2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Association of Canadian Archivists—a milestone that offers a unique opportunity to reflect on five decades of archival practice, community-building, and collective professional growth. To celebrate, the ACA Blog team is launching a special interview series to spotlight the voices, experiences, and insights of ACA members past and present through intergenerational conversations. Students and emerging professionals will interview longtime members, offering a space to share personal reflections, institutional memory, and the evolving landscape of archival work in Canada.   

In today’s feature, Dharani Persaud chats with Jean Dryden—former President of the ACA and Editor of Archivaria—for an insightful conversation. 

* Image - ACA Conference in Montreal, 1992. © Shelley Sweeney. 

What was the catalyst for you being a founding member of ACA and why did you decide to help start it?  

I began my archival career when I joined what was then the Public Archives of Canada in September 1972 after my master’s degree. I was just a newbie; the only experience I'd had of archives was to do research in archives, because there was no academic training. You learned on the job. At that point, the only association that archivists had was the archives section of the Canadian Historical Association, because at that point, archives were perceived as a profession of and for historians. I attended the archives section meeting in 1973 and discovered there were other people who did what I did, and it was exciting to realize that I was part of a broader community. Around that time, three archivists in Toronto had been thinking about founding an association and they went coast to coast to meet with archivists in various provinces to ask whether they thought this was a good idea. And later it was agreed that, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in 1975, we would indeed pass a motion to establish the ACA as a separate association. I’m not sure that it can be said that I had a big role in founding the ACA, but I was fortunate enough to be present at that meeting, and I was supportive of it. I never imagined that someday we’d celebrate the 50th anniversary, so I'm quite thrilled to be part of marking the occasion.  

What are some standout memories or milestones from your involvement with the ACA—whether at conferences, committee work, or advocacy efforts? 

There are many things I'm proud of that were done under the auspices of the ACA, but one of the things I'm proudest of is that in 1986, when I was the ACA president, we hired an office manager. Until then, the work of running the organization was done by volunteers  on our dining room tables, often on our own time, but we really needed some help. We had no office, but we hired a person. I remember at the annual conference in Winnipeg that year, I skipped the baseball game because I was running over the numbers again wondering if we could really afford this. But it was the right decision and the person we hired was really good and took some of the administrative load off the ACA board members so they could focus on other substantive issues. 

For me personally as well, new archivists at the Public Archives had to take an in-house course to learn about archiving, and the requirement for that course was to write a paper on some topic of interest. I picked copyright just because it had a reputation of being very hard and technical and boring, and I thought well, I’ll never look into it on my own, but since I have to write a paper on something, I might as well pick copyright! And I'm pleased to say that my paper was published in the very first issue Archivaria. At that point, I was far more interested in descriptive standards, but over the years I realized I was in fact interested in copyright and so eventually, decades later, I went back to school to get a PhD looking at copyright issues. And now I am a leading educator about copyright among archivists in Canada. I was able to do that within the framework of ACA, and it was that paper that I wrote that opened me to the subject.  

Can you share an archival project or initiative you’ve been involved in that reflects the values or mission of the ACA? 

On the topic of copyright, when ACA first started, we didn't have a standing committee on copyright but there were occasions when amendments to the Copyright Act were underway, and an ad hoc copyright committee would be appointed. I was usually on the committee to submit our responses, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement.  

I was also very involved in the first task force funded by SSHRC to actually look into the feasibility and process for developing descriptive standards for Canadian archives. And by golly, we did it! It was recognized that our needs were different from librarians so we couldn't just use library cataloging standards, but there was also no need for archivists to completely reinvent the cataloguing wheel. So that knowledge was really helpful in the adaptation of library standards to archival material. 

One last achievement is that I was the editor of Archivaria for five issues. Archivaria is one of the flagship publications of the archival profession worldwide, very well respected globally, and it was an honor to be editor.  

In your view, what have been the most significant changes in the archival profession in Canada over the past 50 years? 

I think a significant achievement is the development of descriptive standards, which I mentioned earlier. But I'd say the biggest one is the establishment of graduate programs to train archivists. None of us that were at that founding meeting would be hired today with the qualifications we had then. But now we've got a well-established master’s degree in various forms, depending on the institution, and it's the standard qualification to enter the profession. Underlying that is the clear understanding that archivists are information professionals in their own right, and not just handmaidens to historians, or a subspecies of librarian. When I look back on my career, I just think it is absolutely wonderful that there's now recognized graduate level criteria for entry into the profession. 

How would you describe the legacy of the ACA in shaping the archival landscape in Canada—and what does being part of this 50-year history mean to you personally? 

I think the ACA has, of course, shaped the archival landscape in Canada, but also internationally, both with the reputation of Archivaria, and with the contribution of Canadian archivists to many international committees. Their work with the ICA has left not just a national legacy, but also a Canadian legacy within the international archival community. 

To me, it's provided a community of professional colleagues and dear friends. When you serve on an executive with somebody or on a board, or on a committee – that's a special connection that lasts a lot longer than your tenure on that committee or board. And ACA has enabled me to build and develop the skills to achieve goals, whether they be personal goals or goals on behalf of the profession. It was a practice ground to learn how to chair meetings or build an agenda or how to move things forward on a project. So for me personally ,I'd say those two things -- community and personal development-- have been part of the ACA’s legacy. 

Looking ahead, what do you hope the ACA will prioritize or continue to build upon in the next 50 years? 

Keeping up with rapidly changing technology is a huge challenge and, tied into that is a need for robust continuing education programs, whether the ACA delivers them or whether it’s the academic institutions that offer graduate archival education. But I see this as really important because technology is moving so fast. It is very hard to catch up to or keep up.  

A second issue, which is one we've never solved properly or effectively, is the need for greater public awareness about what we do. That is, I think, why we all enjoy going to the ACA Conference so much, because everybody understands what we do. You don't have to explain. And it's very nice to be able to talk shop, but we spend too much time talking to ourselves and not enough time on outreach, and I'm probably as bad as anybody, but it's still a problem. So, I would like to see more effort put into that.  

What advice would you offer to early-career archivists or new ACA members who are just starting to engage with the profession? 

Get involved! Join an organization like the ACA, or if your province has a provincial archives association, join that as well. And attend conferences or join a committee if there's a topic you're particularly interested in, just to learn more about the topic, contribute something, and add to your professional network. And don't be shy! Don’t be awestruck by the leaders in the profession, people are happy to be recognized. They'd be thrilled that you came up to talk to them!  

Jean Dryden 

An information professional with qualifications in archives, librarianship and records management, Jean Dryden has many years of experience as a staff archivist and archival administrator in the public and non-profit sectors. She began her archival career at the Public Archives of Canada (1972-1976), before moving to the Provincial Archives of Alberta (1976-1986). She then moved to Toronto to become the Chief Archivist of the United Church of Canada/Victoria University Archives (now known as the General Council Archives) (1986-1999). In 1999, she established a consulting practice in archives, records management, and copyright, and in 2002 entered the doctoral program at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation (2008) investigated the copyright practices of Canadian archival repositories in making their holdings available online. After completing her doctorate, she taught archives and records management at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland (2008-2011). She then returned to Toronto to resume her consultancy. She is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. A well-known copyright educator, she has presented scores of workshops on copyright to archivists, librarians and educators in Canada and the U.S. She is a member of the International Council on Archives’ (ICA) Expert Group on Legal Matters, and she represented the ICA at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Committee from 2015-2024.  She was named a Fellow of the ACA in 2013. 

Dharani Persaud 

Dharani Persaud (they/she) is a writer and PhD student in the School of Information at the University of British Columbia. Their research interests centre on Caribbean indenture diaspora studies, the role of memory work in constructions of community, and the subversion and (re)configuring of colonial archives. Dharani is an uninvited settler on the stolen, traditional, and ancestral lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxw.7mesh (Squamish), and lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. 

Sam Frederick volunteers with the ACA’s Professional Development Committee (PDC) and serves as the PDC Liaison on the Conference Planning Committee. Sam has been on the committee since April 2022. 

Q: What made you want to get involved as a volunteer with the ACA? 

A: I was involved with the ACA student chapter during my master’s program at the University of Toronto, which was my first introduction to the association. After graduating and settling in a new province, I was interested in further opportunities to network in the field and contribute through the ACA. 

Q: What interested you about the Professional Development Committee? 

A: I’ve appreciated the opportunities through the ACA to be a lifelong learner, and I wanted to see more of the behind the scenes in how these workshops are developed and contribute to expanding the offerings based on members’ needs and interests. 

Q: What has been the most interesting or rewarding aspect of volunteering on the Professional Development Committee? 

A: It’s been really interesting to follow the current interests and trends in the field and see how they influence the workshops that are offered and that people request. There have been some common themes throughout the time I’ve been involved with the PDC but some newer topics coming up in recent years. 

Q: How has volunteering with the ACA helped you build connections or community? 

A: I've met a lot of people through volunteering with the ACA, not only those I’ve worked directly with on committees but also presenters and facilitators from the workshops and conferences I’ve been involved with. It’s been a great way to learn from what others in the field are doing across the country and find unexpected opportunities for collaboration. 

Q: Which areas of PDC are you excited to contribute to in the future?  

A: We have some fun plans for a celebration of the ACA’s 50th that I’m excited to see come to fruition. It’s also been great to get feedback from folks about the kinds of training and workshops they’re interested in and to seek out new and returning facilitators for those skillsets. 

Q: What do you wish more people realized about the Professional Development Committee, or about volunteering for the ACA more broadly? 

A: You don’t need to be settled or established in your career or to have loads of experience to serve on a committee. All perspectives are valuable, especially with the PDC where we want to offer learning opportunities that people from all stages in their studies or careers would benefit from, and what better way than having those perspectives directly on the committee. I would love to see more early and emerging professionals involved in the ACA! 

* Image credit: Sam Frederick

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Association of Canadian Archivists—a milestone that offers a unique opportunity to reflect on five decades of archival practice, community-building, and collective professional growth. To celebrate, the ACA Blog team is launching a special interview series to spotlight the voices, experiences, and insights of ACA members past and present through intergenerational conversations. Students and emerging professionals will interview longtime members, offering a space to share personal reflections, institutional memory, and the evolving landscape of archival work in Canada.  

In today’s feature, Grace Phippard chats with Terry Eastwood—former President of the ACA and Editor of Archives Bulletin and Archivaria—for an insightful conversation.

* Image - ACA Conference opening reception in Hamilton, Ontario, 1987. Foreground (L-R): Rick Stapleton[?], Gary Mitchell, George Brandak, Anne MacLean, Jim Burrows, Sandra Kiemele, and Vincent Ouellette. © Catherine Bailey.

Can you tell us about your first experience with the ACA? What drew you to become a member? 

ACA was formed in Edmonton (my home town) in 1975, when archivists met as the Archives Section of the Canadian Historical Association and determined to form their own professional society to pursue their own mutual development and that of the field and discipline in which they worked. I attended that meeting and came away from it with the appointment as the Editor of the ACA’s newsletter, Archives Bulletin. I was then nearly two years into my archival career, and was one of a host of archivists, many of them also in the early years of their careers, who were drawn into the work of ACA to promote the professional development of its members and improvement of their practice. It was a joy to work with colleagues, to learn from them, and, best of all, to make so many dear friends from across the country. 

Over the course of your career, you served as President and Vice President of the ACA, as well as Editor of Archivaria. What accomplishments or contributions to ACA are you most proud of? 

In June 1980, a resolution was passed at the annual general meeting of the ACA that the Association establish a task force on standards for the arrangement and description of archival materials. After failing to find funding for such an endeavour, the task was taken up by the Bureau of Canadian Archivists (BCA), the umbrella body at that time representing ACA and l’Association des archivistes du Quebec (AAQ). The Public Archives of Canada then provided funds for Marcel Caya for AAQ and me for ACA to draft a funding proposal to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), which in November 1983 awarded BCA a grant of $97,250 (the first ever grant by SSHRCC to archival research endeavour) to establish a Working Group on Archival Descriptive Standards, which Marcel Caya for AAQ and I for ACA chaired, and which issued its report entitled Toward Descriptive Standards in December 1985, and which led to the work to develop RAD, in which I was also involved. I feel honoured and, yes, proud of having had the opportunity to take part with many others (and in this regard I must recognize the work of Jean Dryden on the writing the final report and Laura Millar, who helped make sense of all the data we gathered of current descriptive practices) in this important work for the archival field, which began with a resolution at an ACA meeting. 

What do you think is unique about archives in Canada? How have the ACA and Canadian archivists influenced the global archival landscape over the past 50 years? 

The most usual claim for a distinctive feature of Canadian archival institutions is the so-called total archives concept of its public archives, which preserve both public and private records, a tradition begun by the government of Canada and followed in the provinces and in civic governments, although such is not unknown in the institutional circumstances of archives in other countries, but perhaps not so widely as in Canada. 

As for the influence of ACA and Canadian archivists worldwide, I would say that the tenor of presentations at ACA meetings were widely respected by attendees from out of the country, as were the writings of Canadian archivists in Archivaria. Canadian archivists were prominent in many international organizations, at international meetings of archivists, and in efforts to spread knowledge of archival science, and many eloquently voiced their perspective on archival matters, but I would be loath to cite any specifics in the matter. 

In your view, what have been the most significant changes in the archival profession over the past 50 years? 

At the risk of tooting one’s own horn, I would say that perhaps the most significant change is the advent and growth of pre-appointment education for the profession in our universities. I knew very little when I was hired in 1973, and proved, I suppose, that one could indeed learn on the job, but that is a far cry from having the breadth of the discipline exposed to one before undertaking practice. 

The other change I would note, is that 50 years ago the scope of archival institutions and places where archival knowledge was usefully employed were really fairly restricted. Now, the places where people with an archival education are employed has grown and will no doubt continue to grow to the benefit of the Canadian society. 

Recently, the news and popular discourse has questioned the importance of archival work. Given that so much of your career has involved advocating for the profession, how do you feel public opinion on archives has evolved? What do you think we can do to combat misinformation regarding the profession and make the public aware of archival work? What do you think is the role of archives in society, especially one where truth is increasingly called into question? 

I suspect these important questions cannot be adequately addressed in a few words. And, as preface to the forthcoming, forgive me for feeling I am going out there on very thin ice. 

Let’s face it, it is enormously difficult to tease out plausible truth about the past. The records reposing in archival settings tell only part of the story of what happened in the past, and all kinds of things can happen that prevent all the records that could reveal a better picture of what transpired from finding their way to archival care. People who are aggrieved about happenings in the past may well think that archival institutions, which are often an arm of the body at which they aim their grievance, are no place to find the truth, even that archives are somehow complicit in obscuring the truth. Still, the best one can do is expose what one has that reveal matters relative to a person’s quest, and, if relevant, where else the person may go in the pursuit of understanding. Along the way, there may be opportunity to show sympathy for person’s quest and understanding of both the possibilities and constraints it faces. It is all about avoiding becoming embroiled in disputes about truth.  

Of course, the real place where the rubber hits the road from the archival perspective in this quest for truth, at least in the sphere of public records, lies in the adequacy of archival institutions to appraise and acquire the breadth of records to support such truth seeking. 

What do you think are ACA’s greatest accomplishments? 

I think its accomplishments fall into these categories: (1) providing a situation for the expression of ideas about archives and their circumstances, in both senses of the word archives; (2) advocating regarding matters important to the health and welfare of archival institutions and the profession; (3) acting as an agent of continuing education for archivists.  

In the first instance, its publications have carried the load, as have the annual conferences. In the second instance, ACA committee and special bodies in which ACA was represented have done important work to formulate an archival perspective on matters important to the field or develop tools for the work, like RAD. In the third instance, workshops, publications, and even informal exchange of ideas have a positive influence on the professional development of its members. I am not sure how much has been done in all those realms lately for I have been for some years not been directly involved in ACA affairs, but do think that those things ought to be the motivating force of our national professional association. 

What does being part of ACA’s 50-year history mean to you personally?

In my previous answers, I think I have given some indication of the role ACA played in my professional life. I involved myself in its affairs in many ways, some of which I have revealed here, and I was sometimes even a critic of its shortcomings, in which of course I shared the blame (or ought to have), but ACA meant a great deal to me. It gave me countless opportunities to improve myself; it offered me challenges to meet as I held some or another office in the association; it offered me a circle of colleagues and friends off which to bounce ideas, hit the dance floor with, engage in friendly debate with, learn from, play baseball with in the annual east-west game, and generally be part of my gang going out to try to make things better in the field. It would not be amiss to say it played a huge part in allowing me to do many of the things I came to do in the profession. We all just buoyed each other up to do the things that we thought needed to be done for the profession and in our particular field of work. 

What advice would you offer to early career archivists or new ACA members who are just starting to engage with profession? 

As one might expect from my answer to the previous question, my advice is simple: get involved. Attend a conference, engage with colleagues to find those with whom you feel you have some connection; join a group doing something for ACA in which you are interested. Do not feel intimidated. It won’t take long for you to find a place where you fit in and people who share your circumstances, interests, or concerns.  

Terry Eastwood was an archivist at the Provincial Archives of British Columbia from 1973-81. In 1981, he assumed the position of Chair of the Master of Archival Studies Program in the then School of Librarianship at the University of British Columbia. He served the ACA as newsletter editor, Vice-President. President, and Editor of Archivaria, and spoke many times at ACA conferences. He taught in the MAS Program for 26 years, retiring in 2007. He is currently a volunteer processing records at the City of Richmond Archives. 

Grace Phippard is a student in the Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of British Columbia. She currently works in the University Archives and Records Management Office at UBC, as well as in the Archives at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and as the Coordinator of ACA@UBC. In 2024, Grace graduated with a BA in History from Smith College, where she also worked for two years as an Assistant Processing Archivist. 

In 2022, Canada released its Indo-Pacific Strategy investing in comprehensive Canadian intervention in the Indo-Pacific region. At the 2023 ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited current Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Canada for a state visit. Canada and the Philippines recently concluded negotiations on a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement and are in exploratory discussions on a Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, the Filipino community in Canada remains one of the fastest-growing and largest immigrant populations in the country.

Image: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shake hands at the ASEAN 2023 conference in Indonesia. Image courtesy of canadianfilipino.net 

As archivists have noted for decades—from Duranti’s (1989) explication of the role of archives in government functions, to Zinn’s famous 1977 speech extolling the political role of archivists, to developments in analyses of power and archives (e.g. Schwartz & Cook, 2002)—the world of geopolitics is not so far removed from the archival discipline. As the Canadian and Philippine governments strengthen their military and economic ties, the question of historical records remains a vital one.

From 1965 to 1986, Marcos Jr.’s father, Marcos Sr., was president of the Philippines. Marcos Sr.’s regime was notorious worldwide for the 1972 declaration of martial law leading to hundreds of thousands of human rights violations, ultimately resulting in his 1986 ouster by a mass mobilization of people in Manila. The 2022 election of his son to power rode on the heels of a concerted campaign of disinformation about the Marcos Sr. era and especially the rampant human rights violations during that time (ICHRP, 2022). Recordkeeping by human rights advocates has been a key component in asserting the rights of Filipinos during both regimes.

In the context of the Marcos family’s return to power, Filipinos in Canada today—many of whom are political refugees from the Marcos Sr. regime—have asserted the importance of archival initiatives to preserve and make accessible government and personal records. This blog post will discuss community archives initiatives and perspectives on archives among human rights defenders in the Philippines and in the Filipino-Canadian diaspora.

Community Archives in the Philippines

Filipino archives, like all archives, are necessarily political. Archives of the state facilitate the governance of the Philippines, while personal records evidence the lives and perspectives of everyday people. This political relationship has been recognized by activists in the Philippines and in the diaspora as a reason to participate in archival work. Here in Canada, we can take lessons from the highly politicized work of community archivists in the Philippines to relate our profession to the needs and experiences of marginalized communities.

Memory projects such as the Philippine government-led Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission and the grassroots Bantayog ng mga Bayani (National Heroes Monument) preserve records of human rights violations under martial law (1972-1986). Beyond the history of martial law, new community archives projects have emerged in response to historical revisionism. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) noted during its 2022 international observers' mission that the election of Marcos Jr. into power was facilitated by the rewriting of history. Mass disinformation campaigns aimed to erase, downplay, or justify the rampant human rights violations and corruption under the Marcos Sr. Regime.

The Philippine Labor Movement Archives (PLMA) is one project with the goal of preserving the history of people’s movements in the Philippines. This project aims to combat historical revisionism by shedding light on the milestones of the Filipino working class over the past decades in their struggle for wages, jobs, rights, and genuine social change. Envisioned to be a community archive of workers’ historical narratives of political and economic struggle, the PLMA was established in 2022 shortly after Marcos Jr. assumed presidency.

In their 2023 exhibition entitled ‘Paggawa ng Alaala, Alaala ng Paggawa,’ the PLMA featured reproductions of photographs from the Marcos Sr. and Marcos Jr. regimes to visually draw the parallels between the two administrations, including low wages, high prices, rampant labor and human rights violations. As one archivist from the PLMA explained, “within these two governments, the militant struggle of Filipino workers persists and proves that truly, the masses are the makers of history.”

Other examples include the recordkeeping practices of Indigenous peoples in the Philippines, which are intrinsically linked to anticolonial struggle. In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, Lara Maestro’s 2019 thesis “Alternative becomings, alternative belongings” highlights the role of traditional records in maintaining a history of political struggle to defend ancestral lands.

The explicitly political creation and activation of records is part of the Filipino activist project of asserting historical truth in contrast with the disinformation of the current regime—a deeply grounded and practical objective that differs greatly from the subjectivist trends in Western postmodern archival thinking. In service to the working class, the PLMA broadens the archival concept of “context” to refer to the sociopolitical situation in which records were created. Similarly, Cordillera recordkeeping preserves records in the context of Indigenous struggle—a practice which may also be of special interest to archivists in Canada working with the records of Indigenous peoples here.

Filipino Community Archives in Canada

Many Filipinos in Canada retain records of their experiences in the Philippines, including experiences of political activism and repression. These records remain in houses and garages, on USBs and phones, ranging from newspaper clippings about arrests of activists, to testimonials prepared for class action lawsuits and publications, to photographs of monuments and other more recently created records.

Because of the context of political repression in the Philippines, many survivors of martial law hesitate to donate their records to archival institutions even overseas for fear of censorship. In interviews with Filipino survivors of martial law living in Canada, I learned that survivors generally “want records to be preserved long-term for present-day and future access by activists and the broader public,” but still hesitate to donate records because “the state’s custody over records gave it power over the historical narrative” (Carlin, 2023, pp. 62-63). Some have experienced the use of old records by the current regime to facilitate contemporary state harassment—for example, one interview participant noted that records from his Marcos Sr.-era arrest in the Philippines were used in the 2020s by state agents to find and intimidate him in Canada.

Image: Different books entitled Political Economy from the personal collection of interview participant and martial law survivor Ed. Image courtesy of Ed, used with permission.

Several local efforts have been made to preserve this community history. Grassroots organizations across Canada have activated records of martial law to build intergenerational connection within the Filipino diaspora, including through interviews and panel discussions with survivors.

Other examples include the 2019 photo exhibit “Kwento’t Litrato – Stories of Filipino Migrant Life in Alberta” launched in Calgary and Edmonton to share oral stories and photographs of migrant workers in the province. In Montréal, Migrante Quebec and Anakbayan Montreal held the “Gintong Batas” (Golden Rule) exhibit in 2022 to share the experiences of martial law survivors living in Québec. In 2023, Kamalayan Konsciousness and Myseum of Toronto held an exhibit titled “Patuloy ang Laban” (The Fight Continues) featuring photographs and other records from martial law survivors.

There is a vast quantity of records in personal custody among the Filipino diaspora in the country, and many efforts to activate and publicize these records. However, there have been few long-term initiatives by the archival community thus far to preserve Filipino activist records with the consent and direction of Filipino activists themselves.

Preserving and Protecting Philippine Democracy

Records play a crucial role in ensuring accountability and good governance. Archives are essential to both the functioning of the state and the participation of the public in political life. Yet for many Filipinos, archival institutions are sites where sensitive political records can be censored or even weaponized for further harassment.

In light of Canada’s growing political, economic, and military involvement in the Philippines through its Indo-Pacific Strategy (including billions of dollars set aside for military collaboration and funding, surveillance technologies, expedited visa processing, and Canadian-led agricultural production in the region), Canadian archivists can and should consider the ramifications of our field for the Filipino diaspora. There are many opportunities for archivists to connect with local Filipino diaspora organizations to preserve the rich history of Filipino activism and advocacy in the Philippines and in Canada. Archivists in Canada can build international solidarity with archivists, librarians, records managers, and memory workers in the Philippines through direct organization-to-organization partnerships and participation in Canadian solidarity alliances with Filipino people’s movements.

Image: Toxic Tour poster (April 27, 2024). Courtesy of Canada-Philippine Solidarity for Human Rights.

Our field can also take inspiration from efforts in other academic disciplines to conduct research and professional activities in direct and explicit support of social justice, such as the concept of “people’s research” from the International People’s Research Network. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has facilitated partnerships between Canadian institutions and Filipino organizations devoted to human rights, including exposure trips to learn from Filipino human rights defenders on the ground and observer missions to witness and record the human rights situation. These trips are also opportunities for archivists and archival institutions to build strong political connections with Philippine groups that preserve important human rights records and use archival work to assert human rights in the Philippines. To learn more about ICHRP, plan an exposure trip to the Philippines with your institution, or invite Philippine archival experts and recordkeepers to Canada, email info@ichrpcanada.org. Archivists can also directly contact the Philippine Labor Movement Archives at laborarchive.ph@gmail.com.

As a Filipino archivist in Canada, I hope to see more work in the Canadian archival field to support grassroots people’s movements in Canada, the Philippines, and worldwide. While the Philippines and Canada are far apart, Western intervention in the Philippines is at the heart of our migration from our homeland—and so the experiences of Filipinos in Canada and those in the Philippines are deeply connected. As the Canadian government asserts its influence in the Philippines and other countries in the region, and as more and more international students, temporary foreign workers, and other migrants from the Philippines come to Canada, Canadian archivists can play a crucial role in ensuring that human rights are respected and can even directly support people’s struggles for justice and liberation.

Further reading

Carlin, I. (2023). Archives for a new world : revolutionary personal records in the Filipino-Canadian diaspora [MAS thesis]. University of British Columbia. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83493

Duranti, L. (1989). The Odyssey of Records Managers. ARMA Records Management Quarterly, 23(3-4).

Global Affairs Canada. (2024). Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. Government of Canada. https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/indo-pacific-indo-pacifique/index.aspx?lang=eng

ICHRP. (2022). Final Report of the Philippine Election 2022 International Observers Mission. International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. https://ichrp.net/final-report-of-the-philippine-election-2022-international-observers-mission/

Maestro, L. (2019). Alternative becomings, alternative belongings : Cordillera case studies of records in context [MAS thesis]. University of British Columbia. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69906

Schwartz, J. M., & Cook, T. (2002). Archives, records, and power: The making of modern memory. Archival Science, 2(1–2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02435628

Zinn, H. (1977). Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest. The Midwestern Archivist, 2(2), 14–26.

Isabel Carlin

Isabel Carlin is a researcher at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia (UBC). They received their Master’s of Library/Information Studies and Archival Studies at UBC in May 2023. Isabel’s MAS thesis explored the personal records of Filipino martial law survivors.

In fall 2024, the Association of Canadian Archivists launched an anniversary logo contest. The purpose of the contest was to kick off the 50th anniversary celebrations with members in a fun and engaging way. Four logos were submitted as part of the contest with 201 members voting for their favourite logo. Olivia White’s logo received the most votes and was declared the winner of the competition. This logo will be used by the ACA during its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2025.  

 

In this blog post, Olivia reflects on their logo submission and the ACA’s anniversary year. 
 
Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself? 
I've been working in the archival field since 2017, beginning as an Archives Assistant at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. This experience led me to pursue a Master of Information, specializing in Archives and Records Management, and a Master of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to work at several archives and information institutions around Ontario. I am currently the Digital Preservation Archivist at the Simcoe County Archives. I find managing born-digital records and learning about their quirks to be a fun challenge, particularly as digital records become more prevalent in archives. I enjoy volunteering in the archival community, both with the Association of Canadian Archivists and more recently with the Archives Association of Ontario. Outside of work, I like visiting galleries and museums, playing video games, and baking. I am also a newly initiated dragon boater and enjoy drawing and sewing in my free time. 
 
Q: What inspired you to create your logo? 
I thought submitting a design would be a fun way to participate in the ACA’s 50th anniversary celebrations and it also gave me an opportunity to try my hand at digital art. I wanted to create a logo that was associated with the current branding of the ACA, but naturally something that acknowledged the 50-year milestone. Thinking along these lines, I was inspired by the connection between a golden anniversary and a gold medal. From there, the design started to take shape. 
 
Q: What tools did you use to create the logo? 
I started by sketching thumbnails using pencil and paper to play around with the ACA letters and the number 50. Once I had some ideas down, I created a few mock-ups using the design software 'Inkscape' and made adjustments until I was happy with a final design. 
 
Q: Are there any design elements in the logo that you would like to highlight? 
While I wanted to keep the design fairly simple, I felt that it was important to maintain a connection with the existing ACA branding. I thought a good way to do this was by pulling in the deep red colours from the current ACA logo along with the maple leaf, because of the significance of the ACA as a professional association on a national level. Again, I was attracted to the colour and shape of a gold medal which I felt complemented the 50-year anniversary. 
 
Q: Reflecting on the ACA’s 50th anniversary, what are your hopes for the association over next 50 years? 
I hope the Association continues to strive to be a welcoming space for informational professionals, at any stage of their careers, to form important connections and gain valuable experience. I believe the archival community is stronger when we can collaborate and rely upon one another for support, and I think the ACA can be a great way to cultivate these connections on a national level. 
 
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share? 
I'm very grateful that my design resonated with the ACA membership. Happy 50th Anniversary to the ACA, and here's to 50 more! 

Amanda Oliver 

Amanda Oliver is a Director at Large for the Association of Canadian Archivists. 

Call for Participation  

The ACA blog team is launching a special interview series to celebrate the Association of Canadian Archivists' 50th anniversary! Starting in May and running throughout the summer, this series will highlight the voices, experiences, and insights of the Association’s members, past and present. We invite you to take part, either as an interviewee sharing your own reflections or as an interviewer learning about the experiences of more seasoned archivists. If you're interested in participating or have someone in mind, please contact the blog team at blog@archivists.ca. Let’s celebrate this milestone together! 

Homepage of South Asian Canadian Digital Archive website. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. 

The South Asian Canadian Digital Archive (SACDA) is an initiative of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. It is a pan-Canadian digital archive that documents the rich and multifaceted history and heritage of the South Asian diaspora in Canada. By collaborating with individuals, families, community organizations, and heritage institutions, SACDA ensures that the stories and legacies of South Asian Canadians are digitized, described, and made accessible to the public with open access. With a vision centered on inclusivity, community engagement, and collaboration, SACDA addresses a pressing gap in the Canadian record by prioritizing the often-overlooked histories of South Asian communities.  

The history of South Asians in Canada spans over 120 years, beginning in 1903 when the first immigrants arrived on Canadian shores. These early settlers faced numerous challenges, from systemic racism to discriminatory immigration policies, yet their resilience and determination laid the groundwork for future generations. Today, the South Asian community is Canada’s largest racialized group, with the 2021 Census reporting a population of 2.6 million. South Asian Canadians have played a pivotal role in shaping Canada’s identity and their contributions extend across industries, politics, arts, and social activism. Despite this rich history, archival representation of South Asians in Canada has been sparse. Many stories, histories, and records remain undocumented, inaccessible, or lost to time. SACDA addresses this historical void, ensuring the preservation of the community’s social and cultural heritage.  

Central to SACDA’s mission is its commitment to community-driven archival praxis. SACDA emphasizes active collaboration with community members at all stages of archival processing work. This approach allows individuals and families to actively participate in shaping how their histories are preserved and shared. Community involvement extends to identification of materials and collections, creation of descriptive metadata, and curation of exhibits. This participatory model not only democratizes knowledge creation but also ensures that the archive authentically reflects the lived experiences and cultural nuances of South Asian Canadians. 

Collection page of South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. 

SACDA currently holds 75 collections and five online exhibits. These collections span a wide range of topics, from migration and settlement patterns to labor activism, arts, and culture. A hallmark of SACDA’s collections is their multilingual and multimodal nature. Materials are available in languages such as Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, and Persian, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the South Asian diaspora. Formats include letters, manuscripts, ledgers, photographs, videos, oral histories, and ephemera, ensuring comprehensive documentation of the community’s heritage. 

SACDA’s work goes beyond preservation—it also seeks to transform the way knowledge about South Asian Canadian communities is created, shared, and understood. One of its key milestones is the development of a custom metadata dictionary and a local authorities database featuring over 10,000 entities, including individuals and organizations. These tools and methods address gaps in existing knowledge systems, ensuring that the archive accurately reflects the complexities of South Asian Canadian histories.  

Chandra Bodalia fonds 

Vimal Bodalia and Dr. Satwinder Bains going through a box. Image credit: Thamilini Jothilingam 

A recent and significant addition to SACDA is the Chandra Bodalia fonds, which comprises over three million photographs documenting the vibrant social, cultural, political, and economic life of South Asian communities in British Columbia. Spanning from the late 1980s to 2017, the fonds represents the largest known private archive of a South Asian Canadian photojournalist. 

Born in 1948 in Sisodra, a village in Gujarat, India, Chandravadan "Chandra" Bodalia was a talented artist who pursued higher education in commercial arts and painting at the prestigious Sheth C. N. College of Fine Arts in Ahmedabad. After immigrating to Canada in 1976, Bodalia settled in Vancouver, where he initially worked various jobs, including creating art props and souvenirs for cultural events. 

Chandra Bodalia. Image credit: Vimal Bodalia family 

In the late 1980s, Bodalia embarked on a career as a photojournalist, documenting the lives of South Asian Canadians with unparalleled dedication. Bodalia photographed important events for the South Asian Canadian community across BC and highlighted the unique stories and experiences of the community. He covered a range of events and various facets of life, from community programs and celebrations to cradle to grave events such as weddings, birthdays, cultural festivals, honoring events, political gatherings, and religious ceremonies. The photographs also reflect the intercultural connections and collaborations within the immigrant communities in Canada as well as transnational ties to the South Asian region. Bodalia’s work appeared in local newspapers such as The Voice and The Link, earning him widespread recognition and over 20 awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Times of Canada. 

Business card of Chandra Bodalia. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. 

The Bodalia fonds focuses on the rich and diverse history of BC, capturing the experiences of South Asian Canadian communities through the lens of a South Asian photojournalist. The SACDA team plans to digitize, digitally preserve, and provide open access to this unique BC-based content in the coming years, offering invaluable insights into the vibrant cultural heritage of the province's South Asian communities. The fonds will provide a critical ethnographic framework to social sciences and humanities educators, researchers, learners, and policymakers to understand historically marginalized communities of South Asian origin, women, refugees, indentured, colonized and disenfranchised people.   

Bodalia’s altruism set him apart—he photographed countless events without seeking compensation, distributing prints freely to community members. His legacy is a testament to his belief in the power of photography to preserve memories and foster connections. He once said in an interview, “I always believed it was important that the work and sacrifices of others be recorded and acknowledged so I decided to use my abilities in photography to contribute to the community.”  

After his passing in 2017, Bodalia’s extensive archive, stored in his son’s garage, became a treasure trove of South Asian Canadian history. The SACDA team, in partnership with Royal BC Museum (RBCM)/ BC Archives, Department of Information Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley, University of the Fraser Valley Library, Sikh Heritage Museum, and the Poetic Justice Foundation is now working to digitize, preserve, and make the fonds accessible to the public. 

Left: Chandra Bodalia boxes with photographs, right: an envelope with Chandra Bodalia’s handwritten notes. Image credit: Thamilini Jothilingam.  

The Chandra Bodaliafonds presents both a challenge and an opportunity due to its vast scope. The SACDA team plans to employ a framework rooted in anti-racist, reparative, and social justice archival practices in the processing of the fonds, from record selection and metadata creation to public access and outreach. The initial phase of the digital preservation work will focus on digitizing 20,000 selected photographs from the fonds, with priority given to materials of high historical and cultural value. The digitization and digital preservation will follow a methodical selection process and consultation with the project partners, community members, and the advisory committee to ensure inclusivity and representational equity. The physical collection, comprising photographic prints and negatives, will be rehoused in a climate-controlled facility managed by RBCM to ensure long-term preservation.  

Chandra Bodalia’s planner. Image credit: South Asian Canadian Digital Archive.  

The SACDA team is currently in the process of creating a detailed file-level inventory of the fonds for preliminary access. The inventory will be shared on the SACDA website once completed. The digitized records will be preserved in SACDA at the University of the Fraser Valley and at the Royal BC Museum. The photographs will be openly and freely available on the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive (https://sacda.ca).   

Thamilini Jothilingam is the Digital Asset Archivist at the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she manages the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. Thamilini’s research and archival interests lie at the confluence of art and anthropology, with a focus on digital memory, social and visual histories, and community-centered heritage work. With over a decade of experience in ethnographic research, documentary and archival work, she has collaborated with academic and community organizations globally, spearheading preservation projects. 

This month the digital fun doesn’t stop and we're wrapping up our Spotlight series with one last interview on digital archives! We hope the Spotlight series provided a helpful showcase of the rich spectrum of archival work over the last year with our monthly features on different types of archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Siham Alaoui, PhD in archival science and public communication, and a sessional lecturer in archival science at Université Laval, Québec.  

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?  

I have an interdisciplinary PhD in archival science and public communication from Université Laval (which I have earned recently, at the end of November). I also hold a master’s degree in information science from the University of Montreal (2015) and a bachelor's degree from the School of Information Sciences (École des sciences de l’information, Rabat, Morocco), which I obtained in 2013. Since Winter 2022, I have been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses related to records management at Université Laval. I am interested in digital transformation and its impact on recorded information management practices. I will use information here as a generic word standing in for documents/records, datasets, and personal data, as in the digital universe, information exists as a whole and, at the same time, consists of fragments that can easily be combined in various ways to conduct several activities.  

Before that teaching experience, I worked as an archivist and a librarian in various contexts, chief of which is the Higher Institute of Translation Studies (Rabat, Morocco). Assuming roles as an archivist and a librarian helped me develop an interdisciplinary perspective on how information professionals (archivists, records managers, and librarians) manage information. More precisely, it made me realize those specialists need to collaborate and federate their expertise for better information management.  

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?  

I have always been interested in studying something that combines culture, management (business), and technology. In 2009, after gaining my high school diploma, I was looking for an undergraduate program that fit my expectations. I found the interdisciplinary program offered by the School of Information Sciences (École des sciences de l’information) in Rabat (Morocco). I took an array of courses meeting the multidisciplinary nature of information science as a discipline. I had courses related to archival and library sciences, IT, communication, management, marketing, sociology, and history, among others. Hence, after graduating from this School, I had a very diverse background that helped me a lot both as an academic and a practitioner.  

Q: What does an average day look like working with digital archives?  

As a sectional lecturer, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students is a great opportunity to develop communication skills, especially when it comes to students who are not familiar enough with the foundations of archival science. In the automation paradigm, which stands for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support records and archives management processes, there is an urgent need to update archival curricula to meet the present expectations of the labor market. To this end, undergraduate students need to develop basic skills related to the way AI tools function, as well as the foundations of data science, since in the automation paradigm, archives are viewed as big data, because AI tools extract data from unstructured corpora to identify patterns and generate archival outputs (e.g. metadata, classification codes, etc.). For graduate courses, I always encourage students (who already work as archivists and records managers) to share with me the challenges they encounter in their professional world regarding the integration of AI features into archival processes. I enjoy discussions with them, as most of them come from various contexts (ex. government, universities, firms, etc.) and deal with different types of digital archives and records.  

Moreover, I have always advocated for collaboration between archivists, records managers, and professionals of other disciplines that deal with information in their daily practices. In fact, when we speak of information governance, we usually refer to a multidisciplinary framework where information professionals collaborate and establish a dialogue with other disciplines (e.g. library science, computer science, data science, compliance, etc.). Yet, communication experts are often neglected and not identified as stakeholders in this information governance. Let’s not forget that communicators also manage information as a ‘message’. They use templates to formalize documents and apply specific rules to make information (e.g. documents, data) publicly available online. In the context of open governance, advocating for transparency and inclusion of various stakeholders in public decision-making, the availability of information at the right moment to the right person is fundamental. This information should meet archival criteria (e.g. authenticity, accuracy, reliability), as well communication (e.g. relevance, up-to-date, public image management, privacy), and technological criteria (e.g. interoperability). So, I think it is necessary that archivists and records managers collaborate with communication experts to ensure that proactive disclosure of information meets some key principles like transparency by design and privacy by design. That being said, I have based my teaching philosophy on this necessary collaboration between the two specializations to make students aware of the importance of collaboration in the digital universe. I believe it is a good strategy because, at Université Laval, archival curricula now are managed by the Department of Information and Communication, rather than the Department of History.  

Q: What is your favorite thing about working with digital archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to digital archives?  

Working with digital archives as well as teaching courses about them is quite interesting. As I previously said, recorded information is fragmented in the digital world, where a record exists, and, at the same time, datasets and personal data can be easily extracted from the record as a whole. Considering this aspect, metadata should be captured with these various documentary objects to make sure the links between them are described to make it easier to retrace the activity/process that generated them. However, this measure is not always easy to apply, especially where the same record is ‘owned’ by various administrative units. This is particularly the case of datasets, and more precisely, operational data. In this context, the management of datasets as records raises particular challenges, such as ensuring the archival quality of these objects, and, at the same time, their granularity and intelligibility to allow their reuse in various contexts. If we want to consider datasets as records, they should meet these requirements to enhance their discoverability. They are also to be contextualized with appropriate metadata describing the context and the links between datasets related to the same activity. What is the level of granularity that should be required to make datasets reusable by other users? How can we integrate dataset management into retention schedules? Whose needs should be taken into consideration while defining retention rules associated with datasets as records? In the context of open governance, internal and external users demand fair access to open data, which means that their informational needs should also be taken into consideration. How can archivists collaborate with users to understand their needs in order toopen up datasets that meet their expectations? These are some questions that should be addressed in the current context of open governance.  

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about digital archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about digital archives?  

As an academic, I teach my students to become more aware of the importance of the archival intervention of data as records. To this end, I develop pedagogical content that can help my students realize that data should be included in archival objects, that is, records. This is particularly interesting in the era of automation, and more specifically, generative AI (GenAI), where we address data quality issues and their impact of spreading disinformation. Datasets used for algorithms’ training should be authentic, reliable, accurate, and complete, which clearly justifies the need for archivists to be implicated in the design, implementation and use of AI systems. Moreover, with the evolution of the juridical context regarding AI, some records/archives are to be captured for accountability and transparency purposes. Let’s think about algorithms, reports, assessment results of the inputs generated by AI systems, among others. All those digital records should be managed by archivists and records managers. All in all, archivists and records managers should prove their added value in the management of datasets as records, as well as in helping organizations comply with the legal environment related to the design, implementation, and use of AI systems. They should also collaborate with other experts, like data scientists for the assessment of datasets, and with communicators to ensure algorithms are made publicly accessible online for transparency purposes.  

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately?  

I have published some articles related to automation as the fifth archival paradigm, completing the famous four paradigm shifts illustrated by Terry Cook (2013): Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Community. In my article “Peut-on parler de l’automatisation comme cinquième paradigme archivistique?” (Can we speak of automation as the fifth archival paradigm?), published in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, I consider that, in the automation paradigm, archivists will have the role of IT experts who need to get involved in the way algorithms are designed, training data are chosen and AI systems are designed and implemented. I show the way automation will complement the four archival paradigms, rather than replace them. This article is based on personal reflection rather than a project per se. I have also recently authored an article entitled “Artificial intelligence and records management in contemporary organisations: what cultural aspects are required? Insights from the Information Culture Framework (ICF)”. The article was published in Records Management Journal.  

References  

Alaoui, S. (2024a). Peut-on parler de l’automatisationcommecinquièmeparadigmearchivistique?. The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 47(1), 18-34. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cjils/2024-v47-n1-cjils09364/1112106ar.pdf  

Alaoui, S. (2024b). Artificial intelligence and records management in contemporary organizations: what cultural aspects are required? Insights from the information culture framework (ICF). Records Management Journal (Ahead of print). https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/rmj-08-2023-0041/full/html  

Cook, T. (2013). Evidence, memory, identity, and community: four shifting archival paradigms. Archival science, 13, 95-120. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-012-9180-7  

Dr. Siham Alaoui. Photo by author.

From municipal and federal government to universities, from religious congregations to community organizations, archivists work in a variety of settings. This year, the ACA blog, In the Field, is setting out to talk to archivists across Canada about the unique joys and challenges of their work environments. We will feature a different type of archives each month, with the objective of showcasing the rich spectrum of archival work.

This month we are featuring digital archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Luke Frolick, Student Employee at Northern BC Archives, and History Major with a Minor in English at University of Northern British Columbia.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path?

Luke: I thoroughly enjoy working with the Northern BC Archives, which has led me to pursue a Master’s in Archival Sciences degree so that I can continue working in this field. I have a great interest in our past, locally and globally, and an interest in how we communicate those experiences through language.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice?

Luke: A university project that involved transcribing and describing audio cassette recorded interviews from the 1970s piqued my interest in furthering this type of research. The project involved interviews from various people sharing their experiences from the Georgetown Mill and Company Town in Northwestern British Columbia. The Georgetown Mill was one of the first mills in operation in Western Canada and the interviews gave insight into the town and mill’s past operations and its previous owners. Through these recordings, I was able to do further research in archival repositories and use archival material that was essential to understanding the context of the recordings and the people involved and discussed in the interviews.

Another project I had the opportunity to work on required archival access to a document from the late 19th century. The document was a journal from Archdeacon W. H. Collison while he was exploring Haida Gwaii, then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Collison contacted and preached to many Indigenous tribes and worked to transcribe their language so English speakers could communicate with them in their own language. Describing and summarizing this rare document from c. 1870 concerning the author’s experiences gave me a great appreciation for archival material and the interesting lives of the people who wrote and are described in such documents.

Q: What does an average day look like working with digital archives?

Luke: The work is quite varied, but most days involve digitally scanning or describing the scope and content of different materials. Scanning and digitizing multimedia, from photographs to documents, books, and audio cassettes, requires different approaches. Some days include repairing documents for scanning, such as oversized documents, that need to be fed through a specific scanner. Other days have involved removing photographs that have been adhered to album pages for decades to discover that there is information written on the back, something that would not have been seen for possibly decades. Describing the content can involve “detective” work, such as finding locations, people, or even more specific details, such as the make and model of a tractor or train engine that is photographed.

Q: What is your favourite thing about working with digital archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to digital archives?

Luke: What I enjoy about this job is that the work is quite varied, and I must be versatile in my approach to each project. I’m working with different types of technology, from old tech to cutting-edge, and amalgamating them both. What I enjoy about the work is also the most challenging aspect. Making sure the machines function with each other can sometimes prove difficult, but succeeding in completing a difficult project makes it that much more fulfilling.

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about digital archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about digital archives? 

Luke: They are not permanent, like older media. This is just the next step in preserving potentially lost materials due to deterioration of old material. To preserve our past, we need to keep up to date on new ways of sustaining these materials.

Q: Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on lately? 

Luke: Lately, I've been working on the project regarding W. H. Collison mentioned above. I have been digitizing glass lantern slides that were created in London between 1852 and 1870. These slides were used in his sermons and depict various pictures from religious iconography, famous architecture, such as the London Bridge, to microscopic bacteria. Some slides are very intricately hand painted to colourize them. They will be posted on the Northern BC Archives website once edited and I highly encourage people to keep a look out for them.

The glass lantern slides in the flatbed scanner ready to be processed. Photo by Luke Frolick.

Digitization Lab workspace. Photo by Luke Frolick.

From municipal and federal government to universities, from religious congregations to community organizations, archivists work in a variety of settings. This year, the ACA blog, In the Field, is setting out to talk to archivists across Canada about the unique joys and challenges of their work environments. We will feature a different type of archives each month, with the objective of showcasing the rich spectrum of archival work.

This month we are featuring Indigenous archives. In today’s post, the In the Field blog chats with Karen Ng, former Archivist & Librarian for the Squamish Nation.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional path? 

Karen: I double majored in English and Medieval Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and I was particularly interested in histories of the book. I worked a few student jobs at various units at UBC Library, and I was encouraged to apply for the dual Master of Library and Information Studies and Master of Archival Studies at the UBC iSchool. I pursued the First Nations Curriculum Concentration, and throughout my graduate studies I tried to take advantage of as many experiential learning and professional opportunities as possible. I think that was really helpful to me, but it was still really challenging graduating in spring 2020 into the pandemic. I’m grateful for the Young Canada Works program because it allowed me to move to Victoria again where I did my co-op during school, and then eventually I was able to come home to the Lower Mainland when the job with the Squamish Nation opened up.

Q: What brought you to the field of archival studies and practice? 

Karen: Anxiety about what to do with a Bachelor of Arts.  

I like being organized, researching, and thinking about how things can be categorized and grouped together—and of course I like books and paper. To be honest, I didn’t really know very much about archival studies at all until graduate school. I was partially aware of what archives were when I took a class about medieval record-keeping and when I worked as a student at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections during my undergrad.

Q: What does an average day look like working with Indigenous archives? 

Karen: I was the first full-time Archivist for the Squamish Nation. Every day was different. I spent my first season moving boxes and getting to know the community, and then the next season trying to establish procedures and infrastructure for a functioning archives that worked best for the Nation. There was a summer that I spent writing multiple grants that had nothing to do with archives directly. Some days I would be at community events or out on the water or land if there was a spot for me. Other days I would find office rooms, shipping containers, or dilapidated sheds full of records that I had to figure out how to take care of. There were days when I was invited into community members’ homes to talk about the work they had done for their Nation and how they wanted their records preserved. 

Q: What is your favourite thing about working with Indigenous archives? What are some of the challenges that are unique to Indigenous archives? 

Karen: The people are really special to me. I’ve never experienced such belly-rumbling laughter at work. 

Unfortunately, colonial trauma was the most challenging aspect of the work, and it wasn’t surprising, but it was still difficult. 

Q: What do you wish the public understood better about Indigenous archives? What do you wish other archivists understood about Indigenous archives?  

Karen: Relationships take time. 

Q: Can you tell us about a project that you worked on? 

Karen: I’m proud of the CollectiveAccess database I implemented with the Cultural Collections Manager. I still think it’s a work in progress, but I think it was good enough for where we left off in terms of proceeding to use it to figure out how else it could be improved. I’m excited for more records to be processed and organized into the database. 

I’m also proud of the grant the linguist and I worked on for the Language Nest. The Squamish Nation’s Archives is part of the Language and Cultural Affairs Department, which also has a Squamish language immersion program for babies and their caregivers. Somehow I ended up on this project to apply for a grant that would continue to fund the Nest and the teachers. It was an incredible amount of work to understand the functions of the Nest and to translate it into a way that would convince the grant funders that we needed this. Even though it meant I took a big pause on my regular work with the archives, I think it’s still related in many ways to memory-making and memory-keeping.  

By June Chow, Jennifer Douglas, Rebecka Sheffield 

In this post, we report participant contributions to a workshop we led at the 2024 ACA conference. The workshop engaged the conference’s theme of “future-proofing” by focusing on “archival debt,” a term coined to name the “problematic legacy issues” existing in archival institutions due to “past practices, policies, and strategies that prioritized the protection and validation of institutions over democratic access and responsible stewardship” (Cuellar 2023). Archival debt asks us to consider what resources are owed to records and people who have received less attention and care than they are due and how to pay down this debt. Building off Sheffield’s work on different sustainability models for community archives and Chow and Douglas’ research on archival consciousness in Vancouver’s Chinatown, the workshop explored the roles and responsibilities of mainstream archival institutions in the long-term viability of archives they have historically marginalized and neglected.  

A significant portion of the workshop engaged participants in a process of envisioning an equitable archival space where mainstream archives not only acknowledge past harms, but also work toward actively benefiting historically marginalized communities and their archives. Participants worked in breakout groups to reflect on a series of prompts and questions we provided with the aim of starting a “future-proofing” conversation about the ways mainstream archives bear responsibility for sustaining community archives and possibilities for providing support in a non-oppressive, non-extractive, and reciprocal manner. The prompts first asked participants to think about “where they are at,” reflecting on the concept of archival debt and how it resonates in relation to their experiences as archivists in and outside of institutions. Next, we engaged participants in a road mapping exercise, asking groups to identify actionable steps toward more equitable relationships and practices that could be taken immediately and in the longer term.  

Participants recorded their breakout room discussions in anonymous Google docs; their contributions are collated and summarized here by June Chow. We are grateful to workshop participants for sharing with us and with each other. We hope the ideas expressed below encourage further conversation and deeper reflection across the archival profession and contribute to significant and lasting change in institutional priorities and policies; with this in mind, we particularly hope this post is shared with and read by those in leadership positions and holding institutional and professional power.  

Where folks are at 

“How do we work toward slow processing when we face neoliberal austerity measures?” (Workshop participant)

How does the concept of “archival debt” resonate with you and your practices? 

Workshop participants experience archival debt through lack of documentation in decision-making and in lack of knowledge around holdings of community records through inadequate description work. Short-term and contract-based jobs make it difficult to be embedded in a community and in an institution. Top-down decision-making based on statistics and deliverables is not seen as being conducive to care work. Issues around ownership and access to community records are layered and complex, and require different considerations and processes. 

The processing archivist seems to bear the bulk of the burden of archival debt. Few individuals with archival training are hired into institutions; they find themselves unable to keep up with the policy side of archival work within their organizations. Participants want to help others understand and acknowledge archival debt as an active concept in order to effect change, for example, by linking the concept with archival silences/silencing, social responsibility, stewardship, accountability, and even litigation.  

What do equitable, non-extractive models/practices of community engagement and support (debt repayment) look like? What should they look like? 

Repayment of archival debt involves slowing down, planning and building for the longer-term, and being supported to spend time with/in community to build ongoing relationships. In such relationships, we explore people’s comfort level and openness for discussion, field diverse opinions, and enter into discussions with an open mindset, recognizing that there is no single solution to the problem, and instead commit to ongoing discussion. We ask appropriate questions of people who are historically under-represented or maliciously represented; we are open to participatory description, and report back to the community when their records are processed and made available. Smaller, community-based archives are recognized as having expertise and better-established relationships, but few resources to support others. Fair compensation can take the form of honoraria, payment (including for records instead of expecting donation of records from communities), and employment to ensure the representation and power of the community of interest within an institution and its staff.  

Debt repayment can also involve resource sharing; resources that institutions can share with communities include database access, interlibrary loans, copies of records acquired without consent, digitization and digital preservation, and access to records while returning originals. Institutions are encouraged to dissolve institutional barriers and to learn from those outside archives who are doing things well. Ultimately, debt repayment must be part of the ethos of the institution and not just paid occasionally.  

What stops archivists/institutions from doing better? 

Archivists are being asked to take on more than is possible for a profession to do. Care work in the archives involves emotional labour and a high level of responsibility. In addition to resource limitations in funding, staff, and time, archivists also lack training. They are unsure of where to start, worry about not doing it right, and are overwhelmed by trying to do it all (or to do it at all). They are not sure how to balance care work against so many different areas of their work, which can quickly make for an unmanageable workload if room isn’t made by taking some things away. 

Conversations are happening between peers, but it’s not where decisions are made. Within big institutions, individuals find it hard to have a say or to make things actionable. Institutions are governed by mandates, set priorities based on research and reference requests, and give buy-in to tangible projects and deliverables over processes that may have longer or undefined timelines. The ability to do better is limited by the lack of will on the part of the institution, political issues/barriers, neoliberalism, and access restrictions. 

While both individuals and institutions are limited by capacity, it is cautioned that capacity is sometimes a valid concern, but sometimes used as an excuse to cover over things that can actually be done. Capacity can be created to fix errors/issues, for example, by taking capacity away from mundane or unimportant tasks. 

Roadmap  

“How can professionals with more/the most privilege/institutional power be encouraged to take on this work?” (Workshop participant) 

Responsibilities 

Institutions have a responsibility to recognize that this work is important and connected to institutional EDI mandates. This helps institutions hold themselves publicly accountable, and accountable to community records. There must be buy-in from senior management but also managers at various levels to grant staff the liberties to do this work. Transparent decision-making processes and inclusion of this work in overarching, long-term plans are needed. 

Shared goals for addressing archival debt, increasing access, and fostering inclusivity will look different in one another’s work and approaches––from records management in local government to public archives and working with the public––given different responsibilities, tasks and priorities. Different institutions may be better at different things; your archive isn’t necessarily the right one to jump into a space to meet a community’s needs. We may be calling for the dissolution of “total archives” and the redrawing of lines of responsibility.

Everyone has a responsibility to bring awareness to some of the issues that need addressing. Archivists are responsible for advocating for budget and support for current and future archivists. There is always some social capital or institutional influence that can be leveraged. For example, pilot projects and their impacts can be leveraged to advocate for larger budget allocation. Every interaction in the reading room is about relationship building.  

As professionals and as human beings, we work in front-facing roles with substantial power, and have access to valuable professional networks. An acquisition declined at your institution does not preclude you from using your networks to re-direct it to another home so that it gets preserved. We are responsible for engaging critically with our own work and processes, being invested on a personal/community level, and educating and advocating with our supervisors so that they can bring the issues forward to their supervisors. 

Resources 

Institutional resources require reprioritizing and reallocating. Long-term, stable funding beyond pilot projects is needed: for example, allocating funding from operating budgets within higher education. Redistribution of wealth and skills towards community archives is needed overall, with learning from other sectors and their funding models. Even with budgetary constraints, very small actions with communities can have potentially big ROI. 

Among archivists as information professionals, information was identified as the easiest resource to share. There is value in demystifying archives for communities by going into communities and also inviting them into the archives. This includes articulating the value and benefits of archives, and ensuring a welcoming and accessible space through our word choices (e.g. “researcher”, “research facilities”) as well as architecture. 

Small community archives often don’t have the means to be part of professional associations to gain access to their networks and to be included in conversations. Sharing resource lists, tips, and success stories can offer a starting point. In particular, institutions have infrastructure to offer in support of digital preservation and access. Regardless of the type of resource, however, both institutions and individuals need to be comfortable in providing work and support to the community without receiving or claiming credit. Both pros and cons were seen in a workplace's offering of professional credits for community archives work. 

People 

Community archives must be included as active participants in larger conversations that involve them. Different relationships with communities beyond collecting must be explored, pursued and codified within trust agreements. In particular, communities want to be empowered and have the agency to “build their own tables” by defining success on their own terms and creating their own opportunities. It is, however, difficult to know how to avoid overuse and over-reliance on consultation with communities, particularly Indigenous communities. The time it takes to build relationships and to step outside of the archives to do this work is challenging to carve out, quantify in year-end reports, and justify to a manager. However, this may be the only way an archives is accessible to remote communities. Employees who are part of the community must be part of the work, to make sure that the community in question is getting just as much if not more than the archives out of the interaction. 

Many community records are being processed by contract workers, often with skill and cultural gaps, with little effort to recruit from the community. Contract, temporary, project-based, student and volunteer positions are the norm in the profession which undermines the sustainability required in care work. Relationships are personal; the burden of rebuilding relationships when staff move on falls disproportionately on communities. Possible solutions involve leaning more on paraprofessionals as colleagues versus assistants. Better off-boarding procedures for contractors can help with staff transitions, particularly through documentation as procedures vary across archival institutions. If we don’t document what we’re doing, it can be challenging to advocate for more resources and to bridge the work. 

Hiring practices are a huge issue in archival institutions in Canada, and symptoms of larger systemic problems of investment in the archives sector. Hiring equitably to create a diverse, representative staff in the archival field must move beyond tokenism to support and give voice to marginalized employees. 

Paying (y)our debt 

“GLAM can be a monster that yum-yum-yum will eat up all your joy and enthusiasm for the work and call it ‘good for you.’ So boundaries, boundaries, boundaries will ensure we can keep doing good work.” (Workshop participant) 

Tomorrow: 

Do some documentation, examine our daily procedures for what we are doing already that is working and has values alignment, and make the case for additional resources by aligning with emerging frameworks. 

Start using and give credit to the “archival debt” term, and talk about and share this bundle of issues. Recognize that we have this debt and have done harm. Admit past mistakes. Be more transparent about the work we do and don’t do, and the communities we haven’t documented. Fill descriptive gaps; add a title note to provide context to a user. 

Share and discuss with colleagues, share skills in the workplace, and identify potential community partners to begin relationship building. There may be value in looking back to see what relationships have been lost due to funding/staffing gaps. 

Mid-/Long-term: 

Start a network of like-minded archivists to provide support and share skills. Identify pilot projects. Start making community connections, spending time to support people where they’re at, and respect what they want and need instead of what we want and need. 

Build out a plan for how to engage and work with identified communities over time, including defining what engagement means and how you’ll measure success. 

Share skills back with communities through volunteering, talking about the work you do as an archivist. If you have job security, ask if you can use work hours to do work that benefits the community and aligns with the institution’s strategic plan. 

Call to action 

The concept of archival debt provides a useful lens for reflecting on the responsibilities mainstream archival institutions and the profession have toward individuals and communities they have historically ignored and/or excluded. The discussions we had during the ACA workshop suggest possibilities for providing support in a non-oppressive, non-extractive, and reciprocal manner, but only through further conversation and deeper reflection across the archival profession can we contribute to significant and lasting change in institutional priorities and policies. As these conversations and reflections take place, it is especially important to remember the role that institutional and professional power plays in the archival debt economy. Power is unevenly held, and for too long the field has relied on those with little professional or institutional power to bring change. It’s time now for those in leadership positions, with the influence that is needed to effect long-term change, to join in these conversations––to look at the debt our institutions and profession hold and begin the work to pay it down.  

Citation: Cuellar, Jillian; Eagle Yun, Audra; Meehan, Jennifer; and Tai, Jessica (2023) “Defining Archival Debt: Building New Futures for Archives,” Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 10, Article 8. Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol10/iss1/8 

Author bios

June Chow is an archivist (Vancouver/Toronto) with an award-winning practice in Chinese Canadian heritage. 

Jennifer Douglas is associate professor at the School of Information at the University of British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people.  

Rebecka Sheffield is the Head of Special Collections & Archives at the University of Waterloo Library.