Contract Archivist, Gwich'in Tribal Council - Culture and Heritage Department, Yellowknife, NT

Location: Yellowknife, NWT
Compensation: $46/hr

This project proposes a continued partnership between the Gwich'in Tribal Council - Culture and Heritage Department and the NWT Archives to hire a professional archivist to assist with special media within the Canadian UNESCO-Memory of the World Registered collection, the Gwich'in Tribal Council - Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute fonds at the NWT Archives.

Learn more about the project partners and the beautiful city of Yellowknife:

• https://www.nwtarchives.ca/            
  
• https://www.gwichin.ca/
• https://www.yellowknife.ca/           
• https://extraordinaryyk.com/

Description and Duties    

This project has the following deliverables for the fourth stage of processing the GTC-GSCI fonds:

• Verification of duplicates and appraisal recommendations for photos, oversized and map material, video, and some textual series
• Rehousing of material as required
• Digitization of a priority percentage of oversized and map material, video recordings (approx. 30) and priority photographs
• Determining prioritization and action for special media remaining in fonds
• Migration of available metadata into RAD compliant description
• Finalizing and publishing of the project's material into NWT Archives AtoM database.

Contract archivist wage: $46/hr, $345/day = $48,300

Contract term: Total 29 weeks, 140 business days between September 3, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

Job site: The GTC contractor will be working primarily within the NWT Archives office space at the NWT Archives, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, NWT.

Reporting: Project administered by Gwich'in Tribal Council -Culture and Heritage department. The GTC contractor will be supervised by the Project Archivist at the NWT Archives, and will liaise with both NWT Archives staff as well as GTC staff and former GSCI employees.

Qualifications    

Master's degree in Archival Studies or related equivalency with experience in an archival setting. Experience with relevant audiovisual tools, technology and digitization standards an asset. Equivalencies considered on a case-to-case basis.

Additional Information   

The GTC-GSCI fonds is an irreplaceable collection of indigenous traditional knowledge, language and cultural material, created expressly for the preservation and promotion of Gwich'in language and culture. It is comprised of approximately 250 linear feet of textual records, 400 maps, 100 audiovisual recordings, 850 audio recordings, 10,000 photographs, and ca. 4 TB of digital records, all of various formats. After several years of work doing triage and arrangement, the photographic, oversized and map material, as well as video materials require arrangement, description, and prioritization. Verifying duplicates, masters and surrogate files for the material will also be done, as well as cross-walking original datasets to archival descriptive standards.

Located in the NWT Archives in Yellowknife NWT at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, the contract archivist would be working on critical records requiring description, digitization, migration (both of the media itself and its metadata) and preservation. This project will also continue work with current and former GSCI staff to prioritize materials according to cultural importance and describe materials using Gwich'in names, placenames and traditional knowledge.

This is the fourth of several phases of work required to fully arrange, describe and preserve the GTC-GSCI fonds. The first phase was completed with the assistance of an LHOV grant in 2019/2020.
 
How to Apply    
To apply or learn more about this opportunity, contact the NWT Archives at nwtarchives@gov.nt.ca
Application Deadline: Open until filled
Job poster