“Digital Access and Indigenous Histories: Supporting Self-Determination and Historical Research in Community.”

You are cordially invited to a free virtual lecture (17 January 2023 at 12 p.m. EST): “Digital Access and Indigenous Histories: Supporting Self-Determination and Historical Research in Community.”

In October 2024 Woodland Cultural Centre, an Indigenous-led institution devoted to the preservation and promotion of Hodinohsho:ni languages and cultures, will launch an exhibit which seeks to better understand the pressures and priorities in Six Nations of the Grand River that led to the establishment of an elected band council in 1924. The exhibit, curated by Woodland Cultural Centre guest curator Heather George, connects archival records, oral histories, Indigenous languages, and the perspectives of youth to contextualize historical and contemporary debates about who represents the community and what governance should look like in the future. 

McMaster University Library’s Division of Archives and Research Collections houses important clues to understanding this time at Six Nations in the papers of A.G. Chisholm, a lawyer who served the community for about 40 years, first working for the Confederacy (traditional governance system) and later the Band Council (elected system). Heather George will discuss the importance of digital access to archival records for the 1924 exhibition, highlighting key finds from the A.G. Chisholm fonds and connecting them to other archival collections globally. She will be joined by McMaster University archivist Gillian Dunks.

This lecture is hosted by McMaster University Library’s Archives Alive program in partnership with Woodland Cultural Centre and McMaster University Alumni.

Register using this link. Please feel free to share this invitation with other interested parties. 

Archives Arrangement & Description Librarian

Vice President, McMaster University Academic Librarians’ Association

Archives and Research Collections

McMaster University

905-525-9140 x 23361

McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the Dish with One Spoon wampum agreement.