Peter Runge, Head of Cline Library Special Collections and Archives, and Dr. Tanja Hoffmann of the University of York (UK) co-presented a Feb. 15 online workshop focused on how culture keepers can build and sustain relationships with their Tribal partners. The workshop was the first of a four-part series presented by the Indigenous Knowledges program, a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) that “explores transatlantic relationship-building between cultural heritage institutions in the UK and Indigenous partners in the USA.”
Runge’s presentation focused on how culture keepers such as archivists, librarians, and curators can implement the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials and build and sustain relationships with Tribal communities. Dr. Hoffmann, whose dissertation was written in collaboration with the Katzie First Nation of coastal British Columbia, Canada, provided a similar view but from a Canadian perspective. The presenters also shared lessons learned, resources that can help participants get started, and strategies and approaches that seem to resonate.
Runge shared that patience, respect, humility, reciprocity are key elements for NAU’s approach. Related to the idea of patience, he recommended that a first meeting with a potential Tribal partner be focused on a conversation – not an ask.
And finally, he encouraged participants to educate institutional administrators and resource allocators so they can be as informed and supportive of relationship building with Tribal partners as he has found NAU colleagues (including NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera) to be. Institutional-level support is critical, he said, for work that is undertaken in concert with external agencies and can require significant resources including time, space, and travel.
While participants in the workshop may just be starting to pursue Tribal partnerships, Runge noted that NAU’s strength in this area is the result of more than three decades of work. Runge is committed to further strengthening the ties and understanding between archivists and Tribal culture keepers now and into the future.
