The archive and its access policy
The Tribal Archive holds the Nation's recordings, photographs and papers. Who may see what is decided by a policy Council adopted, not by whoever is at the desk that day.
Where the collection stands
- 412reels of audio recorded between 1961 and 1994, digitised this summer
- 260cassettes, digitised in the same phase
- 3separate backups, on equipment the Nation owns and can read
- 0recordings published online, and none will be without Council direction
Phase two covers photographs and paper records and begins in October. Citizens who hold family recordings can bring them in to be digitised. The original always goes home with the family.
The three categories
- Open to any citizen Council minutes, ordinances, published reports, photographs of buildings and public events, and anything the Nation has already published. Ask at the desk. No appointment and no form.
- Open to family Recordings and papers that name or concern a particular family. Released to descendants of the people in the record. Write or call. The Archivist will ask how you are connected and may ask you to come in.
- Closed Material a family or Council has closed, and material whose speaker asked that it not be shared. Closed means closed. The archive will tell you that something exists and that it is closed, and will tell you who can change that.
The policy gives the Archivist twenty working days to answer a request. If the answer is no, it has to say which category applies and who can change it.
Why a Nation keeps its own archive
Because the alternative is that somebody else keeps it, decides who reads it, and decides what it means.
A Nation that holds its own record can say who may hear a recording, can close what a speaker asked to have closed, and can answer a family in an afternoon rather than in a year. The Repatriation Office exists for the same reason, one step further along.