Reclaiming Indigenous Communities from Colonial Archives: Analysis of a Public-Facing Digital Data Dissemination Project from Mi'kma'ki

FAIN: FT-291787-23

Michelle Anne Lelievre
College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA 23186-0002)

Research and writing leading to an article on how researchers of Indigenous or other marginalized communities can effectively work with historical archives in which these peoples have been erased, misrepresented, or obscured.

The proposed project contributes to two conversations within the social sciences and public humanities, which also engage the NEH’s “A More Perfect Union” initiative: 1) It addresses the experiences of Indigenous peoples living in settler colonies by critically re-examining censuses and other primary sources to reclaim information about Mi’kmaw individuals, families, and communities. 2) The project also supports the Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre (MDCC) in Nova Scotia, Canada, which is developing an innovative model for preserving and disseminating archival, oral historical, and archaeological records related to the Mi'kmaq. The final product will be an article submitted to The Public Historian that asks: Given that state-sponsored records often erase, obscure, misrepresent, and denigrate Indigenous lives, how can researchers identify and disseminate information about past Indigenous experiences from such documents in ways that honor Indigenous worldviews and language?