Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss how a folklore archive and research centre are trying to find ways of dealing with the lack of information about Indigenous peoples' past and present in their holdings on the example of outreach and collection projects at the Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present how a folklore archive and research centre are trying to find creative approaches to dealing with the lack of information about Indigenous peoples' in their holdings. This will be done using examples of outreach and collection projects at the Kule Folklore Centre and its Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives. The first example is an exhibition about childhood on the Canadian Prairies in the 1930s based on the large collection of interviews representing perspectives of multiple ethnic groups but with "missing" Indigenous peoples. The second example is a children's book inspired by the same collection. Finally, the third example is an online collecting project, which uses the Internet Archive's Archive-It tool. The project focuses on shared Indigenous-Ukrainian stories in Canada generally, and on the floral scarf (khustka), which was traditionally worn as a headwear or shawl by Ukrainian settlers and Indigenous peoples on the Prairies, specifically. These examples will demonstrate what can be done when archival evidence is missing, how a space for Indigenous stories and histories can be intentionally created, and how such small steps may help advance cultural equity and contribute to the work of righting historical wrongs.