Reclaiming and Refiguring the Archives to Support Indigenous Wellbeing and Sovereignty

In 2022, Kirsten completed her PhD at Monash University, within the Faculty of Information Technology. Her thesis titled "Unclasping the White Hand: Reclaiming and Refiguring the Archives to Support Indigenous Wellbeing and Sovereignty" explored whether the current dominant approaches to archiving and managing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges support the wellbeing of Indigenous people and recognise Indigenous sovereignty in an archival context. It investigated the contested nature of the archives and the level of agency that Indigenous people have to control and own their archives.

The research identified immediate reforms required to support Indigenous peoples archiving needs and outlined a transformative model of Indigenous Living Archives on Country to support Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in the archives, and redress from the impacts of colonisation. The major findings included:

• Critique of the term cultural safety as insufficient to support Indigenous people in an archival context
• Conceptualisation of Indigenous wellbeing, sovereignty and archival sovereignty
• In depth analysis of the harmful impacts on Indigenous wellbeing and sovereignty of the colonial archival model and approaches
• Model of Indigenous Wellbeing and Sovereignty in the Archives
• Indigenous Archiving Reforms
• Transformative Model of Indigenous Living Archives on Country

Indigenous Archiving Reforms

Diagram: Reforms to Support Indigenous Wellbeing and Sovereignty in an Archival Context