Commemoration and Decolonization in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database

Abstract

Abstract The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database (MMIWD) is,at present, an activist archive comprised of thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous news reports relating to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-spirit (MMIWG2) persons in Canada. Through an exploration of the development of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database, including the development of our collections, our descriptive practices, and our participatory methods, this paper examines what it means for the MMIWD to engage in archival decolonization. It considers what kinds of (archival) interventions we can develop or employ to (re)frame MMIWG2-related mainstream news media reports. Perhaps most importantly it discusses the possibilities for this project to create something more than a counter-archive that reacts to colonial violence but does not itself provide or inspire decolonizing visions of a post-colonial political reality in which such violence is no longer a reality.