Extract
From Nunavut to Micronesia: Feedback and Description, Visual Repatriation and Online Photographs of Indigenous Peoples
Introduction
Project Naming, hosted by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in Ottawa and the Traditional Micronesian Navigation Collection of the University of Hawai'i Library in Honolulu are pioneering internet projects. Both sites make direct use of the web to improve descriptions of their photographic holdings related to Indigenous peoples and share these images with remote communities and the world in ways not possible until recently. The initiatives feature resources portraying two very distinct groups of Indigenous peoples living more than 10,000 kilometres apart: the Inuit and the Satawalese.Project Naming < http://www.collectionscanada.ca/inuit/index-e.html> is a reciprocal endeavour by LAC and the Nunavut community, encompassing both "visual repatriation" and the "feedback system." All digitized photographs appearing on the site are of Inuit people. These images date from 1900 to the 1970s and are from public and private collections now held at the LAC. Many of these diverse photographs depicting Indigenous peoples of Arctic Canada were taken by federal government personnel, including: explorers, scientists, engineers, medical staff, RCMP members, navy personnel, topographers, professional photographers (hired to record the life and culture of the Inuit) and other participants on expeditions. Visual repatriation provides Elders and other Nunavut people with the opportunity to view photos (held in Ottawa) of their ancestors, relatives and themselves online that most would otherwise never see. The LAC, meanwhile, relies on information provided by these same Elders through the feedback system to vastly improve descriptions of their holdings.The University of Hawai'i at Manoa Library has employed a sim...See the full content of this document
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