Internship Check-In | Annie McCarron
For this month's internship check in I got the opportunity to speak to Chantelle Perreault and Amanda Berardi about their internships this past semester. Both Chantelle and Amanda are completing their internships in areas working with Indigenous collections.
Chantelle Perreault is completing her internship with the The Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Cultures (GRASAC) working in collections. Please note that this interview took place at the end of 2020, and Chantelle has completed her internship at this time.
AM: Where are you completing your internship?
Chantelle: I am completing my internship with the The Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Cultures (GRASAC) under the supervision of Dr. Cara Krmpotich. I started working for GRASC in May for a work study, continuing part time throughout the summer. In September, I started a new role for my internship focused with the GRASAC online collection.
AM: Can you tell me about your role as an intern for GRASAC?
Chantelle: My role is mostly focused on the GRASAC online collection. For my internship I am looking at how the online collection will be made searchable. We are thinking about different ways we can do that that are user friendly and easy to maneuver, but also that incorporate an Indigenous approach to knowledge organization and practices. Right now, that means thinking about ways that we can make the database searchable based on entry points, looking at things like seasons and directionality points that can act as entry points in a searchable database.
AM: What is the focus of the GRASAC online collection?
Chantelle: The collection is primarily focused on indigenous heritage in the Great Lakes region. The online collection is an amalgamation of Great Lakes material that is held in different museum collections. There are items from museums in the U.S, Canada, and Europe that have items from the Great Lakes area. The online database will be an amalgamation of all those items into one searchable space, and it reunites the items that have been separated and spread out throughout the world.
AM: What will having an online collection mean for GRASAC?
Chantelle: The online collection will make it easier for us to contextualize the objects when they can be viewed together. Right now, I am focusing on Anishinaabe records within the database. If you just have one Anishinaabe basket by itself in a collection in Europe it’s hard to contextualize, but if you have a database that shows more like 20-25 baskets this can allow the researcher to properly contextualize the objects.
AM: What is something interesting that you have learned in your role?
Chantelle: It's been interesting to think of things from the seasonal approach that we are taking. A few weeks ago I was working on Anishinaabe baskets, and we were trying to think about how we think about these objects seasonally. One way we found was looking at the materials that the object is constructed with, whether it's birch bark or sweet grass it can be harvested at different times. These different materials relate to different seasons. For me, thinking about the dynamics of how the heritage items work has been interesting. Thinking about them in new ways beyond the collections class nomenclature. For a basket, going beyond its specific use, a basket holds things but it could also mean so much more.
In my work during the summer we started to think about categorization, and we came up with the idea of poly categorization. So instead of just having one hierarchy we decided to go with multiple entry points, so that an object can have multiple branches. We also wanted to incorporate indigenous ways of thinking as our main focus. This led us to think about the medicine wheel as an indigenous pedagogy and using it as a tool to classify. We wanted to look at how we could approach multiple entry points through the lens of the medicine wheel. Some of the aspects of the wheel are the stages of life, seasonality, and direction, which led to us thinking about those as poly hierarchies for our online collection.
AM: What does a typical day in the life look like for you in your role?
Chantelle: All my work is remote. It is a lot of researching and wireframing and trying to figure out visually how the database will work. We usually have team meetings on Fridays, to discuss what we have done, debrief and decide what to do for the next week. My weeks vary week to week. Lately I have been researching Anishinaabe, and the meaning of different seasons. This week I am researching waterways and which waterways and trade routes are histrionically important.
AM: What is something you are looking forward to learning in the role?
Chantelle: I am looking forward to the experience I am getting in community collaboration. GRASAC works with the Anishinaabe community and I have been able to be a part of those meetings which has been very valuable to get the chance to sit in on. I have also been gaining experience in the back end of collections, and thinking more critically about how we think about and categorize collections. Often it is from a colonial and western perspective and worldview, and that does not work for a lot of items that museums have within their collections.
Amanda Berardi is completing her internship for the Indigenous Virtual Living Archive in the role of Research Assistant. She is working under Maria Hupfield at the University of Toronto-Mississauga. Maria Hupfield: artist, Canadian Research Chair in Transdisciplinary Indigenous Arts, and professor
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| KA-POW!, 2017 installation by Maria Hupfield | Source |
AM: How did you go about finding your position?
Amanda: It started out as a Work-Study position I found on CLNX in September/October 2019. Then I kept getting my contract extended (funded by the project rather than the school) as work studies are always slated to end by the end of February.
AM: What does a day on the job look like for you? Or what are some of the jobs you are completing in this role?
Amanda: My job is completely online, weekly team meetings with my supervisor and coworkers happen virtually. My role focuses heavily on research and community collaboration.
AM: Can you tell me more about the Archive?
Amanda: The Archive is a ‘subversive archive,’ ‘relational archive,’ ‘radical archive,’ and ‘counter-repository’ as it is an open-access curatorial project. By applying a decolonial approach and Indigenizing the archive. Basically we are reaching out to Indigenous artists and scholars to contribute an artwork, object, or text to the Archive. Objects comprising the Archive will be couched in narratives based on individual lived experience that connect past and present to future.
A virtual living archive shifts the space of knowledge away from prioritizing the protection and preservation of material wealth to the richness of Indigenous knowledge and people.
The Indigenous Virtual Living Archive addresses urgent yet longstanding issues about reciprocal relationship-building within institutions and the Indigenization of the academy.
When documenting the objects/artwork, we will be rendering a 360 degree model of the work instead of a number of still images.
AM: Can you tell me more about your role as an intern?
Amanda: Maria and I are learning as we work, and I have been spearheading this Archive almost independently. We have other research assistants who are responsible for other aspects of the project (Creation Studio, Garden, Performance). Most of my work has been research-intensive.
AM: Have you encountered any challenges in your role?
A virtual living archive shifts the space of knowledge away from prioritizing the protection and preservation of material wealth to the richness of Indigenous knowledge and people.
The Indigenous Virtual Living Archive addresses urgent yet longstanding issues about reciprocal relationship-building within institutions and the Indigenization of the academy.
When documenting the objects/artwork, we will be rendering a 360 degree model of the work instead of a number of still images.
AM: Can you tell me more about your role as an intern?
Amanda: Maria and I are learning as we work, and I have been spearheading this Archive almost independently. We have other research assistants who are responsible for other aspects of the project (Creation Studio, Garden, Performance). Most of my work has been research-intensive.
AM: Have you encountered any challenges in your role?
Amanda: It has been challenging to learn the intricacies of website development, content management systems, and digital rights. I had no previous experience or knowledge in these areas, so a large portion of my research has been self-educating. I have chosen Mukurtu CMS to use for the Archive.
AM: What research have you been doing in the role?
Amanda: It’s hard to communicate exactly what research I have been doing. But in October 2019, when I started, the Archive’s grant was just accepted; So I have spent roughly 10 hours each week since then making the Archive from a theoretical concept, to now receiving commissions from artists and having a website developed. It requires a lot of meetings with Indigenous scholars to hear their input, a lot of historical research on archives, contemporary subversive and/or radical archives, attending conferences on Indigenous Knowledge online and data sovereignty, Indigenous notions of ownership within a historically colonial framework. Also, I have been maintaining communication with a number of Indigenous artists and scholars, setting up meetings, interviews, collaborative sessions. I have been sending letters of interest to prospective contributors, finalizing contracts with them, establishing a timeline for payment, retrieving the object for documentation and/or setting a deadline for a written text
We also have an Instagram I co-run: https://www.instagram.com/indigenouscreationstudioutm/
AM: What is your favourite aspect of the job so far?
Amanda: I have deepened my understanding of Indigenous knowledge and communities, digital protocols, and the considerations of putting Indigenous storywork online.
I have gained invaluable connections with Indigenous scholars and artists, as well as a greater awareness regarding cultural property, what it means to decolonize the museum and the archive, and Indigenizing a historically and current colonial field. But accompliceship is an ongoing process of learning and I hope to strengthen my support as a non-Indigenous accomplice throughout this internship and beyond this internship.
AM: What’s something useful that you have learned from your internship?
Amanda: I have been engaging in decolonial and indigenizing practices and have gained a critical and in depth understanding of both processes
I am appreciative to work under an Indigenous artist and with an Indigenous co-worker as they have both directly and indirectly supported and strengthened my accompliceship
I have been engaging with a plethora of Indigenous scholarship, storywork, worldviews, and reciprocal relation-building both with people and the land
AM: What are you most excited to accomplish?
Amanda: I am excited for the Archive to go live, although it probably won’t be until the end of the year (2021).
We also have an Instagram I co-run: https://www.instagram.com/indigenouscreationstudioutm/
AM: What is your favourite aspect of the job so far?
Amanda: I have deepened my understanding of Indigenous knowledge and communities, digital protocols, and the considerations of putting Indigenous storywork online.
I have gained invaluable connections with Indigenous scholars and artists, as well as a greater awareness regarding cultural property, what it means to decolonize the museum and the archive, and Indigenizing a historically and current colonial field. But accompliceship is an ongoing process of learning and I hope to strengthen my support as a non-Indigenous accomplice throughout this internship and beyond this internship.
AM: What’s something useful that you have learned from your internship?
Amanda: I have been engaging in decolonial and indigenizing practices and have gained a critical and in depth understanding of both processes
I am appreciative to work under an Indigenous artist and with an Indigenous co-worker as they have both directly and indirectly supported and strengthened my accompliceship
I have been engaging with a plethora of Indigenous scholarship, storywork, worldviews, and reciprocal relation-building both with people and the land
AM: What are you most excited to accomplish?
Amanda: I am excited for the Archive to go live, although it probably won’t be until the end of the year (2021).
Mukurtu, our CMS, is undergoing a large software overhaul around November 2021; if we put any design elements on our site, it would be lost under this update. So we are putting the content online just to gain an idea on how we want to position things, but not formally or officially yet.
AM: What skills have you employed from classwork?
Amanda: Both this program and my internship have taught me extensively about social justice activism, sustained colonial entities and their byproducts, and how to use my platform as a white-cis settler to support and amplify BIPOC voices to make sustained and meaningful change in our society
AM: Any advice for future people in your position?
Amanda: Don’t be afraid to reach out to experts in the field for advice or questions. I struggled a lot with understanding the back-end of Mukurtu until I realized there is nothing heroic in not asking for help. The great majority of the time, people are genuinely eager to share their knowledge with you and help you advance your project.
Author's Note: Amanda would also like to recommend some readings for anyone interested in digitizing Indigenous Knowledge and what that means for rights, protection, dissemination:
Books:
A Digital Bundle: Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Online - Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans
Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology - Edited by Jo-Ann Archibald, Q’um Q’um Xiiem
Afterlives of Indigenous Archives - Edited by Ivy Scweitzer, Gordon Henry
Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums - Amy Lonetree
Journal Articles:
“Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg Intelligence and Rebellious Transformation” - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3, no. 3 (2014): p. 1-25
“Fugitive Indigeneity: Reclaiming the Terrain of Decolonial Struggle Through Indigenous Art” - Jarret Martineau, Eric Ritskes, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3, no. 1 (2014): p. I-XII
“Displayed Objects, Indigenous Identities, and Public Pedagogy” - Brenda Trofanenko, Anthropology & Education Quarterly 37, no, 4 (2006): p. 309-327
“The Sharing of Indigenous KNowledge Through Academic Means by Implementing Self-Reflection and Story” - Sweeney Windchief, Kenneth E Ryan AlterNative 15, no.1 (2019): p. 82-89
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