North American Indigenous Languages in the British Library’s post-1850 Collections
North American Indigenous Languages in the British Library’s post-1850 Collections
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council, Collaborative Doctoral Award
Partner: The British Library
Supervisors: Professor Joy Porter, Dr Francesca Fuentes Rettig, Curator for North American Printed Collections, British Library
People: Rebecca Slatcher
This doctoral project is a unique attempt to advance UK institutional Indigenous language curation in response to current debates on the global responsibilities of heritage institutions to Indigenous communities.
It aims to create a broad-based and discoverable profile of the printed collections of North American Indigenous languages post-1850 that are held at the British Library. The project brings histories of Indigenous language collecting into contact with the contemporary library catalogue to reveal and challenge colonial legacies, to reframe collections, to enhance the catalogue record and to surface Indigenous presence.
The project benefits from an additional BAAS funded research trip to the American Philosophical Society and an AHRC International Placement with Smithsonian Institution. These allow for a collaborative study around how institutions have collected and classified Indigenous language materials and how those materials can be made culturally responsive and accessible today.
Research Programmes
Connecting Cultures
A collaborative project revealing how historic sites can position themselves as global crossroads, enabling multiple global publics to connect their lived experience with them.
Diplomacy and Treaties
International collaboration revealing globally significant cultures of diplomacy between the Crown, the Haudenosaunee and their neighbours in North America.
Digital Storytelling
Digital resources that involve the public, advance research, energise teaching, and drive knowledge exchange, built in partnership with the UK’s foremost research software engineers.
Resource Use and Environmental Futures
Water Cultures in Conflict at Pebble Mine, Bristol Bay, Alaska
Political Ecologies
Timely interventions that examine the power relations between Indigenous actors and the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Completed Projects
Timely interventions that examine the power relations between Indigenous actors and the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.