CAVAL Acknowledging Cultural authority and Indigenous knowledges in referencing

A presentation on ‘Indigenous Elders as researchers, Indigenous Knowledges and the library’ in November 2018 sparked an overdue but meaningful conversation around the question: How are Indigenous Knowledges acknowledged in current citation practices? How do library staff engage with it and teach clients about it?

To explore this, the CAVAL Acknowledging Cultural Authority and Indigenous Knowledges in referencing (CACIK) working group was created as a subgroup of the CAVAL Research and Information Group (CRIG).

The original aim was to consider how we, as library staff, can further the conversation about communicating and acknowledging Indigenous Knowledges. To heighten the work, the group was keen on producing guidelines to direct students when they had queries on how to cite Indigenous Knowledges. 

The project's first step included a comprehensive environmental scan to identify the citation guidelines that already existed nationally and internationally so as not to reinvent the wheel. While there is a level of guidance in general citation style guides, there are currently no guidelines for a Victorian context. 

The CACIK was mindful that First Nations Peoples needed to be consulted and included throughout the project. Before CAVAL funding, in 2021, we convened focus groups with Indigenous Peoples in the industry. The funding then enabled the CACIK to work with the Indigenous Archives Collective (IAC) as a consultation partner to co-create the foundations of a living guiding principles document regarding citation practices, elements to consider, and issues that may arise when referencing Indigenous Knowledges within the Aboriginal lands that make up Victoria. 

The Indigenous Knowledge Attribution Toolkit is currently being finalised by the IAC and will be launched in 2023.

Building culturally appropriate resource description practice

In libraries, metadata supports both the discoverability of resources, and our ability to manage and make our collections appropriately available to our users, based on relevancy, recency and subject area. 

Over several years the conversations have increased across Australian libraries around the way we describe the material in our collections; some are outdated, and some offensive. This has a significant impact on the discoverability and useability of our collections, our ability to appropriately administer them, and our ability to offer safe spaces for our users.

The mechanisms of changing internationally controlled vocabularies and classification systems are time-consuming and complex. However, we can already do things with the means we have within Australia; for example, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) has created a thesaurus, a highly recommended resource. 

Recently, The University of Melbourne Library approached CAVAL to assist them with a retrospective audit and clean-up of “at risk” resource description records in their catalogue. The library team at the University had identified many records as the starting point for bringing their records into the present day and being more respectful and sensitive to First Nations Peoples.

The project includes adding AIATSIS pathway headings for subjects, names, Peoples, and languages to existing ones from other controlled vocabularies. Where possible, the AIATSIS headings reflect Indigenous perspectives. The CAVAL resource description team also delete offensive terms from the records as part of their work. The aim is for the items in the collection to be more discoverable, using appropriate terms, and culturally safe for its users.

The project has provided CAVAL staff with a valuable opportunity to build their practice around culturally appropriate resource descriptions in an area where much work is required. This project and the referencing project have led to CAVAL planning to work with the AIATSIS Core Cultural Learning modules to ensure all staff have a solid foundation in cultural competencies that they can extend into their description practice, and CAVAL will continue to promote and work with Australian institutions more widely to incorporate AIATSIS Pathways Thesauri terms.

Get in touch with us to explore similar projects for your institutions.

The National Library of Australia invites you to attend the 2022 Kenneth Myer Lecture

The National Library and the Myer Foundation are honoured to host the 2022 Kenneth Myer lecture, with Professor Megan Davis speaking on the Uluru Statement and the referendum to enshrine a Voice to Parliament in the Constitution.

The lecture will be held at the Arts Centre, Melbourne, on December 15^th and is free to the public. Bookings essential: www.bit.ly/3V2xfm3 or scan the QR code