LibGuides: Indigenous Topics: Home

Welcome

Welcome to the Indigenous Resources Research Guide. This guide will help you navigate through the library's resources and other suggested resources by First nations, Inuit and Métis people in BC and Canada, resources on contemporary Indigenous art, and special topics. The resources and content were put together by members of the ECU Library who have found the resources in this guide to be excellent teachers on Indigenous topics. Indigenous Studies is a very broad topic, so this guide is by no means an extensive or complete list of resources, but provides an general overview of how to find resources on some topics, and explore a small selection of books, databases, and other resources. We are always selecting resources that we hope will be useful to the ECU community and welcome your suggestions.

This guide is a work in progress. If you have any suggestions, please contact Ana Diab at adiab@ecuad.ca.

Campus and Local Resources

Aboriginal Gathering Place
Emily Carr’s Aboriginal Gathering Place (AGP) hosts students, contemporary artists, and informs curriculum and community.
Xwi7xwa Library - UBC
Xwi7xwa Library is a centre for academic and community Indigenous scholarship at UBC. Its collections and services reflect Aboriginal approaches to teaching, learning, and research. Everyone is welcome to visit Xwi7xwa Library.
Xwi7xwa Research Guides
Use Research Guides to get started on a research topic. Xwi7xwa librarians continually evaluate books, article indexes, websites, and more to find reliable, authoritative information on relevant topics. Research Guides include search strategies for finding resources that are relevant to the multidisciplinary study of Indigenous topics and materials written from Indigenous perspectives.
Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
The UBCIC Library is a specialized research library and archives focusing on BC land rights research. The serve all researchers who have a Band Council Resolution (BCR) to conduct research on behalf of a First Nation. Scholars, students, and other researchers may also use the Resource Centre with permission and after agreeing to abide by their Ethical Research Policy.
KPU Indigenous Information Literacy
This well-researched video series provides guidance on source evaluation; finding Indigenous voices; elders & respectful research, and citing elders.
Indigenous Research Support Initiative (IRSI)
When research practices are based on respectful relationships between researchers and Indigenous communities, the results include more effective research, greater mutual understanding and meaningful outcomes. IRSI supports researchers through each step of Indigenous community-based research.

Acknowledgement of Bias in Library + Archives Descriptive Language

The Library + Archives at Emily Carr University of Art + Design aims to create records – including archival descriptions, finding aids, library catalogue records and other metadata – that are inclusive, respectful and do not cause harm to those who interact with our collections. This includes those who create, use, and are represented in the collections we care for. We acknowledge that our existing descriptions and records may contain language that is racist, colonial, homophobic, ableist, or that uses other offensive terms that may cause harm. This language may reflect original titles or terms applied by the creators/authors. It may also have been created by previous stewards or ECU staff since acquisition.

Certain parts of the ECU collection contain historical language and content, for example, language used to refer to racial and cultural groups. This language reflects the time period in which these materials were created and provide insight into the view of their creator(s). These items retain their original descriptions to ensure that attitudes and viewpoints are not erased from the historical record. When possible, ECU provides additional descriptive information to provide context and background about these records. Additionally, the ECU Library + Archives questions the hierarchical and othering language promoted through subject terms and is working to update and implement terminology that promotes inclusive and accurate access to materials.

The ECU Library + Archives team is dedicated to minimizing harm through continual reflection and reparations in our language and systems. Reparative archival description and cataloguing is iterative work, and descriptive language preferences and needs will change over time. New and ongoing work in this area is indicated in our archival finding aids through the use of square brackets indicating the archivists/staff voice and through descriptive notes in the library catalogue and archives database.

We welcome feedback from our patrons regarding archival description and library catalogue records by email at library@ecuad.ca, in person or by phone at 604-844-3840. Feel free to leave us an anonymous voicemail.

* ECU Library + Archives is grateful to the following organizations who have crafted meaningful bias statements. We echo their thinking and work, and have borrowed language and built upon their words and efforts.

Yale University
Duke University
Library + Archives Canada
Stanford University Libraries

(May 2022)