TAHLTAN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT – WINTER NEWSLETTER 2022
Culture & Heritage Director Report TCG ARCHIVES – “UNARCHIVED” Earlier in 2021, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) reached out to my department. They had read in one of our newsletters about the Archive we are working on building which aligned with a documentary they are filming. The documentary is called “Unarchived”, and the following is a description that was provided by the film crew:
Sandra Marion Culture & Heritage Director
Dẕenēs̱ hoti’e Tahltans. It has been a very cold winter this year in our homeland. I am very grateful for our woodstove during these times. I hope you all have been able to stay warm and toasty where you reside. The Culture & Heritage Department and Tahltan Central Government (TCG) Archives would like to welcome Kailene Louie to the team. She has started in the physical archive with Ursula at the beginning of January 2022. With the assistance of Kailene, and hopefully one more assistant (the job posting is available on the TCG website and OnTrack), we will be able to expedite the physical organization of the four-hundred-twenty (420) banker boxes we are working through.
The goal with our Archive Assistants is to heavily involve them in the structure of the archive, as well as policy and procedure development so that out of the two positions, we can determine a Tahltan Manager position to take over the physical archive as we accept donations from the public. We have been working closely with a lawyer on our collections policy and ironing out the creative tensions between collective rights and individual rights. This policy will be brought back to specific avenues for a full review prior to implementation.
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“Unarchived is a feature documentary that explores the diverse, underrepresented, and unarchived histories in British Columbia. We will follow knowledge keepers, communities, and organizations across the Province as they subvert the dominant historical narrative in our museums and archives, and fight for a more inclusive history. We examine community-led archives and museums to investigate the ways they are collecting, sharing, and holding histories... We would love the Tahltan Nation’s work to build your archive, and the dialogue around repatriation to be our fourth and final story. Specifically, we would like to hear about the decision to create the archive and the ways in which you have Indigenized what has historically been a very colonial structure of an Archive, as well as the work you are doing to build access for the Nation and its members.” The original request was for the film crew to make their way to Dease Lake, and we could do the filming in the physical archive, but due to COVID-19 travel regulations that was not possible. So, the Archivist and I ended up meeting with the crew in Vancouver to conduct the interviews and in Victoria for further filming at the Royal BC Museum. Through relationship building with the NFB, we uncovered some footage that was recorded in the mid 1980’s of two influential Elders having a casual conversation.
