Community control for oral history
The late Billy Two Rivers with Gerald Taiaiake Alfred during the first phase of the Kahnawà:ke Oral History Project. File photo
Data sovereignty is at the heart of the next phase of Kahnawake’s Oral History Project, with elders’ stories and family life in Kahnawake ready to be archived in a way that above all keeps community knowledge for the community.
“It’s looking really good, the possibilities are really exciting,” said Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, project manager. “This is super up to date cutting-edge technology, and it looks fantastic.”
The first phase of the project wrapped up in February 2022 and saw 25 elders and their families interviewed over a two-year period. The result was a short film titled “Resistance and Resilience: Stories and Remembrances of our Elders,” which was shortlisted for the prestigious 2023 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming.
The initial idea was to make not just the resulting short film but the tens of hours of video content gathered throughout the two years accessible online for community members - but the team was faced with a very real concern: who would be able to access that data?
“We had some hesitancy to put all that material online out of caution, we didn’t want it misused or misinterpreted,” Alfred said.
Conversations about data sovereignty are becoming more and more common for Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, who are building large amounts of data relating to language and culture.
At the recent WAVES Global Indigenous Languages Summit in Ottawa, representatives from the Mohawk Council of Kahanawake (MCK) even heard form Maōri advocates, who had developed their own software to protect their language and ensure their community’s sovereignty over their data.
It’s thanks to a new program called TheirStory that the next phase of the project can proceed. TheirStory is specifically geared towards the archiving of oral histories, with a specific goal of supporting community ownership of knowledge and cultural legacy.
It’s an initiative from Know History, who undertook the first phase of the project pro-bono with the MCK and the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center (KOR).
As part of their commitment to reconciliation, Know History are once again providing their services and the use of TheirStory for free in the second phase of the project, a contribution that signifies an in-kind contribution of approximately $40,000.
Alfred said the continued support of the project is thanks to the ongoing relationship that Know History’s founder and director, Ryan Shackleton, has built with Kahnawake.
“He came as an immigrant to Canada as a kid in 1990. His first impression of Mohawks was of our resistance, and he’s not shy to say it, he loves Mohawks. He wants to be an ally, and he wants to contribute to what Kahnawake is all about, and our aspirations,” Alfred said.
Shackleton and Know History have proved that they’re invested in Kahnawake owning their own stories - trusting the company wasn’t an overnight decision, Alfred said.
“At first we were cautious, but we have that level of trust now given the work we did in the past and the way he’s conducted himself and the way the company’s treated our people and our information,” Alfred said.
“They’ve proven themselves as a good partner and they’ve shown nothing but respect for us, they’ve been really good allies.”
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TheirStory provides digital tools to index, search, organize, edit, transcribe, record, and share content, allowing for the building of an archive of oral or video history. As the project manager, Alfred will liaise with the TheirStory team to learn more about how to use their software, bringing back that information to the community to ensure archives are being kept in a way that best meets the community’s needs.
Alfred estimates that the platform will be ready for use within the next few months, with this aspect of the project approved on Tuesday by the MCK.
“I want to emphasize that all of the information, all of the knowledge, and all of the images are owned by us,” Alfred said. “There’s no transfer of ownership. We’re very aware, and we’re very committed on that.”
