The Role of Archives in Indigenous Language Maintenance and Resurgence
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The Role of Archives in Indigenous Language Maintenance and Resurgence By Samantha Booth A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History (Archival Studies) Joint Master’s Program University of Manitoba/University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba Copyright © 2020 by Samantha Booth i Abstract For centuries, Indigenous peoples have been advocating for their rights to their land, cultures and languages in the context of (settler) colonial institutions that have repressed and removed these rights and knowledges, as well as the mechanisms for their transmission. This thesis attempts to open up questions regarding what settler-colonial archives and archivists could do to support Indigenous language maintenance, resurgence and use, given the reality that most Indigenous languages in Canada (and globally) are declining in use and number of speakers. Using Inuktut (Inuit languages) as a case study, it will outline the circumstances that have led to both this decline and the role that settler-colonial archives have had in it. By examining Inuktut records held by the settler-colonial institution of Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA) and their Names and Knowledge Initiative as a case study, this thesis will illustrate both the challenges posed by Indigenous language records held by such institutions, as well as the opportunities for (settler) colonial archives to contribute to Indigenous sovereignty over their linguistic data, knowledge and records. It will also explore the use of Indigenous languages in the delivery of services by archives to further support their use as languages of daily life. i Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Greg Bak for his supervision, encouragement, patience and critical engagement with my thesis topic, and archival education in general. I would also like to thank my committee – Dr. Tom Nesmith for his infectious enthusiasm for archives and archival theory, and his support throughout this process; Dr. Adele Perry for her keen insights and supportive contributions, both into history and into thesis writing; and Dr. Lorena Sekwan Fontaine for her thoughtful and immensely helpful comments and questions about Indigenous language and Indigenous experiences in archives. I am so grateful to have you all providing me with guidance. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Council’s Canadian Graduate Scholarship-Masters; the University of Manitoba Tri-Council Masters Supplemental Award; and the Dr. James Burns Award from the U of M History Department. These awards enabled me to pursue my studies and complete this thesis, for which I am very grateful. I would like to thank my colleagues at HBCA for their support and encouragement, both for writing and for my growth as an archival professional. To my fellow students, comrades in thesis, gratitude and solidarity; especially Preeti, my coursemate and friend, and Krystal, my thesis (and otherwise) buddy. For the commiseration and motivation, salut. Finally, I would not have been able to complete this at times monumental task without the love, support, space and time from my family. To my parents and my parents-in-law, for supporting from afar; and to Kevin and Ana, yay Mommy thesis! This was a joint effort, and I feel your love, pride and sacrifice as I read through the words I’ve written here. ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... ii Preface: Positionality and Accountability .................................................................................. 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter One: A History of Inuit Language Shift and Resistance ............................................ 4 Chapter Two: Language Records in the Archives: A Case Study at HBCA ........................ 49 Chapter Three: Archival Paths to Indigenous Language Maintenance and Resurgence .... 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 128 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 135 1 Preface: Positionality and Accountability I want to begin by positioning myself. Not only will this location contribute to an understanding of my scholarly biases, limitations and background, “to emphasize that all knowledge is generated from particular positions,”1 but it will also coincide with Indigenous traditions of grounding oneself in one’s family and place by way of introduction. I am a settler2 Euro-Canadian researcher and archivist, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Treaty Six territory, but currently living and studying in Winnipeg, in Treaty One territory, and the original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples and homeland of the Métis Nation. I recognize the long history of the place at the forks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers as a meeting place for peoples indigenous to these lands, and the history of relationships between the peoples who have lived on and used these lands, including the Peguis-Selkirk treaty of 1817. I also recognize that we are not all treaty peoples, and that other relationships to each other and to the land are important and need to be honoured as well. I wish to acknowledge the harm and violence that settlers have enacted and continue to enact on Indigenous peoples, including through their record-keeping and archival systems, and to keep committing to reparation and the creation more just systems both in society at large and in my specific field of archives as I live, work, and own land as a guest in these territories. Academically, I have a background in history and linguistics, which has led me to my present field of archival studies; it has also shaped my research topic, which is examining archives and their role in Indigenous language maintenance and resurgence. When I decided to do my case study based on the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA)’s Names and 1 Deanna Reder, “Introduction: Position,” in Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures, ed. Deanna Reder and Linda M. Morra (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016), 7. 2 Following the definitions and framework laid out in Emma Battell Lowman and Adam J. Barker, Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada (Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2015). 2 Knowledge Initiative, the existing relationships that Names and Knowledge had with Inuit were the strongest, which led my study to focus on Inuktut. My motivations for choosing a topic about Indigenous (rather than other) languages came from wanting to make a meaningful contribution based on my strengths and interests; but they also came from a place of unexamined arrogance, that I, as someone who had not had academic or other significant relationships with an Indigenous community, organization, or even area of academic study, could make a meaningful contribution in this area. Although my intentions were from a desire to do good, they were also steeped in paternalism, white guilt and white saviourism. Once it became clear that I would be unable to undertake any collaborative research with Indigenous peoples or communities as part of this project, which would have been the way that would have felt the most responsible and ethical to do it, I often questioned whether I was the right person to be writing a thesis about a topic that impacts Indigenous peoples, and have struggled with how to do so in a way that feels right. I have tried to be careful about whose knowledge and expertise I centre, and to focus my discussion on addressing other settler/white archivists and archival institutions, with the full expectation that there are things that I have likely gotten wrong, and hopefully with humility to have these shortcomings pointed out, so that I can do better. I would also like to address my relationship with HBCA, which provides the basis for my case study. I was employed there for almost three years, first as an archival studies intern for 10 months in 2016-2017, and then as an archivist for almost two years from 2017-2019; I have also received a further offer of employment as of March 2020, although I had not started working there again yet as of May 2020 when this thesis was submitted. My knowledge of how the institution works (e.g. its descriptive practices, its research tools, its access systems) is coloured 3 by my position as an “insider,”3 and some of the following discussion is informed by work that I did as an employee at HBCA. I swore an oath of confidentiality as an employee of the Province of Manitoba, and I strive to uphold that throughout this thesis, drawing only on publicly available information about HBCA and their Names and Knowledge Initiative; but I need to be clear that I was involved in some of the decisions that I will discuss in this thesis, and likewise have an intimate understanding of research processes at HBCA that might not be arrived at as a researcher alone. In an ideal research project