Alexander Soto
Alycia de Mesa
The rapid expansion of digital technologies brings both opportunities and challenges for gathering, preserving, and sharing Indigenous Knowledge and cultural practices in Tribal communities. However, institutional archiving– even community archival– practices often replicate colonial frameworks that marginalize Indigenous perspectives, perpetuate extractive methodologies, and disregard cultural protocols. This presentation highlights how the Firekeepers Initiative (a Mellon Foundation funded, three-year project to support Tribal community memory keeping with archival sovereignty) has implemented community-centered approaches to Tribal sovereignty, data governance, and intellectual property for community memory keeping. This session offers lessons learned and forward-looking reflections on Indigenous memory keeping interwoven with Indigenous Knowledge, archival, and data sovereignty practices. Primary presenters: Alexander Soto, Director, Labriola National American Indian Data Center – Arizona State University; Alycia de Mesa, PhD, Indigenous Education Specialist, Labriola National American Indian Data Center – Arizona State University