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NAAS is holding a special election for two vacancies on the Steering Committee. Check out candidate statements and check your email inbox to vote by SEPTEMBER 17.
The Native American Archives Section (NAAS) is holding a special election to fill two one-year vacancies on the Steering Committee. We have four candidates running for these positions:
SAA staff emailed section members their ballots on September 3, so please your email inbox and your spam folders (email will be titled "Vote Now! 2020 Special Election: Native American Archives Section").
Please take some time to review each candidate's statement below.
Thanks to all of our candidates for running, and thanks to all of our members for voting!
Bio: Selena Ortega-Chiolero is currently the Museum Specialist for Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC) where she is managing the formal Tribal Collections and Archives that encompass the history and culture of the Ahtna Dené of Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Native Village) in Southcentral Alaska.
Selena has worked in the museum and non-profit industries for 11 years. Her long and eclectic career started in Sacramento, California, where she supported 40 Acres Art Gallery in their work in promoting and sharing the artistic talents of underrepresented minorities in the art field, and at the Crocker Art Museum where she assisted in research for the interactives in their 2009 exhibit "Soaring Voices."
Since then, Selena has become a leading museum professional in her state helping to grow Alaska's museum industry and bridging the gap between traditional museum practices and indigenous heritage preservation. As the Board Secretary and Advocacy Task Force Leader for Museums Alaska, she continually advocates for smaller museums and cultural centers while improving the state's museum resources. Through her participation in Washington State University's Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation's Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program and ATALM's Culture Builds Communities Cohort Program, she has supported Alaska Native Tribal groups in their ability to manage their own cultural resources while assisting them in perpetuating their cultural traditions.
Selena holds degrees in Art History and Asian Studies from California State University, Sacramento, and is currently completing her Museum Studies Certification from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Selena is passionate about cultural heritage. She has made a lifelong commitment to creating sustainable organizations that promote the culture, education and preservation of their community histories through the arts, programming and events.
Specialties: Nonprofit Organizations, Fundraising and Development, Museum Administration, Collections Management, Advertising, Editing, Event Planning and Public Speaking.
Specific areas of expertise: Indigenous Collections Management, Collaborative Curation, and Digitization.
Candidate Statement: Kuira bá/Ugheli Dzaen (Hola/Greetings)! I am interested in serving on the NAAS Steering Committee because as a forum for the Society of American Archivists (SAA), NAAS has the potential of redefining how archives and archivists collect, manage and present the cultural materials in their care. Although there have been some changes in the culture of how archives and archivists operate, there is still a disconnect between them and the source communities from which many of their collection materials originate from. For this reason, relationships between source communities and archives remain precarious, at best. There is still a wide distrust for institutionalized repositories among indigenous communities. I believe NAAS can lead SAA towards rebuilding that trust. However, in order to successfully do this, they must begin to understand the nature of Tribal cultural resources, how they are managed within their Tribal communities, and how outside repositories can collaborate with them to strengthen those resources while improving their own. I believe the most meaningful way to do this is by having a representative on the NAAS Steering Committee that is actually from a Tribal repository not just those from federal and institutionalized collections.
I believe my involvement could help bridge that gap and provide a deeper insight into Tribal cultural resource needs as well as broaden the committee’s access to other indigenous voices. My vision for the section in the upcoming year is to see more Tribal involvement in NAAS and more NAAS involvement with Tribes, that can lead to further collaborative efforts. I believe this can be achieved through:
There is still much work to be done. Nevertheless, I am optimistic that NAAS will continue to strengthen SAA’s relationships with indigenous communities and I think that my involvement will assist them in getting there.
Bio: Eric Hung is Executive Director of the Music of Asian America Research Center, and Adjunct Lecturer in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on Asian American music and community engagement. Current projects include two podcast series that use music to open conversations about pivotal moments in Asian American and Pacific Islander history and an edited volume on public musicology.
Hung is also an active pianist and conductor who has performed in Germany, Austria, Hong Kong, and Australia and throughout North America. Prior to joining the nonprofit world full-time, he was a tenured professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. He is founder of the Westminster Chinese Music Ensemble, and has served as executive director and interim president of New York–based Gamelan Dharma Swara. For the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, he is the Grant Writer, Conference Chair, and a member of the Program Committee. Hung holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University and an MLIS in Archives and Digital Curation from the University of Maryland.
Candidate Statement: If elected to the Steering Committee, I would like to increase the Native American Archives Section’s engagement efforts with MLIS programs. For example, I would be interested in designing webinars for instructors in MLIS programs on how they can effectively teach students about the responsible stewardship of and access to Native American collections. I would also work to encourage Indigenous writers to contribute to the section’s Case Studies series. Additionally, I urge NAAS to pay greater attention to Pacific Islanders, particularly those directed affected by U.S. imperialism.
Bio: Over the past ten years as special collections librarian, Jackie Beckey has helped many Native genealogists piece together their family histories using archival documents, oral histories, and rare book collections. For seven of those years she was a Reference Librarian at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS), where she specialized in Native American collections and improving access to these materials. She provided archival research instruction, developed outreach strategies to assist local tribal communities in building their archives, and served as a library liaison to MNHS’ American Indian fellows. In her current position as a Reference Librarian at The Huntington, she is leading a redesign of the Early California Population Project database, a critical resource to tribal communities in California. She is also conducting an Indigenous languages material survey to improve the description of and enhance public access to these collections long held by The Huntington. Jackie received her B.A. in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota and her Master’s in Library and Information Science from St. Catherine University.
Candidate Statement: As a citizen of the Métis Nation of Manitoba, I am deeply aware of the important role archival collections play in the preservation of Indigenous culture and history and how imperative it is that we address historical injustices and ongoing marginalization in our daily work. As a librarian who has worked in libraries at cultural institutions who oftentimes don’t have established relationships with Native scholars, I have found the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials to be an excellent resource for starting conversations around building relationships with Native communities, as well a critical tool for building successful collaborations between Native and non-Native museum professionals.
As a Reference Librarian who works in special collections, I am also keenly aware of the challenges that Native researchers face when searching for materials and navigating access both online and in-person. If nominated to this committee, I would be interested in discussing how we as archivists, librarians, and institutions could expand our reach to Indigenous communities, and ensure that Native Americans’ perspectives, histories, and cultures are reflected, acknowledged, and represented in library practices, collections,spaces, and services.
Bio: Katherine Meyers Satriano is Senior Archivist at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. She manages the Archives and is a member of cross-departmental Peabody working groups for ethical stewardship initiatives. She was previously Associate Archivist, providing reference services to Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers and visitors. She has also worked as Collections Assistant at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and as contract archivist for the Winthrop Group.
Katherine is interested in culturally competent language use in archival description, building collaborative relationships with Indigenous communities, and promoting ethical stewardship of culturally sensitive material.
She recently co-organized a SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) edit-a-thon. The goals were to facilitate searchability for anthropological archival material that has been dispersed to multiple repositories (important for enabling NAGPRA-related research), and to create more and fuller authority records for Indigenous people.
Katherine is in the Museum Archives Section’s Standards and Best Practices Working Group. She received her MLIS with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons GSLIS.
Candidate Statement: I would like to support the ongoing work of producing case studies and webinars on the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. I think the case studies and webinars produced so far are effective tools for advocating change, a font of practical advice, and vital resources for institutions working on decolonization.
I would also be interested in creating a page on the NAAS website that would act as a centralized list of specific tools that may be useful for Native American archives. Such as: Mukurtu, Traditional Knowledge labels and licenses, and thesauri, like the Mashantucket Pequot Thesaurus.
I would like to investigate how we might support and spread awareness of tribal libraries, archives, and museums affected by COVID-19.
At a time when in-person meeting is limited, I think we have an opportunity to make new digital connections, such as with Indigenous communities internationally and allied organizations. Forging partnerships and learning from each other could bring new perspectives to our work with Native American archives.