The Indigenous Right of Reply to Archives

This book brings together leading Indigenous and allied thinkers, practitioners, and advocates to address the critical issue of the Right of Reply in archives — foregrounding truth-telling, cultural safety, and Indigenous sovereignty across GLAM institutions.

Collecting institutions have shaped and maintained records produced by colonial systems of administration and continue to play a role in perpetuating colonial paradigms that are inherently resistant to the needs and priorities of Indigenous peoples. Against this backdrop, this book embarks on a scholarly investigation into the concept known as the 'Right of Reply.' This concept speaks to Indigenous peoples' right to update, correct, critique, or enhance Indigenous knowledge that is held in collecting institutions. Spanning creative responses, case studies, policy critiques, and international perspectives, the volume explores how the Right of Reply operates as a political and ethical imperative in the work of archives. Contributors examine Indigenous-led protocols, the impact of colonial recordkeeping, digital repatriation, metadata annotation, and structural transformation in Australia, Aotearoa, and the United States.

The volume offers a blueprint for decolonising archives and centring Indigenous agency, illuminating the innovative strategies being implemented across institutional and community settings. It is essential reading for archivists, curators, scholars, and anyone committed to transforming GLAM practice.