ACA Indigenous Matters Working Group Assessment and Recommendations Final Report & Resource Guide 2024

The final Report and Resource Guide can be referred to under the Documents section.   

Background:

In 2020, the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Equity Commitments were released by the Board and the ACA Equity Task Force. This equity work was done in response to results collected from a 2017-member survey, and the Task Force marks this feedback as a turning point for Association priorities.

• The ACA’s Equity Commitments can be viewed here

While the Equity Task Force was fulfilling its mandated duties, the ACA Board had, since 2016, also been involved in work undertaken by the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives, or SCCA. The SCCA is a collaborative partnership comprised of representatives from the Canadian Council of Archives, Library and Archives Canada, l'Association des archivistes du Québec, Council of Provincial and Territorial Archivists, and the Association of Canadian Archivists. One of the initiatives taken at this time was the establishment of a dedicated task force to answer Call to Action #70 issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as a part of the 94 Calls to Action addressed to the Canadian Government and its citizenry in June 2015.

Call to Action #70 specifically called upon “The Canadian Association of Archivists” to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to:

1. Determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the United Nations Jointet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in residential schools.
2. Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework for Canadian Archives.

While no such titled association exists, the SCCA brought this call to action to its representative membership together, the largest archival associations, councils and institutions across Canada, could collectively heed this call. In September 2015, the SCCA thus established the Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Task Force, or TRC-TF for short. The mandate of the TRC-TF was “to address Call to Action #70 specifically, and the additional 93 Calls in spirit,” and this work was still underway when in 2020 the Equity Commitments were released by the ACA.

Indigenous Matters Working Group:

In the summer of 2022, just after the formal release of the Reconciliation Framework by the SCCA, the ACA established an Indigenous Matters Working Group, or IMWG. The 2-year mandate of the IMWG was two-fold:

1. Assessment and Recommendations: to undertake an assessment of current ACA services, programs, events, membership framework, governance and organizational structures in light of the recommendations outlined in the Reconciliation Framework and make actionable recommendations for strategic change which supports the urgent, ongoing and fundamental need for Indigenous-focused equity, diversity, and inclusion within the ACA.
2. Resource Guide Development: To develop an accessible archival resource guide geared towards supporting the work of Indigenous archivists and archival practitioners who may not have had formal archival training, but who have archival work as part of their work portfolios.

Documents:

After two years of assessment, deliberation, research and much writing, the mandate of the IMWG has been completed.

1. Final Report to the Association of Canadian Archivists from the Indigenous Matters Working Group - Assessment and Recommendations
2. Caretaking Memory: A Resource Guide for Archival Practitioners Working in Indigenous-centred Archives

The ACA would like to thank all past and present member of the IMWG for their hard work.

• Krista McCracken, Co-Chair
• Raegan Swanson, Co-Chair
• Anna Kay Eldridge
• Tanis Franco
• Aaron Franks, FNIGC Rep.
• Erica Hernandez-Read, ACA Board Liaison
• Karen Ng
• Dominique Robichaud, AAQ Rep.
• Stephen Shurgold

The resource guide Caretaking Memory: A Resource Guide for Archival Practitioners Working in Indigenous-centred Archives was completed in cooperation with the Manitoba First Nations Education and Resource Centre Inc. and their two papers linked below.

• MFNERC Archives Concept Paper
• MFNERC Policy and Procedures