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By Dagny Dubois, Recognizing Relations Lead Program Consultant
Recognizing Relations began nearly a decade ago as an Indigenous photo identification project and has grown today to myriad community engagement and access initiatives. Lead Program Consultant Dagny Dubois reflects on this evolution.
One winter day in 2013, I was flipping through a collection of photographs in the Whyte Museum Archives, considering how surprising it was that so few of the local Indigenous people represented in them were not identified by name, either by the original photographer or subsequently by the archivist. To me, it was striking that it wasn’t a practice to ask someone from the nearby Stoney Nakoda Nation or other local Indigenous community to identify people in photographs. At that moment, it seemed so simple a task. Little did I know, this was the first flash of inspiration I had towards the initiative that eventually became known as Recognizing Relations. It was also the first of many moments where I underestimated what it would take to make it all happen.
About Recognizing Relations
Recognizing Relations began in 2014. With the essential help of Stoney Nakoda cultural liaison and interpreter Corleigh Powderface, we began a series of one-on-one interviews with Elders, bringing binders full of photographs taken in the era from 1910 to 1940 for them to view. The goal at the time was to get as many name identifications and tribal affiliations as possible. I am so grateful to all the Elders who sat with us to look at photographs and share their knowledge.
As the project progressed, we heard feedback from Elders that they would prefer to meet in groups, as viewing photographs collectively would be a better way to confirm identifications. Corleigh and I organized small group meetings as well as larger community events for the Stoney Nakoda community that required help from other archival staff. Alongside the photograph collections, we projected a film compilation of Banff Indian Days on the wall, provided earphones to hear sound recordings, and set up a display of old community newsletters, yearbooks, and publications. Those who attended seemed to really enjoy these events, happy to see the materials as well as take the opportunity to visit and remember together. Putting on these events was a big effort for our small archival team, and we were so fortunate to have funding by both the Whyte Museum as well as the Banff Canmore Community Foundation to make it all possible.
Our focus on getting identifications started to shift during this period of outreach. We began to hear the message that creating access to archival resources would create positive impacts for the community. This meant continuing outreach events, and also taking steps within the Archives to create a policy that would provide copies of photographs as well as any film or textual material free of charge to Indigenous community members.
Shifting Focus and Increasing Access
The pandemic halted our momentum in community outreach. We had to reassess our goals, and most of 2020-21 was a time to refresh display binders and label the over 500 photographs now in the Recognizing Relations collection with identified names and tribal affiliations learned over the first six years of the project. More than 75% of the photographs have some level of naming. A seating area was created in the Archives lobby with the binders as well as books related to Indigenous topics, as well as a small photographic display and TV showing a compilation of Banff Indian Days films. The idea was to offer a quiet place for visitors to look through the collections at their own pace, as opposed to the feeling of surveillance that an institutional space like an archive can often create, especially for marginalized people.
The Archival space also requires Indigenous people to interact with non-Indigenous people who hold the power to provide or deny access to knowledge and resources. We as archival staff began to discuss how we could shift this dynamic, to create a sense of welcome and belonging.
The response we found to address this challenge was to create kits of resources to be brought to Stoney Nakoda families and schools by a facilitator from the community. This person would be given a laptop with the full database of images, films, and sound recordings to share. They would also be present to offer copies of these materials, and help to fill out order forms for free images. We wanted them to travel to the more outlying Stoney Nakoda reserve areas that that we previously had limited access to due to budgetary restraints. In 2021 we hired facilitator Colleen Crawler, she traveled to Mînî Thnî, Eden Valley, and Big Horn reserves.
In the spring of 2022, the Archives also hired an Indigenous intern, Jacinda Brisson, who created a web resource highlighting and encouraging access to our many Indigenous resources. This would create greater digital access and reduce barriers for those who couldn’t get to us physically.
Having Colleen as a representative for the Archives in meetings with her community brought a lot of feedback which I feel we would not have heard otherwise. Elders felt comfortable expressing concerns such as how the Archives was displaying photographs and sharing them with researchers, and asking whether we were taking the appropriate steps to consult with families in regards to images of their family members. This was a new concern to us, as we hadn’t previously known the names of most of the Indigenous individuals in the photographs, so there had been no way to consider that type of consultation.
Every step of this project has brought new questions to the table. What began as an initiative to bring names to photographs became a challenge on how to share access to the photographs to the community they represented. The focus of access has evolved from us bringing our collections to events in person to providing free images to individuals and groups such as schools or the Stoney AV Club for their own uses. Access has widened to traveling to communities further afield, with Indigenous staff members. Digital access and user-friendly web pages have been launched to assist those new to using archival databases, opening up collections to an even larger group of researchers.
Sharing and providing access has also led to the opportunity for the strengthening of relationships with the local Indigenous communities to develop a comfort level so that the community can speak with us freely. Concerns about permission to use images, stories, and traditional names and spellings have come up. Does the museum have the right to display these things without consulting with families and Indigenous communities? How can we do that in a respectful way that aligns with Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)? The First Nations principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP)?
Reflections on Responsibility
There are so many big questions that have come up over the course of the last decade that have required a lot of listening, thought, attention, and consideration. I thank in particular Corleigh and Fred Powderface, Colleen Crawler, Cherith Mark, Jacinda Brisson, and Travis Rider for their willingness to participate in difficult conversations in the attempt to bring understanding and better practices to the Archival space. Colleagues of note within the non-Indigenous museum world have been Jennifer Rutkair, Nicole Ensing, Lindsay Stokalko, B. Watson, DL Cameron, Kayla Cazes, Dawn Saunders-Dahl, and the indomitable Elizabeth Kundert-Cameron.
It is difficult to give a short version of the evolution of a nine-year project that has grown up during a time of great change. We started out with a simple goal, but then managed to stumble into some of the most pressing issues of our current moment in Canada. Although Recognizing Relations was able to shift with the currents to continue to serve its purpose, it has become clear that it is time for a new initiative to grow from its soil.
It is not the place of a non-Indigenous institutional spaces to tell Indigenous stories anymore. Our best position is to provide resources and support to the communities who want to tell their own story in their own way. For this reason, a new initiative called Hosting Indigenous Community Relations will invite Indigenous individuals and groups to the Archives to be taught how to use archival tools to locate resources about their families and communities. We will be training local Indigenous staff to navigate the paths that lead to these resources, so that they can teach the groups that register for these teaching workshops. Funding will be provided for travel to encourage groups from local areas as well as from further distances to visit us. Outreach activities taken on by our Indigenous Liaison Dawn Saunders Dahl has sparked interest from communities all over Alberta in our collections, and she will be assisting in connecting these groups to this new initiative.
I have learned more than I could have ever imagined for that young woman flipping through photographs in 2013. I have learned the importance of showing up, listening, and being open to new ways of thinking and ways of being in the world. I have made mistakes, said the wrong things, and found ways to build good relationships. I am proud that we have been able to bring names to so many of the photographs in the collection, bringing dignity to those represented in them, and connection to their descendants. I hope the work continues in the years to come, and that the relationships continue to flourish as trust and willingness to share grow stronger.
Learn more about the Recognizing Relations initiative at whyte.org/recognizing-relations.