The project title Kiskemisowin was gifted to Pewaseskwan in ceremony by a Saskatchewan Elder. It is a Cree word that roughly translates to English as: "The gathering of knowledge to remind you who you are”. Kiskemisowin aims to support Indigenous communities in doing exactly that by using digital archives to preserve and revitalize community knowledge of stories, medicines, territory, wise practices, ceremony, language and more.
These cultural resources play a pivotal role in Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and Indigenous community-led efforts to digitally preserve them are becoming more common. However, digital preservation has historically been dominated by colonial methods and philosophies; for example, by ‘preserving’ Indigenous knowledge in settler owned and managed museums far from the community to which that knowledge belongs. Digital preservation must change and align with the principle of Indigenous Data Sovereignty, which says that Indigenous people have the inherent right to govern the collection, management, access and use of data related to them.
Kiskemisowin is using collaborative Indigenous research methodologies to learn how to put this principle into practice in the complex and rapidly changing world of digital technology. Together with our partner communities, we are researching the challenges and solutions of creating community-led archives; how universities can change the way they approach partnerships; how collaborations can be governed more equitably; how metadata can support Indigenous sovereignty; and much more.
Our second research focus is on health. It is well established that stronger connections to culture have positive and protective effects on the health of Indigenous people. Kiskemisowin is examining how the creation of community-led, managed and owned digital archives of cultural resources facilitate these connections, and what the impacts are on the health of individuals and entire communities who are involved. This research also uses collaborative Indigenous methodologies and is informed by community priorities.
For more information, contact: pewaseskwan@usask.ca