A Reconciliation Framework for the Canadian Archival Community

February 24, 2022

The Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives (SCCA) this week released the Reconciliation Framework: The Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce, the result of five years of research, relationship building, and collaboration across the Canadian archival community with Indigenous partners.

• Reconciliation Framework: The Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce
• Cadre de réconciliation : Réponse du Groupe de travail sur la réponse au rapport de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation

This framework provides a road map of sorts, setting out a vision, foundational principles, and a transformative path forward for the archives profession in Canada. The broad objectives point to areas of archival practice in need of immediate change, and the actionable strategies describe scalable activities that – when customized to meet the unique contexts and requirements of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities – support respectful relationship-building initiatives; embrace the intellectual sovereignty of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples over records created by or about them; and encourage the reconceptualization of mainstream archival theory and practice.

The taskforce was created initially in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Call to Action 70:

70. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to 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 Peoples (UNDRIP) and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles (UNJOP) 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 the residential schools.
2. Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives.

Reconciliation Framework

Reconciliation Framework at a Glance

The Reconciliation Framework identifies eight principles, seven objectives, and strategies for achieving the objectives.

Principles

1. Acknowledgement that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples are diverse and distinct peoples and sovereign nations with their own systems of governance and established protocols
2. Commitment to the processes of truth telling, reconciliation, and ongoing relationship building
3. Acknowledgement of the harm done by the Canadian archival community to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples
4. Commitment to reconciliation-based archival practice
5. Acknowledgement of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis knowledge frameworks
6. Understanding that ongoing, collaborative, and participatory description work is intrinsic to reconciliation-based archival practice
7. Respectful engagement with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis community research priorities
8. Recognition that this work requires sustained investments in human and financial resources

Objectives

The Reconciliation Framework’s objectives (and strategies) are guided by a primary objective of building relationships guided by the principles of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility — the Four Rs identified by Kirkness and Barnhardt as fundamental to decolonizing higher education.

1. Relationships of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility: Canada’s archival communities must engage the Four Rs of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility in building relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis governments, communities, organizations, and heritage institutions
2. Governance and Management Structures: Leaders in Canada’s archival communities must ensure that their organizational cultures, operations, and hiring processes support archives staff in building sustainable community relationships and implementing respectful professional practices.
3. Professional Practice: Canada’s archival communities must continue to build a body of professional practice that is committed to decolonization and reconciliation.
4. Ownership, Control, and Possession: Canada’s archival communities must respect and defend First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples’ intellectual sovereignty over archival materials created by or about them.
5. Access: Canada’s archival communities must respect and defend First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples’ right to know about and control access to archival materials created by or about them.
6. Arrangement and Description: Canada’s archival communities must integrate First Nations, Inuit, and Métis perspectives, knowledge, languages, histories, place names, and taxonomies into the arrangement and description of First Nations-, Inuit-, and Métis-related archival materials and collections.
7. Education: Canadian archival education programs must integrate First Nations, Inuit, and Métis research theory, history, methodologies, and pedagogical practices into current and future curricula.

Challenges Encountered, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations

The report also documents the challenges encountered by the taskforce as well as associated lessons learned and future recommendations in the areas of Fundamental Issues and Administrative Issues.

(Via Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives)