Background
The UBC Decolonizing Curation Addressing the Global Heritage Repository Crisis in the Age of UNDRIP is a two-year (May 2024 – April 2026) Research Cluster Grant of $100,000, awarded by the University of British Columbia’s Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC).
In general, the Cluster asks how physical, digital, and archival data can be appropriately stored, secured, shared, and controlled to respect and advance the sovereignty of Indigenous material culture and heritage data. The Cluster aims to document how people interact with repositories, belongings, and data; identify the current challenges in data sovereignty; and work towards potential solutions.
The grant will aim to help with addressing the following issues that are currently facing repositories in British Columbia:
- Need for sustainable funding for repositories
- Lack of storage
- Need for collective advocacy
- Need for First Nations to be able to access their belongings
- A need for guidance, support, and communication/relationship with the Archaeology Branch (i.e., a dedicated staff person to liaise with repositories)
- Clear guidelines, standards, and best practices in place for repositories and archaeologists
- Need for a legal mechanism to create a system of accountability for reporting and submission of archaeological materials and funding to support repositories.
What is the Decolonizing Curation Research Cluster?
Cultural heritage repositories globally are in crisis (Kersel 2015; Bawaya 2007). Every year for the past several decades, thousands of archaeological excavations take place around the world, amassing millions of artifacts and digital records which must be preserved and made accessible for future research according to local legislative requirements (Marquardt et al. 1982; Childs 2004).
The ‘Decolonizing Curation’ research cluster brings together First Nation and local descendent communities, archive, museum and repository representatives, and Indigenous/First nations scholars and allies from UBC and beyond to re-imagine the future of data and cultural heritage curation. The 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) sets out the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples globally, affirming their rights to self-determination and cultural preservation, including decisions about the collection, use, and sharing of their data. In 2019, BC passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) into law, establishing a framework for the implementation of UNDRIP as a step towards reconciliation. DRIPA’s mandate is to bring provincial laws into alignment with UNDRIP including BC’s Heritage Conservation Act (HCA) which protects archaeological sites and materials pre-dating 1846. The HCA stipulates that archaeological materials should be curated in provincially approved repositories in perpetuity for the ‘Peoples of British Columbia’. Repositories —institutions that care for the materials recovered through archaeological work— are designated by the province, but with the exception of the Royal BC Museum (RBCM), receive no funding for this work. Thus, this colonial legislation underfunds its own requirements and creates systemic and physical barriers to Indigenous data sovereignty through the alienation of Indigenous Peoples from their material heritage.
What is the Repository Round Table?
The Repository Roundtable —an unfunded and informal working group initiated in 2015 by Musqueam and UBC. The UBC Decolonizing Curation Cluster formalizes relationships between Repository Roundtable members, First Nations representatives, and UBC researchers to provide an evaluative review of the HCA and develop repatriation and repository guidelines informed by First Nations rights and perspectives. Our vision is to re-imagine a new model for the sustainable stewardship of cultural heritage materials guided by Indigenous communities, and which prioritizes respectful, equitable and collaborative access to, management and use of records and information. Specifically, our research cluster asks: What are the curatorial obligations of jurisdictions such as BC to Indigenous descent communities, and what are the current impediments to Indigenous sovereignty over cultural heritage globally?