FLAME (Future Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Excavation)

In this episode, hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator engage in a conversation with Professor Ian Saxine about the historical shifts in property, ownership, and legal practices during the 18th century in New England. As Prof. Saxine explains, the practices and concepts of property and ownership among Indigenous communities had a substantial impact on the practices of the colonizers. These Indigenous influences gradually yielded to colonialist practices, particularly after the Dummer’s Treaty (1725-1750). The episode highlights the assertive role of Indigenous agency and its ongoing influence on reshaping the narrative of early United States history.

In this episode hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator speak with Lydia Curliss of the Hassanamisco band of Nipmuc and PhD student at the Information School at the University of Maryland about centering Indigenous communities and forming relationships with local tribes while doing restorative work in GLAM spaces and in the academia.

The episode has references to the Editorial Guide for Indigenous Entity Descriptions in Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC), the Stolen Relations Project, the Local Contexts project and NAGPRA.

In episode six hosts Laura Wilson and Ece Turnator analyze the 2021 interview with Darren Ranco of the Penobscot Nation and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maine about the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Nation and the University in 2018. The MOU exemplifies a welcome break from the past that rests on an intentional history of genocide (as in the Phipps Proclamation of 1755) and various attempts at dispossession (as in the Maine Indian Rights Claims Settlement Act of 1980).

In this episode hosts Justin Schell and Laura Wilson discuss a successful collaboration built between the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut and a UMass Boston archaeologist, Professor Stephen Silliman.  The episode focuses on the fraught colonial history of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and how a relationship was formed between an archaeologist and the tribal nation. In the episode, Silliman gives tangible examples of doing restorative archaeology and collaborative scholarly work by empowering the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and by involving them in the research process. Over time their collaboration ends up altering the nature of the research itself. The episode offers many tangible examples about how professional scholars and scientists could engage with Indigenous communities, and in doing so, help preserve a more complete history.

In this episode Petrouchka Moise and Ece Turnator discuss the legacy of colonialism in museums and libraries with our guests Kimberly Toney (American Antiquarian Society) and Aaron Miller (Mount Holyoke College Art Museum), focusing on how libraries and museums could be read as displays of plunder as settlers appropriated land, language, culture, as well as bodies of Indigenous peoples. The episode discusses the ties between the foundation of sciences, humanities, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.

In this episode hosts Petrouchka Moïse and Laura Wilson delve into multiple aspects of the fragile nature of archival content related to BIPOC histories: they are processed less, preserved less and, with the pending climate emergency, they face the highest risk of destruction before they are shared with the wider public. Our guests Christopher Harter (Amistad Research Center) and Patrick Rasico (Fisk University) talk about their experience of working within archives, and in doing so, tell stories that bring together slavery, American Missionary Association, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Louisianan culture and Hurricane Katrina.

This episode focuses on the landscape of HBCU archives and institutional memory, examining limitations caused by lack of funding and resources.  Our interviewees are Magana Kabugi and Holly Smith. Magana Kabugi is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Fisk University, Nashville. His research examines HBCU history and uses archival materials to find out more about important Civil Rights figures. Holly Smith is the head archivist at Spelman College, Atlanta. She values  ethics of care in the custodianship of HBCU materials, and wants to ensure that all feel welcome in the archive, and know that their histories are valuable. Both of our interviewees discussed how to encourage more black archivists, and examined the future of the field.

This episode is about missing narratives in U.S. history and why adding those narratives into the mainstream is necessary and pressing. Our interviewees are Joseph McGill and Elizabeth Rule. Joseph McGill is a historic interpreter at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in South Carolina and the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, an initiative that seeks to raise awareness of the hidden stories of enslaved individuals at popular historic and national heritage sites. Elizabeth Rule is assistant professor of critical race, gender and culture studies at the American University in Washington, DC. She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She studies gendered violence, reproductive justice, and Indigenous governance. For this episode we talked to her about the mobile app her team designed, The Guide to Indigenous D.C., which aims to add the missing Indigenous narrative into the mainstream.