Krista McCracken (She/They) is a public history professional and archivist. She works as an Archives Supervisor at Algoma University's Arthur A. Wishart Library and Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, in Baawating (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Métis people. Krista's research interests include community archives, residential schools, access, and outreach. She is an editor of the popular Canadian history website Activehistory.ca. Krista also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council on Public History and is a member of the Steering Committee on Canada's Archives - Response to the Report on the Truth and Reconciliation Task Force.

Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey is mixed-ancestry Urban Indigenous person of Newfoundland and Kahnawake who was born and raised in the GTA. She holds a B.A. Hons. in Law from Algoma University. She has worked primarily with residential schools history and legal history on Crown-Indigenous relations in Canada. She has a particular interest in digital history, and recently created a popular map with Story Maps GIS called "Walk With Chief Shingwauk" for the community of Sault Ste Marie. She also has expertise in digital repatriation and accessibility.

"The provision of journal articles, reports, project guides, books and institutions, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, offers readers a foundation of starting sources to make their mark in a discipline that is wrestling with the power-play between tradition and modernization. Integrating and using Indigenous worldviews in the collection is the most enlightening and engaging section of the book. For those who need clear guidelines, in the last pages, a suggested list of steps to start learning how to serve the needs of Indigenous people is provided ... From undergraduate students to those who are currently undertaking professional development after years in the stacks, Decolonial Archival Futures is a great book for those moments when a project needs to be created, or readjusted, to centralize issues like the sovereignty and agency of marginalized communities, especially Indigenous cohorts. The careful merger of futuristic ambition and real-world experience makes this a valuable text for those engaging on a regular basis with settler-colonial historical records."
-- Australian Policy and History

"This book is a remarkable resource, both ideologically and practically, for archival practitioners as they engage in the essential work of dismantling the colonial structure of the archive ... [It] is an engaging, practical read due to the way the text is scaled and its compelling through-line. Each chapter represents not only a new archival practice and multiple case studies, but a different type of organization. Each chapter shifts into a more granular focus, beginning with national archives and international protocols and ending with individual archives and specific, community-based projects. This range of examples is essential to McCracken's and Hogan-Stacey's argument as they reveal the pervasive colonial structures of the archive and offer suggestions for thoughtful, community-informed transformation."
-- Journal of Western Archives

"The book acts as a primer to begin the processes laid out within it to decolonize Western archives. Many of the concepts, especially relating to collaborating with Indigenous tribes in Canada, come from the authors' direct experiences ... Their decidedly important work, it should be noted, gives them a great deal of credence in this subject matter and archivists can gain a better understanding of vital concepts for decolonizing existing archival frameworks in their institutions."
-- Technical Services Quarterly

Publisher: ALA Editions

Pub date: 2023-08-14

Length: 112 pages