Gareth Seymour On Indigenous Archiving
The Paul Reynolds ‘No Numpties’ Grant for 2019 was awarded to Gareth Seymour, from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, enabling him to discuss indigenous archiving with key groups in Saskatchewan and North West Territories, Canada.
The grant was established in 2010 from donations made by the National Library of New Zealand, Internet NZ and friends of Paul Reynolds, which are held in trust by LIANZA. The selection panel is made up of representatives from National Library of New Zealand, National Digital Forum and LIANZA.
In this feature, Gareth reports back from his trip. You can also watch three recent webinars (linked to below) that Gareth hosted, reflecting on the learnings from this trip.
The grant was established in 2010 from donations made by the National Library of New Zealand, Internet NZ and friends of Paul Reynolds, which are held in trust by LIANZA. The selection panel is made up of representatives from National Library of New Zealand, National Digital Forum and LIANZA.
In this feature, Gareth reports back from his trip. You can also watch three recent webinars (linked to below) that Gareth hosted, reflecting on the learnings from this trip.
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An indigenous archiving project in the ‘far north’
Arriving in Yellowknife I found that it’s just a hop, skip and jump away from the Arctic Circle – as in, the top of the world. The abundance of snow was a major give-away to the distance from home. The indigenous archiving team at CBC North (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) also pointed out how their ‘far north’ environment shapes the local people and culture – travelling ultra-long distances in the snow, eating arctic kai, what to wear in minus 30 degree weather, and how the tangata whenua understand and read their environment.
I visited an archiving project at CBC that works with legacy analogue audio taonga in nine indigenous languages. The cataloguing team speak these languages, with at least one speaker for each language. Sometimes ‘pairs’ of language speakers know different varieties. To cover the huge geography (Canada is Australia-like in size), a small Cree team is based way over in Montreal to work with audio from northern Quebec and the whenua north of there in Nunavut country.
The population of the Northwest Territories is 44,800 including band (iwi) communities, so the calatoguers are sometimes seconded into other language roles like filling in as a radio or TV news presenter while their presenter-whanaunga is away. The archivists become content creators, sometimes broadcasting to elders who don’t speak English.
With the language comes other responsibilities and opportunities. Many of the cataloguers have held interpreting roles though the Language Bureau, demonstrated by the nine interpreting booths in the small assembly (parliament) building down the road from the CBC.
What do the audio taonga hold? The analogue collection is being slowly digitised by CBC and holds historic kōrero from:
Arriving in Yellowknife I found that it’s just a hop, skip and jump away from the Arctic Circle – as in, the top of the world. The abundance of snow was a major give-away to the distance from home. The indigenous archiving team at CBC North (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) also pointed out how their ‘far north’ environment shapes the local people and culture – travelling ultra-long distances in the snow, eating arctic kai, what to wear in minus 30 degree weather, and how the tangata whenua understand and read their environment.
I visited an archiving project at CBC that works with legacy analogue audio taonga in nine indigenous languages. The cataloguing team speak these languages, with at least one speaker for each language. Sometimes ‘pairs’ of language speakers know different varieties. To cover the huge geography (Canada is Australia-like in size), a small Cree team is based way over in Montreal to work with audio from northern Quebec and the whenua north of there in Nunavut country.
The population of the Northwest Territories is 44,800 including band (iwi) communities, so the calatoguers are sometimes seconded into other language roles like filling in as a radio or TV news presenter while their presenter-whanaunga is away. The archivists become content creators, sometimes broadcasting to elders who don’t speak English.
With the language comes other responsibilities and opportunities. Many of the cataloguers have held interpreting roles though the Language Bureau, demonstrated by the nine interpreting booths in the small assembly (parliament) building down the road from the CBC.
What do the audio taonga hold? The analogue collection is being slowly digitised by CBC and holds historic kōrero from:
- Chipewyan
- Cree
- Gwich’in
- Inuinnaqtun
- Inuktitut
- Inuvialuktun
- North Slavey
- South Slavey
- Tlicho
In Yellowknife I realised what I don’t know about indigenous Canada. Because I (we) have next to zero knowledge about the indigenous peoples of Canada, the awesome archiving team filled the gaps in my knowledge. The northern iwi represent rich cultures, so the first task at the CBC was to become a little familiar with the land, people and indigenous cultures there.
Thankfully the archiving team was the most welcoming group ever and over a few days we exchanged notes, insights and lots of cultural understandings. I never expected to hear how similar our cultures are, give or take a name or perhaps a slight difference in interpretation. The CBC team described what we call patupaiarehe, hunting, tools, flora, origin stories, and so on. Even whānau traditions like whāngai and the role of kaumātua seemed identical to our own.
The CBC archivists are actively involved in culture and community while they document the tikanga recorded on reel-to-reels, cassette tapes and ORTs. The project has similar challenges and insights faced by our own Māori audiovisual collections. For example, the iwi there talk about language changes over 50 years. One cataloguer heard an interview using words for weather that she hadn’t used since she was 10.
As the elders ‘talk story’ they reveal the role of tangata whenua as kaitiaki of the land and the mātauranga in their origin stories about the land and the people.
Thankfully the archiving team was the most welcoming group ever and over a few days we exchanged notes, insights and lots of cultural understandings. I never expected to hear how similar our cultures are, give or take a name or perhaps a slight difference in interpretation. The CBC team described what we call patupaiarehe, hunting, tools, flora, origin stories, and so on. Even whānau traditions like whāngai and the role of kaumātua seemed identical to our own.
The CBC archivists are actively involved in culture and community while they document the tikanga recorded on reel-to-reels, cassette tapes and ORTs. The project has similar challenges and insights faced by our own Māori audiovisual collections. For example, the iwi there talk about language changes over 50 years. One cataloguer heard an interview using words for weather that she hadn’t used since she was 10.
As the elders ‘talk story’ they reveal the role of tangata whenua as kaitiaki of the land and the mātauranga in their origin stories about the land and the people.
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Why the work felt so familiar
The digitising technology, database and software employed by CBC North will be familiar to staff in heritage agencies and in these other respects the CBC project is familiar to ours:
Two further anecdotes round off the unexpected insights from this visit. Global warming is a reality here. The ‘tree line’ (where the trees stop growing) is moving and animals and game are migrating to adapt to the changing conditions. In the 1970s it was normal for the weather to reach -50C in Yellowknife but this is less common now.
A second prominent theme in the communities is the trauma caused by residential schools set up to assimilate tamariki into non-indigenous culture. While the schools closed decades ago, the impact they had is ever present in everyday kōrero. Tangata whenua are aware of the ongoing day-to-day impact on the loss of language and culture for the people, and articulate this.
The impact of the schools was severe, so this visit to Canada gave a welcome insight into a project helping to revive the people and their languages. I thank LIANZA and the Paul Reynolds ‘No Numpties’ grant for allowing me to see this reclamation first-hand, and for the opportunity to build relationships with tangata whenua of the ‘far north.’ Perhaps one day Aotearoa can reciprocate by hosting a team from CBC should they come visit our own heritage agencies at the other end of the world.
The digitising technology, database and software employed by CBC North will be familiar to staff in heritage agencies and in these other respects the CBC project is familiar to ours:
- The kaupapa-friendly environment that welcomes whānau, encourages the use of ‘ngā reo’ and even has a rēwana type bread and tiamu waiting at morning tea time.
- Should we catalogue in English or indigenous languages? Some of the languages in the NWT use non-Roman scripts with 15 or 40 symbols, so the language is not compatible with the database. English becomes the default language of description.
- As Māori uses Roman script, we can bring te reo into the traditionally English language environments of collection management systems and online catalogues (in NZ and Canada).
- The consistent use of written language. Some of the languages have relatively new writing systems developed in the 1970s and iwi might still be deciding the best way to document their language consistently, or what consistency means.
- In te ao Māori, consistency is still being developed with some kupu and even dialect differences. For example should we use tipuna or tupuna, or ētahi or ētehi or wētahi or all of the above?
- Where should we digitise? The collection was shipped ‘inter-state’ for automated digitisation. Would iwi agree for their taonga to be taken from their rohe? Iwi may decide against depositing taonga if it means moving them from the rohe, potentially compromising their kaitiaki role. Others may agree based on the need for secure and appropriate storage.
- The need for culturally specific subject headings, for example using ‘cultural activity’ as a catch-all for iwi activities is problematic when describing a drum dance, tea dance and so on. When the material becomes available online, CBC North would like to develop an indigenous search tool.
- The impact of distance. The project is managed in Toronto, so the Yellowknife cataloguers have to call there for guidance on practice. An analogy in Aotearoa is the location of taonga in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, far away from many iwi. How does an organisation in Wellington engage with iwi when they prefer to engage kanohi ki te kanohi, or are exploring iwi-specific content and mātauranga?
Two further anecdotes round off the unexpected insights from this visit. Global warming is a reality here. The ‘tree line’ (where the trees stop growing) is moving and animals and game are migrating to adapt to the changing conditions. In the 1970s it was normal for the weather to reach -50C in Yellowknife but this is less common now.
A second prominent theme in the communities is the trauma caused by residential schools set up to assimilate tamariki into non-indigenous culture. While the schools closed decades ago, the impact they had is ever present in everyday kōrero. Tangata whenua are aware of the ongoing day-to-day impact on the loss of language and culture for the people, and articulate this.
The impact of the schools was severe, so this visit to Canada gave a welcome insight into a project helping to revive the people and their languages. I thank LIANZA and the Paul Reynolds ‘No Numpties’ grant for allowing me to see this reclamation first-hand, and for the opportunity to build relationships with tangata whenua of the ‘far north.’ Perhaps one day Aotearoa can reciprocate by hosting a team from CBC should they come visit our own heritage agencies at the other end of the world.
Watch recent webinars with Gareth Seymour:
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Gareth Seymour is Depositor Experience Manager – Poutaunaki Hunga Tuku at Ngā Taonga.
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