Indigenous Resources Guide at the Provincial Archives of Alberta

Written by: Jonas Vasseur, TRC Archivist Intern

The mission of the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) is to acquire, preserve and make records available to the people of Alberta. This includes material created by the provincial government, but also records from individuals, families and organizations in the province. In our Indigenous-related holdings, we hold records from as early as the 1700s and 1800s, with some record holdings spanning more than five decades—some even a century. This week’s post is an update to work that has been carried out at the PAA on access to its Indigenous-related holdings.

The PAA holds a wide variety of records that were created by and about Indigenous people and communities. Although there are many useful and interesting records, it could be difficult to know where to begin and to find connections. Archival research can be daunting, as records are organized by creator rather than subject and are arranged as they were originally maintained, not necessarily in a chronological way. Our goal has been to identify the wide variety of Indigenous content, either created by or about the Indigenous people of the province, and to present a comprehensive and easy to use subject guide to these holdings.

The PAA first released an “Aboriginal Resource Guide” document in 2006, and it listed the records identified as relevant to Indigenous communities in Alberta. This guide provided the building blocks for archival research to become more user-friendly.

The hearings and report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) helped provide a push for the PAA to make significant improvements in access to records by Indigenous creators and about Indigenous communities. The TRC sought to foster a space for Residential School Survivors (and their descendants) to share their stories and histories. Additionally, the TRC had the intention of assembling a broader understanding of the harms perpetrated at residential schools and seeking a path to redress those harms, solidified in 94 Calls to Action.

Call to Action 70 called upon the Association of Canadian Archivists to produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles as a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives. Of most relevance to archives, these frameworks describe Indigenous peoples’ right to know what happened at residential schools and why, as part of a right to an effective remedy in response to human rights violations.

Access to Memory (AtoM) and the new Indigenous Resources Guide

Over the past few years, the Friends of the Provincial Archives of Alberta Society have hired Young Canada Works Interns to improve access to records held at the PAA that relate to Indigenous Peoples, communities and residential and day schools. When I began my Young Canada Works internship at the PAA in September of 2022, the PAA was well underway in a transition to Access to Memory (AtoM), a purpose-built online database and search tool for archival environments. Using AtoM, the new Collections Management page has made it much easier for visitors to search the PAA’s records holdings, and it is much better at linking creators, subjects, locations and descriptions than the previous system. Because of AtoM’s user and admin ease-of-use, it allowed the PAA to create a new version of the Indigenous Resources Guide that was dynamic and updated on a regular, seven-day cycle.

The Indigenous Resources Guide was officially released on the PAA’s site in April of 2023, and it will continue to be updated as we receive new records. As soon as we publish new records that we find relevant on AtoM, they are added to the Guide automatically. No longer does the Guide need to be reprinted as soon as new records are added to it. Built to facilitate first steps in archival research and to give people the tools they need to start research on their own, the Guide is separated into 17 categories that are context-based. Most of these subject categories lead to descriptions where researchers can then browse files maintained in their original order.

So, how does this all work?

The categories of the Indigenous Resources Guide reflect the subject of the records held at the Archives. These include categories such as Education, Healthcare, and Histories and Storytelling from Indigenous people and communities. We rely on donations from individuals and groups, so the records come in almost any format you could imagine at the Archives, with a range including drawings, audio recordings, financial accounting, society correspondence, and maps, among others. Before researchers step foot into the Archives, they can have a solid idea about what they will want to view in our Reading Room.

A final thought

The Indigenous Resources Guide was not just developed for researchers coming to the PAA. Those of us employed at the PAA work towards reconciliation with and building a better understanding of Alberta’s Indigenous people and histories. The PAA “preserves the collective memory of Alberta and contributes to the protection of Albertans’ rights and sense of identity,” and this includes Indigenous Albertans. Improving accessibility and our institutional memory at the Archives only allows us to better fulfill our goals. All of this occurs while we are also aiming to fulfill the TRC Calls to Action, as guided by “A Reconciliation Framework for the Canadian Archival Community,” as prepared by the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives.