Indigenizing Archival Discovery: Centering Communities in Research on Reparative Networks, Platforms and Linked Data

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Abstract
For Indigenous communities, the biases of archival description (e.g. Gilliland 2011; Jimerson 2009) and inadequacy of finding aids as discovery tools (e.g. Weideman 2019; Daines and Nimer 2011; Daniels & Yakel 2010; Yakel 2004) are compounded by the archival diaspora (Punzalan 2014) of the assimilationist of the settler-colonial project (O’Neal 2014). The archival field has recognized the need to rethink how colonially-held archival knowledge can be better represented and accessed, not only to heal previous harms but to facilitate increased community sovereignty over this data (Littletree et al. 2020; Duarte & Belarde-Lewis 2015; Kukutai & Taylor 2016). In this talk, I will present two applied research projects that ask whether emergent aggregated discovery tools and linked data infrastructures can increase archival discovery for Native and Indigenous community researchers, while centering communities in the process. The first, an early career IMLS-funded project, is testing Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) for this purpose, while building new cultural-technical approaches through an Indigenous Description Group. The second, an NSF-funded project, asks how anthropology can sustainably adapt emergent linked data infrastructures in support of access, with goals to test a wider range of current platforms and practices. 

Speaker bio
Diana E. Marsh is an assistant professor of archives and digital curation at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies (iSchool) who investigates how heritage institutions communicate with the public and communities. Her current research focuses on improving discovery and access to colonially-held archives for Native American and Indigenous communities. Previously, she completed her PhD in anthropology (museum anthropology) at the University of British Columbia, an MPhil in social anthropology with a museums and heritage focus at the University of Cambridge in 2010, and a BFA in visual arts and photography at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University in 2009. Her recent work has appeared in JASIST, The American Archivist, Archival Science, and Archivaria, and her book, From Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian’s Fossil Halls was released in paperback with Berghahn Books in fall 2022.