Imagining: Creating

Spaces for Indigenous

Ontologies
Article by Marisa Elena Duarte & Miranda Belarde-Lewis

Presentation by Brian Desmarais, Alyson Hayes, Courtney

Kennedy, and Laurel Newsom
 Summary
Duarte and Belarde-Lewis discuss how colonialism and marginalism effects the cataloging and classification
process for Native materials in libraries, archives, and museums.

This marginalism is identified through misnaming, incorrect subject headings, standards, and ghettoizing.

One solution to help break away from marginalism and colonialism is through imagining rather than focusing
solely on marginalization.

The stages of Imagining is: Understanding how colonization works, identify means to decolonize, spread
awareness of indigenous epistemologies, build deep domain knowledge, and design experimental systems,
theory.

Imagining is to understand and acknowledge how colonization works within the library, archive and museum
world and give the power to the tribes to which the materials belong to.
 What Catalogers Need to Know About
Colonialism
Dewey and Library of Congress developed in a colonial context. The priorities and consciousness of those in
power are favored over the marginalized of society.

Euro-centric classification favored the book as the most important document over other representations of
knowledge (such as storytelling).

Example: Library of Congress categories "post-conquest," "post-settlement," and "rise of industrialization" favor
a narrative of the victors. (683).

There also has been a tendency to compartmentalize knowledge, or to separate the part from the whole, losing
the “vast networks of association” that is so important to indiginous ways of knowing (686).
 Imagining: Creating Spaces for Indiginous
Ontologies
Duarte and Belarde Lewis see imagining as a five-step process:

1. Understand how colonization works and permeates the way information organization is conducted.

2. Identify the means to decolonize.

3. Spread awareness of indigenous ways of knowing.

4. Build deep domain knowledge through story work.

5. Design new systems with these insights in mind.

 Step 1: Understanding Colonization
The first steps non-indigenous people need to take to proceed in the process of decolonization is to break away
from the expectations that “all knowledge in the world can be represented in document form” and “indigenous
ways of knowing belong in state-funded university and government library, archive, and museum collection,
especially for the benefit of society’s privileged elite” (678).

To become part of the process of Imagining, non-indigenous people must acknowledge and allow indigenous
people to organize, name, and classify their own materials rather than forcing them to accept inaccuracy and
misrepresentation. On top of that they must step outside their comfort zone and “sensitize” themselves to the
realities of indigenous people.

Indigenous people must also not let the past overshadow the goals of Imagining.
 Step 1:Understanding Colonialism (continued)
“Native American” is a term given by the United States to descendents of the indigenous people that occupied
the lands that later became the United States. This was a move to acknowledge the multicultural identity of the
U.S. but instead it categorizes them as a minority in the lands that belonged to them first.

This name also ignores the non-western philosophies and sovereignty that indigenous people had before being
colonized. The name is a tool that classifies all indigenous people as the same no matter the distinction each
tribe really has to one another.

“Native American” is representing an overall minority group in the United States. However, each tribe is not the
same as the other. So to make the claim one item is “native american” erases one tribe’s history, language,
politics, and experiences because of the assumption that all natives are the same.

For that reason, subject headings are very important for indigenous people to get right because it can be what
helps keep the traits of a tribe alive
 Step 2: Identify Means to Decolonize
In order to decolonize, Indigenous peoples must break the “colonial cycle” by brainstorming the values,
knowledge, tools and artifacts that frame decolonization.

Creating groups and repositories where members can share their tribal histories and knowledge artifacts are
central to the “work of designing ontologies, and therein, intellectual decolonization.

Duarte & Belarde-Lewis share several example of how Indegenous groups have created digital repositories
and social media groups for members to share information.
● Texas Band of Yaqui Indians website: https://yaquitribetexas.com/
○ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasbandofyaquis/
● Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association Tribal Digital Village:
https://sctca.net/southern-california-tribal-digital-village/

Connecting through these groups has allowed tribal members to recall memories and stories that are valuable
to tribal history and memories.

Our role, as information professionals, is to understand that knowledge organization can take on various forms
and to support these projects out of respect for the Indigenous communities.
 Step 3: Spread Awareness
In order to spread awareness of Indigenous epistemologies, Indigenous and non-Indegenous groups can work
together to build partnerships that bring attention to, and show the value of, Indigenous knowledge.

Examples of collaborations in the Duarte & Belarde-Lewis article include:

● The Alaska Native Languages archive: https://www.uaf.edu/anla/
● The Brian Deer classification system:
https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/academic-integrity/indigenous-initiatives/icrc/brian-deer-classification
● The Maori Subject Headings project:
https://help.oclc.org/Metadata_Services/WorldShare_Record_Manager/Authority_records/Work_with_au
thority_records/M%C4%81ori_Subject_Headings

In the United States alone there are over 600 tribes. These tribes each have very diverse values, languages
and epistemologies and each should be recognized and valued for their uniqueness. That is why
understanding and spreading awareness through projects and partnerships is so vitally important.
 Step 4: Build Deep Domain Knowledge
Through Story Work
One of the main ways to impart knowledge and histories of Indigenous communities is through storytelling.
Stories serve as a guide to the “dimensions of the ontological universe at play” in Indigenous artifacts and
documents.

Many tribal communities today have “cultural centers” that combine tribal libraries, museums and archives into
one entity that educates the tribal and non-tribal public on their histories, culture and traditional values.

An example of this is the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute (TCI) in Pendleton, Oregon: https://www.tamastslikt.org/.
TCI serves to celebrate both local tribal histories and the story of Lewis and Clark and westward expansion of
the United states. This allows visitors to understand the complexity of interactions and relationships between
Indigenous peoples and pioneers without alienating those who celebrate Lewis and Clark.

Recognizing and including perspectives from both a Western and Indigenous perspective in cataloging,
organization and presentation of information and materials is vitally important for information professionals
seeking to support Indigenous knowledge management.
 Step 5: Design New Experimental Systems
Duarte Belarde-Lewis call Indigenous people to action by encouraging them to create new ways of
conceptualizing and designing systems for cataloging and recording their very personal histories. These new
experimental systems will be group efforts so that creators can learn and draw strength and knowledge from
each other as these new processes develop. Experimental systems as envisioned by the authors rely on, not only
subject matter expertise of those involved, but the very cultural experiences and worldviews inherent in
belonging to Indigenous communities.

The authors implore these new system designers to examine Indigenous approaches to knowledge organization,
and then to develop experimental schemes based on Indigenous approaches. The latter cannot in good faith
happen without the former. The Xwi7xwa Library and the Mashantucket Pequot Nation thesaurus are examples
of experimental design systems that center Indigenous ontology and organizational systems.
 “Universality in Specificity”
Conclusion and Implications
To counter the insidious effects of colonialism, information professionals need work in partnership with native
peoples to develop new systems of classifying knowledge that is congruent with indigenous epistemology (in all
of its diversity).

The accurate representation and classification of indigenous experiences, culture and history may empower
local tribes and communities as they work to preserve their way of life.

These projects will better inform the general public about the complexity and diversity of indiginous life and
culture.

These efforts can lead to greater recognition and support from from the state and prevailing institutions.
 References

Duarte, M. E., & Belarde-Lewis, M. (2015). Imagining: Creating Spaces for Indigenous Ontologies. Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly, 53(5/6), 677–702. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1080/01639374.2015.1018396