SPRA 510.12.05.002 Part of the Indigenous Reference Files collection
One of the large projects for our summer student this year was digitizing the Indigenous reference files. This project involved digitizing and describing the reference files related to Indigenous peoples in this region. There are twenty-two Indigenous reference files with twenty centimetres of textual records. This project was prioritized to support the Indigenous History Committee, whose purpose is to examine the ways we can preserve and promote the history of the Indigenous Peoples in the south Peace in order to support reconciliation. This committee was established in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s (TRC) Calls to Action. The Indigenous Reference File Project was chosen because it helps make Indigenous centred information publically available. This helps to do our part in fulfilling the TRC Calls to Action. This project was made possible with funding support from Young Canada Works.
The digitization portion of this project was finished in mid-July. As we create an itemized finding aid for the files we will start to share some of the items through blog posts, like this one!
This item is a photocopied version of the 1875 Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Winter Arrangements in the Athabasca District. The HBC list includes every fort in the district with the names of people serving those areas and their role, signed by the Chief Commissioner, James A Grahame. This item came from the Culture and Arts reference file which includes photocopies of historical documents (like this one!), magazine articles about Indigenous culture, newspaper clippings, and more!
The reference files give us a glimpse into our local history, and especially now that they are digitized, are an incredibly valuable resource! If you want to see more from the Indigenous reference files, keep your eye on the blog for posts like this.