Indigenous Knowledges: a Digital Residency Exchange and Best Practices Pilot

FAIN: HND-285001-22

Arizona Board of Regents (Tucson, AZ 85721-0073)
Jennifer Lei Jenkins (Project Director: July 2021 to present)

Participating institutions:
University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) - Applicant/Recipient
University of Kent (Canterbury) - Participating Institution

The development of a reciprocal, consultative model for collaborative digital decolonizing of Indigenous materials between a US tribal college library (Kinyaa’áanii Charlie Benally Library at Diné College) and a UK cultural heritage collecting institution (Wellcome Collection). The UK partner, the University of Kent, is requesting £59,745 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

A collaborative team from Diné College Special Collections and Kinyaa’áanii Charlie Benally Library (Navajo Nation) and working with museum, library and archive professionals from the Wellcome Collection (UK) and supported by scholars from University of Arizona Southwest Center (US), and University of Kent Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies, propose to develop a reciprocal, consultative model for collaborative digital decolonizing of indigenous materials. This model pairs a UK cultural heritage collecting institution with a US tribal college library that fulfills plural functions as library, museum, archive, and cultural heritage institution in its community. Kinyaa’áanii Library and Wellcome Collection will exchange three-week residencies on location, followed by digital residencies for the remaining period of the grant, using the open-source content management system Local Contexts Hub.