attend this session and engage in questions with students and professionals alike. This will be a moderated, but informal session and a chance for networking and introductions between colleagues.

Registration:

Free for all participants, pre-registration is required to RSVP for this session.


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The Archives Association of British Columbia acknowledges that it carries out its work on the land of Indigenous nations throughout British Columbia. We are grateful for the continuing relationships with Indigenous people in B.C. that develop through our work together.  

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