Closing the narrative gap: social media as a tool to reconcile institutional archival narratives with Indigenous counter-narratives

ABSTRACT

Archives are an integral component in the formation of a nation’s historical narratives. They are both repositories and sources of a nation’s evidence of events. Institutional archives have been striving to incorporate equity and social justice for Indigenous peoples but their practice is still heavily skewed to colonists’ perspectives. In this article, the author uses critical race theory to examine the social media narratives of Australia’s institutional archives during National Reconciliation Week, coinciding with the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising. She uses the concept of counter-narrative to demonstrate the gaps between narratives about Indigenous peoples and those by Indigenous peoples in contemporary archival narratives as portrayed in social media. She argues that to truly achieve equity and social justice for Indigenous peoples, archives must engage with Indigenous counter-narratives in their collecting and exhibiting practices and bring the institutional and Indigenous narratives closer together.

KEYWORDS:

• Counter-narrative
• Indigenous activism
• reconciliation
• Black Lives Matter
• social media
• archives

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Indigenous Australian Higher Degree by Research Scholarship for supporting the research that has informed the writing of this article. Her enduring gratitude goes to Professor Sandy O’Sullivan and the Indigenous Archives Collective members whose conversations helped to draw out the subject of this article. Thanks to Dr. Clare Archer-Lean for the writing encouragement and Ali Hickling for the proof-reading. Lastly, thank you to the reviewers for their thoughtful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Monica Anderson, Michael Barthel, Andrew Perrin and Emily A Vogels, ‘#BlackLivesMatter surges on Twitter after George Floyd’s death’, Pew Research Center, 2020, available at <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/10/blacklivesmatter-surges-on-twitter-after-george-floyds-death/>, accessed 16 October 2020.

2. Jarret M Drake, ‘Diversity’s discontents: In search of an archive of the oppressed’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 47, no. 2, 2019, pp. 270–279; Cassie Findlay, ‘Archival activism’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 44, no. 3, 2016, pp. 155–159.

3. Anthony W Dunbar, ‘Introducing critical race theory to archival discourse: getting the conversation started’, Archival Science, vol. 6, no. 1, 2006, pp. 109–129.

4. Aileen Moreton Robinson, Talkin’ up to the white woman: Aboriginal women and feminism, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 2000.

5. ibid., p. 177.

6. Reconciliation Australia, ‘National Reconciliation Week’, 2020, available at <https://www.reconciliation.org.au/national-reconciliation-week/>, accessed 19 October 2020.

7. ‘Blak’ is increasingly used by Aboriginal peoples in Australia instead of ‘black’ when referring to themselves. For more information about the history and use of ‘blak’ see Kate L Munro, ‘Why “Blak” not Black?: Artist Destiny Deacon and the origins of this word’, 2020, available <https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/05/07/why-blak-not-black-artist-destiny-deacon-and-origins-word-1>, accessed on 5 January 2021.

8. Alexandra Gannoni and Samantha Bricknell, ‘Indigenous deaths in custody: 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’, 2019, available at <https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/sb17_indigenous_deaths_in_custody_-_25_years_since_the_rciadic_210219.pdf>, accessed 10 November 2020.

9. Gary Foley, ‘1930s: Era of Assimilation and Activism’, Tracker Magazine, 2011, available at <http://vuir.vu.edu.au/25875/>, accessed 29 October 2020.

10. Gary Foley, ‘White Myth-Making and the State of Denial’, Tracker Magazine, 2012, available at <http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/tracker_index.html>, accessed 29 October 2020.

11. ibid.

12. Henry Reynolds’s retelling of Australian history to include frontier violence and Indigenous activism was famously labelled as ‘black armband history’ and vigorously adopted and opposed by alternating Australian Labour and Liberal federal governments resulting in what was known as the ‘History Wars’. See Henry Reynolds, The other side of the frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia, UNSW Press, 2006 (first published 1981).

13. Prime Minister of Australia Media Office, ‘Interview with Ray Hadley, 2GB | 4 June 2020 [Transcript]’, 2020, available at <https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-ray-hadley-2gb-1>, accessed 16 October 2020.

14. Prime Minister of Australia Media Office, ‘Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB 11 June 2020 [Transcript]’, 2020, available at <https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-ben-fordham-2gb-4>, accessed 16 October 2020.

15. Celeste Liddle, ‘Nine reporter called out for “ignorance” on Australian black history’, SBS, 2020, available at <https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/06/01/nine-reporter-called-out-ignorance-australian-black-history>, accessed 10 September 2020.

16. Ann Laura Stoler, Duress, Duke University Press, Durham, 2016.

17. ‘Black Lives Matter’, NITV, 2020, available at <https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/subject/black-lives-matter>, accessed 19 October 2020.

18. Majeda Beatty, ‘Powerful speech at Black Lives Matter rally Sydney by Majeda Beatty’, Indigenous X, 2020, available at <https://indigenousx.com.au/powerful-speech-at-black-lives-matter-rally-sydney-by-majeda-beatty/>, accessed 19 October 2020.

19. Critical race theory (CRT) has become intertwined with the BLM movement, both in the understanding of systemic racism and in President Trump’s condemnation of CRT and executive order ‘Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping’ in response to the 2020 BLM uprising. To understand the history of CRT in Australia see Fiona Nicoll, ‘Beyond White Virtue: Reflections on the First Decade of Critical Race and Whiteness Studies in the Australian Academy Timelines and Milestones, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1–18. For further reading on the use of CRT in archives see Dunbar; Kellee E Warren, ‘We need these bodies, but not their knowledge: Black women in the archival science professions and their connection to the archives of enslaved women in the French Antilles’, Library Trends, vol. 64, no. 4, 2016, pp. 776–794.

20. Reconciliation Australia.

21. National Archives of Australia, ‘Reconciliation Action Plan 2014–15 | naa.gov.au’, 2014, available at <https://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/our-organisation/accountability-and-reporting/reconciliation-action-plan-2014-15#vision>, accessed 18 October 2020. The 2014–2015 RAP was still listed on the NAA website as a part of their accountability and reporting structure at the time this article was written.

22. ibid.

23. Rose Barrowcliffe, ‘#BlackLivesMatter and archives in Australia’, Indigenous Archives Collective, 2020, available at <https://indigenousarchives.net/2020/06/17/blacklivesmatter-and-archives-in-australia/>, accessed 10 September 2020, and Rose Barrowcliffe, ‘Response to comments to the #BlackLivesMatter and archives in Australia blog post’, Indigenous Archives Collective, 2020, available at <https://indigenousarchives.net/2020/07/21/response-to-comments-to-the-blacklivesmatter-and-archives-in-australia-blog-post/>, accessed 10 September 2020.

24. Sandy O’Sullivan, ‘101 Links to Black Writers and Voices’, AusLit, 2020, available at <https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/19577014?fbclid=IwAR3M_Iibn79x3ayROfuRJ4OHJsm4A6G7PEpzPHqBkxMF7BpR1nr3C6fJx_k>, accessed 31 October 2020.

25. William EH Stanner, The dreaming & other essays, 2^nd ed., Black Inc. Agenda, Collingwood, 2009.

26. Bain Attwood, ‘Denial in a Settler Society: the Australian Case’, History Workshop Journal, vol. 84, 2017, pp. 24–43.

27. Black Lives Matter, ‘About – Black Lives Matter’, 2020, available at <https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/>, accessed 1 November 2020.

28. See Michelle Caswell, ‘Report from the field: Seeing yourself in history: Community archives and the fight against symbolic annihilation’, The Public Historian, vol. 36, no. 4, 2014, pp. 26–37; Sandy O’Sullivan, ‘A Lived Experience of Aboriginal Knowledges and Perspectives’, Practical Wisdom, 2019, pp. 107–112; Michelle Caswell, Marika Cifor and Mario H Ramirez, ‘“To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing”: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives’, The American Archivist, vol. 79, no. 1, 2016, pp. 56–81; and Michelle Caswell, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci and Marika Cifor, ‘“To Be Able to Imagine Otherwise”: community archives and the importance of representation’, Archives and Records, vol. 38, no. 1, 2017, pp. 5–26.

29. Bronwyn Carlson and Ryan Frazer, Social Media Mob: Being Indigenous Online, Macquarie University, Department of Indigenous Studies, Sydney, 2018.

30. Bronwyn Carlson and Ryan Frazer, ‘Yarning circles and social media activism’, Media International Australia, vol. 169, no. 1, 2018, pp. 43–53.

31. Bronwyn Carlson, Lani V Jones, Michelle Harris, Nelia Quezada and Ryan Frazer, ‘Trauma, shared recognition and Indigenous resistance on social media’, Australasian Journal of Information Systems, vol. 21, 2017, https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1570.

32. Pamela Fransen-Taylor and Bhuva Narayan, ‘Challenging prevailing narratives with Twitter: An #AustraliaDay case study of participation, representation and elimination of voice in an archive’, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, vol. 50, no. 3, 2018, pp. 310–321.

33. Carlson et al.

34. Findlay, p. 155.

35. Kirsten Thorpe, ‘Transformative Praxis – Building spaces for determination in libraries and archives’, In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 2019, available at < http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2019/transformative-praxis/>, accessed 9 January 2021.

36. Andrew Flinn, ‘Archival Activism: Independent and Community-led Archives, Radical Public History and the Heritage Professions’, InteractActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2011.

37. See <www.documentingferguson.wustl.edu> and <www.baltimoreuprising2015.org>.

38. Tweet: ‘Treaty education is important. You can view and download digitized copies and transcriptions of many of the Peace and Friendship treaties’, Nova Scotia Archives, @NS_Archives, 22 September 2020, available at <https://twitter.com/NS_Archives/status/1308077380435673088>, accessed 28 October 2020.

39. Amanda Coletta, ‘Nova Scotia lobster: Commercial fishers clash with Indigenous Mi’kmaq First Nations’, The Washington Post, 2020, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/canada-nova-scotia-indigenous-lobster-fishery/2020/10/24/d7e83f54-12ed-11eb-82af-864652063d61_story.html>, accessed 31 October 2020.

40. National Museum of African American History and Culture, ‘Statement on Efforts to Collect Objects at Lafayette Square | National Museum of African American History and Culture’, 2020, available at <https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/statement-efforts-collect-objects-lafayette-square>, accessed 28 October 2020.

41. New-York Historical Society, ‘History Responds’, 2020, available at <https://www.nyhistory.org/history-responds>, accessed 31 October 2020.

42. Victoria & Albert Museum, ‘The Pussyhat’, 2017, available at <https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-pussyhat>, accessed 31 October 2020.

43. CBS News, ‘Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch: ‘This is a moment that really needs to be a tipping point’, 2020, available at <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/smithsonian-secretary-lonnie-bunch-this-is-a-moment-that-really-needs-to-be-a-tipping-point-2020-06-01/>, accessed 31 October 2020.

44. Kevin Gover, ‘A Letter from Director Kevin Gover’, National Museum of the American Indian, 2020, available at <http://go.si.edu/site/MessageViewer?current=true&em_id=87147.0>, accessed 31 October 2020.

45. ‘Talking About Race ‘, National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2020, available at <https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race>, accessed 31 October 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Deputy Vice Chancellor's (Research and Innovation) Indigenous Australian Higher Degree by Research Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Rose Barrowcliffe

Rose Barrowcliffe is a Butchulla-Wonamutta doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Her research uses critical race theory to examine how Indigenous peoples are represented in archives and how that then affects their representation in historical narratives. Rose’s research is grounded in the K’gari Research Archive, an archive that is about the Butchulla Traditional Country now also known as Fraser Island. Rose is a member of the Indigenous Archives Collective.