Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Conference Paper
Anchorage, Alaska
Monique Lloyd
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In early April, 2006, fifteen Native American, First Nation, and Aboriginal
University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Their goal was to begin the process of developing best
practices for culturally responsive care and use of American Indian archival material
held by non-tribal organizations. The result was a draft document entitled Protocols for
The intention of those meeting was to start a conversation with and inspire and guide
The participants, drawing upon the ethical codes of the Society of American
Archivists, the American Association for State and Local History, the American
Mata’atua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives, and Information
These are:
4. The need to recognize and provide special treatment for culturally sensitive
materials
(Underhill, p. 135)
Mutual Respect
management policies and best practices within a framework of cooperation and resource
sharing.
peoples create, organize, use, and manage knowledge and information resources in ways
different from Western libraries and archives. Western tradition favors open access to
information based on such factors as age, clan, gender, and role as a way to protect their
communities.
The Protocols seek to find a balance among these perspectives and values and
including honoring donor wishes; respecting privacy; determining materials are too
fragile ; complying with state and federal laws and protecting the integrity of a collection
or institution (Underhill, p. 138). Restrictions can be ambiguous, fluid, and subject to
The Protocols stress the importance of working together to ensure that libraries
and archives have the right of possession and, if questions arise regarding ownership and
informed consent, the rights of the community of origin must take precedence. The
Protocols also advocate consulting with the communities of origin when dealing with
sacred, secret, or sensitive information that has been removed from their cultural context,
recommending that researchers obtain approval from the community of origin before
Recognizing that there are multiple viewpoints and core values is the first step
necessary to begin finding a balance between the Indigenous and Western perspectives.
conflicts with individual or community privacy or with religious freedom? How can
preservation and access in perpetuity be balanced, for example, with the belief in some
Indigenous cultures that some objects, such as baskets, are sentient beings created for a
specific purpose and it is wrong to put them in glass cases where they cannot be handled
and touched, where they are not be allowed to do the task they were intended for, and
Libraries, and Museums, Kimberly Lawson observes that “gaps and silences are just as
important as the information and records which are accessible. Museums, libraries, and
communities enhance contact with culturally sensitivity statements that alert researchers
content.
U.S. copyright law causes concerns for Native American communities in several
ways. One concern discussed in the Protocols is the idea of copyright and ownership.
Some Indigenous languages have no word for “self” as everything is community owned
restricted.
American archival material, the Protocols state that there can be both philosophical and
Brown, in his book Who Owns Native Culture? discusses a fundamental principle
of copyright law that has worked against the protection of Indigenous peoples. That
principle is that a work can only be protected when it has been translated to a “tangible
medium”. It must be fixed in some way as text or image, in clay, wood, or some other
fixable medium. The problem for Indigenous peoples comes from the reality that in these
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cultures information was conveyed orally or through physical action and thus is not
“fixed” in the sense that is required by copyright law. This has led to the exploitation of
Many Indigenous populations view property rights in different ways than their
Protocols discussing Native American intellectual property issues states “We belong to
the ‘property”; it doesn’t belong to us” (Protocols, p. 14) and James D. Nason
property and most especially esoteric knowledge are vital components of the
Problems result because Western copyright laws are based on principles opposite
information; protection of older or ancient works (e.g. rock art); the antiquity and
The Protocols propose three guidelines. One is that it is necessary that “right to
important to recognize that the entire discussion of “property” can be a difficult one in
communities which do not conform with the Western idea that an item can be owned
only by one person or entity. The third is to consider the idea of moral rights (droit
Conclusion
The Protocols are only a beginning. They were written to help raise awareness of
the issues surrounding the collection, ownership, preservation, handling, access, and use
of physical and digital Native American archival resources. It is imperative that the
solve problems, share resources and expertise, gather and disseminate cultural
information in culturally responsive and responsible ways, and continue to create cross-
cultural bonds.
communities for comment, refinement, and endorsement has begun with the hope that
increased understanding about the concerns of tribal communities about the care and use
cooperation. As Sven Haakanson, Jr. states “it takes human connections to make positive
changes happen”. (Ogden, p. 15)
Resources
Crisis of access, control and future utility. Australian Academic and Research
Brown, M.F. (2003). Who owns native culture? Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
MA.
Clavir, M. (2002). Preserving what is valued: Museums, conservation, and first nations.
http://aic.stanford.edu/jaic/articles/jaic25-02-002_indx.html
Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. Retrieved May 12, 2008 from
http://www.firstarchivistscircle.org/files/index.html
http://milton.sbs.arizona.edu/~sirls/20070829mathies.html
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genous%20Knowledge.pdf
Nason, J. D. (1997). Native American Intellectual Property Rights: Issues in the Control
Ogden, S. (2004) Caring for American Indian Objects: A Practical and Cultural Guide.
Roy, L. & Alonzo, D.L. (2003). Perspectives on tribal archives. The Electronic Library.
21 (5), 422-427.
Russell, L. (2005). Indigenous knowledge and archives: Accessing hidden history and
Society of American Archivists Task Force Report: Review on Protocols for Native
http://www.archivists.org/governance/taskforces/0208-NativeAmProtocols-
IIIA.pdf