Review of Decolonial Archival Futures

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies Volume 11 Article 9 2024 Review of Decolonial Archival Futures Taylor F. Henning Florida State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas Part of the Archival Science Commons Recommended Citation Henning, Taylor F. (2024) "Review of Decolonial Archival Futures," Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 11, Article 9. Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol11/iss1/9 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies by an authorized editor of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact . Henning: Review of Decolonial Archival Futures Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey. Decolonial Archival Futures. Chicago: ALA Neal Schuman, 2023. Decolonial Archival Futures, authored by Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey, is an invaluable contribution to the growing body of archival scholarship on subjects including the decolonization of Western archives and recordkeeping systems, postcolonial models of recordkeeping, and participatory archives that center community stewardship. It is part of the Archival Futures series published by the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists, edited by Amy Cooper Cary and Bethany Anderson. The series critically engages issues related to archives and the public good (xii–xiii). By situating traditional Western archival practice within its colonial roots, the authors encourage readers to rethink archival approaches from a decolonized lens and to prioritize community needs over archival standards such as original order and provenance. The book consists of five short chapters and is an essential primer for those working with Indigenous records as well as archivists more broadly interested in learning about archival power, its roots in colonial systems, and strategies for recentering archival work to prioritize community stewardship and participatory archiving. McCracken and Hogan-Stacey ground the book in their personal and professional experiences while building on the work of archival scholars investigating these topics including J. J. Ghaddar, Michelle Caswell, Anne Gilliland, Sue McKemmish, and Kimberly Christen.1 Throughout the book, they discuss working at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) in the RobinsonHuron Treaty territory in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where McCracken has worked since 2010 and Hogan-Stacey has held various positions. The SRSC is a grassroots community archive dedicated to preserving the legacy of residential schools (xiii). McCracken introduces themselves as a settler, a non-Indigenous person who has settled in a land Indigenous peoples have traditionally inhabited.2 They describe their experiences working alongside residential school survivors and Indigenous communities as transformative for understanding the need to center archival work on community needs (xiii–xiv). Hogan-Stacey identifies as “an urban Indigenous person descended from the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke paternally and from settlers maternally” (xiii). They have most recently worked as a historian using archival collections for Indigenous historical and cultural research, as well as a policy analyst for projects dedicated to reshaping archival systems and access See the following: J. J. Ghaddar and Michelle Caswell, “‘To Go Beyond’: Towards a Decolonial Archival Praxis,” Archival Science 19, no. 2 (2019): 71–85; J. J. Ghaddar, “The Spectre in the Archive: Truth, Reconciliation, and Indigenous Archival Memory,” Archivaria 82, no. 1 (2016): 3–26; Anne J. Gilliland, “Contemplating Co-Creator Rights in Archival Description,” Knowledge Organization 39, no. 5 (2012): 340–46; Anne J. Gilliland and Sue McKemmish, “The Role of Participatory Archives in Furthering Human Rights, Reconciliation and Recovery,” Atlanti: Review for Modern Archival Theory and Practice 24 (2014): 78–88; Kimberly Christen, “Opening Archives: Respectful Repatriation,” American Archivist 74, no. 1 (Spring–Summer 2011): 185–210; and Kimberly Christen Withey, “Sovereignty, Repatriation, and the Archival Imagination: Indigenous Curation and Display Practices,” Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals 11, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 115–38. For additional scholarship at the intersection of archival and Indigenous studies, see note 3. 2 The following terms are used throughout the book: “settler community” describes those who have benefited from the settler-colonial system of white supremacy; “settler colonialism” is a type of colonialism that emphasizes a “logic of elimination and a structure of invasion” and “enacts itself through recordkeeping practices that erase and minimize Indigenous peoples’ voices, experiences, and agency”; and “decolonization” is accountability to Indigenous peoples, including “working with and alongside Indigenous communities to manage, understand, and work with archival records connected to, by, or about Indigenous peoples” (xiv–xv). 1 Published by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale, 2024 1 Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, Vol. 11 [2024], Art. 9 to records associated with residential schools in Canada (xiii–xiv). The authors’ identities and individual experiences are central to the book in that they inform their perspectives and relationships to archival practice (xiv). Although rooted in personal experiences and recent discourse on disrupting the colonial roots of archives, McCracken and Hogan-Stacey simultaneously incorporate recent scholarship in Indigenous Studies and center perspectives from scholars and activists from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities. This includes work by Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang, Kirsten Thorpe, Shannon Faulkhead, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, among others.3 This blend of theory from diverse perspectives and personal experiences allows the authors to describe key concepts in accessible, clearly defined language while incorporating practical examples. While some archivists may find the book’s subject intimidating, McCracken and Hogan-Stacey make the topic approachable for students, scholars, activists, practitioners, and administrators alike. Beyond this theoretical and conceptual foundation, the authors dedicate much of Decolonial Archival Futures to case studies demonstrating successful projects and approaches to decolonizing archives in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These examples, along with the concluding ten “Areas for Transformation of Archival Practice,” are the book’s greatest strengths among this current and emerging body of literature. Archival practitioners are sure to find inspiration for challenging Western archival paradigms and recentering t (...truncated)