Activating and supporting the Tandanya Adelaide Declaration on Indigenous Archives

ABSTRACT

This article discusses opportunities for activating and supporting the International Council on Archives Tandanya – Adelaide Declaration on Indigenous Archives. It discusses the background and context of the Declaration and reflects on pathways for it to be enacted. This article draws from a panel discussion ‘Supporting and Activating the Adelaide Tandanya Declaration on Indigenous Archives’ hosted by the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) in September 2020. It explores questions of mobilising action to support the Declaration in an Indigenous Australian context. It examines key themes and issues relating to the importance of ongoing dialogue and Indigenous leadership in actioning and expanding the five key themes of the statement of 1) Knowledge authorities 2) Property and ownership 3) Recognition and identity 4) Research and access, and 5) Self-determination. It concludes with a discussion and recommendations for further action to support the activation of the Tandanya – Adelaide Declaration.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous archives
• Indigenous protocols and archives
• Indigenous-led archival practice
• Tandanya Declaration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Michael Dorio and A Mackey, ‘Tandanya and the English teacher’, Opinion, vol. 44, no. 2, 2000, pp. 29–34.

2. Ambelin Kwaymullina, Living on Stolen Land, Magabala Books, Broome, 2020, p. 64.

3. Raymond Frogner, ‘Creating Tandanya – The Adelaide Declaration’, International Council on Archives, 2020, available at <https://www.ica.org/en/creating-tandanya-the-adelaide-declaration>, accessed 10 February 2021.

4. International Council on Archives (ICA), ‘Tandanya – Adelaide Declaration’, 2019, available at <https://www.ica.org/sites/default/files/tandaya_adelaide_declaration_eng.pdf>, accessed 1 February 2021.

5. AIATSIS, ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network Inc’, 2012, available at <https://atsilirn.aiatsis.gov.au/protocols.php>, accessed 26 February 2021.

6. Kirsten Thorpe, ‘Protocols for Libraries and Archives in Australia: Incorporating Indigenous Perspectives in the Information Field’, paper presented at IFLA WLIC 2013 – Singapore – Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities, available at <http://library.ifla.org/99/>, accessed 26 February 2021.

7. Australian Society of Archivists, ‘Policy Statement on Archival Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’, 2007, available at <https://www.archivists.org.au/documents/item/32>, accessed 1 February 2021.

8. First Archivist Circle, ‘Protocols for Native American Archival Materials’, 2007, available at <https://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/protocols.html>, accessed 21 February 2021.

9. ICA.

10. Kirsten Thorpe, ‘Transformative Praxis-Building Spaces for Indigenous Self-Determination in Libraries and Archives’, In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 2019, available at <https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2019/transformative-praxis/>, access on 29 April 2021.

11. United Nations Commission on Human Rights, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations, New York, 2007.

12. Joanne Evans, Sue McKemmish, Elizabeth Daniels and Gavan McCarthy, ‘Self-Determination and Archival Autonomy: Advocating Activism’, Archival Science, vol. 15, no. 4, 2015, pp. 337–368.

13. Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, ‘The Community Guide to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, 2010, available at <https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/community-guide-un>, accessed 23 February 2021.

14. Mick Gooda, ‘The Practical Power of Human Rights: How International Human Rights Standards Can Inform Archival and Recordkeeping Practices’, Archival Science, vol. 12, no. 2, 2012, pp. 141–150; Henrietta Fourmile, ‘Who Owns the Past? – Aborigines as Captives of the Archives’, Aboriginal History, vol. 13, no. 1–2, 1989, pp. 1–8.

15. Sue McKemmish, Shannon Faulkhead and Lynette Russell, ‘Distrust in the Archive: Reconciling Records’, Archival Science, vol. 11, no. 3, 2011, pp. 211–41.

16. ibid.

17. National Constitutional Convention, ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’, 2017, available at <https://ulurustatement.org>, accessed 31 March 2021.

18. Maiam nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Collective and the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute, ‘Indigenous Data Sovereignty’, available at <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3043afb40b9d20411f3512/t/5b6c0f9a0e2e725e9cabf4a6/1533808545167/Communique%2B-%2BIndigenous%2BData%2BSovereignty%2BSummit.pdf>, accessed 27 January 2021.

19. ICA.

20. ibid.

21. Fourmile.

22. Wendy M Duff, Andrew Flinn, Karen Emily Suurtamm, and David A Wallace, ‘Social Justice Impact of Archives: A Preliminary Investigation’, Archival Science, vol. 13, no. 4, 2013, pp. 317–348.

23. Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), ‘Bringing them Home Report’, 1997, available at <https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997>, accessed 21 March 2021.

24. Terri Janke and Company, ‘First Peoples: A Roadmap for Enhancing Indigenous Engagement in Museums and Galleries’, available at <https://www.terrijanke.com.au/mga-indigenous-roadmap>, accessed 31 March 2021.

25. Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives, ‘Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce’, 2020, available at <https://archives2026.com/response-to-the-report-of-the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-taskforce/>, accessed 21 February 2021.

26. Frogner.

27. Since the 1990s, Australian Prime Ministers have aligned their support somewhere between two extremes of Australian history. One acknowledges the massacres, violence, Stolen Generations, stolen wages, land theft and dispossession that occurred with colonisation. The other either denies these took place or claims the impact of these colonist practices has been outweighed by the benefits colonists brought to Australia. This battle for Australia’s history has drawn in academics, politicians and the Australian school curriculum. For a summary on various Prime Minsters’ positions see: Robert Manne, ‘Comment: History Wars’, The Monthly, November 2009, pp. 15–17. Andrew Peterson discusses the impacts this debate has had on the History curriculum in Australian schools in ‘Different Battlegrounds, Similar Concerns? The “History Wars” and The Teaching of History in Australia and England’, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 861–881.

28. Prime Minister of Australia, ‘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.

29. Georgina Arnott, ‘Australia’s Deep Connection with Enslavement’, The Age, 16 June 2020, available at <https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/australia-s-deep-connection-with-enslavement-20200616-p55355.html>, accessed 28 January 2021.

30. Emelda Davis, ‘Australia’s Hidden History of Slavery: The Government Divides to Conquer’, The Conversation, 31 October 2017, available at <https://theconversation.com/australias-hidden-history-of-slavery-the-government-divides-to-conquer-86140>, accessed on 28 January 2021; Victoria Stead, ‘Money Trees, Development Dreams and Colonial Legacies in Contemporary Pasifika Horticultural Labour’, in Victoria Stead and J Atman (eds), Labour Lines and Colonial Power: Indigenous and Pacific Islander Labour Mobility in Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, 2019, pp. 133–57.

31. Inara Walden, ‘“That Was Slavery Days”: Aboriginal Domestic Servants in New South Wales in the Twentieth Century’, Labour History, vol. 69, 1995, pp. 196–209.

32. 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.

33. ICA.

34. ibid.

35. Terri Janke, ‘Our Culture, Our Future: Report on Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property’, 1998, available at <https://www.terrijanke.com.au/our-culture-our-future>, accessed 15 January 2021.

36. Maggie Walter and Michele Suina, ‘Indigenous Data, Indigenous Methodologies and Indigenous Data Sovereignty’, International Journal of Research Methodology, vol. 22, no. 3, 2019, pp. 233–243.

37. Kirsten Thorpe, ‘The Dangers of Libraries and Archives for Indigenous Australian Workers: Investigating the Question of Indigenous Cultural Safety’, IFLA Journal, 2021, <https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035220987574>.

38. Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives.

39. ibid.

40. ibid.

41. State Records of South Australia (SRSA), ‘Response to the Tandanya-Adelaide Declaration’, 2020, available at <https://archives.sa.gov.au/general-information/about-us/who-we-are/response-tandanya-adelaide-declaration>, accessed 16 December 2020.

42. ibid.

43. AIATSIS, ‘Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research’, 2020, available at <https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/ethical-research>, accessed 31 March 2021.

44. Janke, ‘First Peoples’.

45. Frank Golding, Antonina Lewis, Sue McKemmish, Gregory Rolan, and Kirsten Thorpe, ‘Rights in Records A Charter of Lifelong Rights in Childhood Recordkeeping in Out-of-Home Care for Australian and Indigenous Australian Children and Care Leavers’, The International Journal of Human Rights, 2021, <https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2020.185948>.

46. Kwaymullina, p. 51.

47. ibid., p. 64.

48. ibid., p. 47.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rose Barrowcliffe

Rose Barrowcliffe (Butchulla-Wonamutta) is a doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Her research examines how Indigenous peoples are represented in archives and how that then affects their representation in historical narratives. Her work outside of research includes her role as the First Nations Advisor to the Queensland State Archives, and as a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) reference group. Rose is also a member of the Indigenous Archives Collective.

Lauren Booker

Lauren Booker (Garigal clan) lives and works as a Research Fellow and PhD student on Gadigal land. She has worked across the libraries, archives and museums sector to support language and cultural revitalisation projects, assisting communities accessing their cultural material and records held in institutional collections. Lauren’s work currently focuses on collecting institution ethics and transparency, and she is an advocate for repatriation, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Lauren is also a member of the Indigenous Archives Collective.

Sue McKemmish

Sue McKemmish joined Monash University in 1990. Her research focused on Records Continuum theory and conceptual modelling, and recordkeeping metadata. Her Records Continuum theory-building and modelling work has continued throughout her career. More recently, she has focused on community-centred, participatory recordkeeping and archiving research relating to rights in records, complemented by ethics of care, in response to advocacy by those with lived experience of Out-of-Home Care, and First Nations peoples in Australia. Developing inclusive, reflexive research design and practice in partnership with communities has been a critical part of this research.

Kirsten Thorpe

Kirsten Thorpe (Worimi, Port Stephens) has broad interests in research and engagement with Indigenous protocols and decolonising practices in the library and archive field. Kirsten is an advocate for the right of reply to records and capacity building and support for the development of local Indigenous digital keeping places. Kirsten has contributed to numerous projects that have involved the return of historical collections to Indigenous peoples and communities and advocates for Indigenous control of the management of data, records, and collections.