Summary:
A Reconciliation Framework for Canadian Archives was completed in 2020, following a task force’s review of archival policies.
The Call to Action:
We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to:
i) Determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools.
ii) Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives.
Watch former senator and TRC head Murray Sinclair read Call to Action 70
Analysis:
A Reconciliation Framework for Canadian Archives was completed in 2020, following the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives’ TRC Task Force’s review of archival policies.
The report and its recommendations “are intended to form a practical framework supporting the Canadian archival community as it begins to redress its colonial legacy. This framework is intended to be used as a living document, evolving as the framework is put into practice.”
Background:
In response to Call to Action #70, the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives created the TRC Task Force (TRC TF), to “conduct a review of archival policies and best practices existent across the country and identify potential barriers to reconciliation efforts between the Canadian archival community and Indigenous record keepers,” according to the SCCA’s Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Task Force.
Within a document outlining its methodology, the SCAA further stated the task force will identify “how Canadian archives, overall, have supported or hindered Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why.”
Once the review is completed, the Task Force “will then work in collaboration with Indigenous communities to create an actionable response to this research which will become the foundation for a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives,” the response stated.