Decolonized Listening in the Archive: A Study of How a Reconstruction of Archival Processes and Spaces can Contribute to Decolonizing Narratives and Listening

Abstract

In 2019, Stó:lō writer and scholar Dylan Robinson, and Tlingit curator and artist Candice Hopkins,created Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts, asking Indigenous artists and musicians to reflect onhow a score can be a tool for decolonization. In response, Indigenous artists contributed scores inthe form of beadwork, graphic notation, and more, effectively challenging traditional notions ofwestern colonial music-making and performance practices. Drawing upon the exhibit Soundings, aswell as Robinson’s book Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies (2020),this paper seeks to understand how to decolonize archives in ways that impact the description,preservation, and settler experience of music created by Indigenous artists. Robinson argues that byincreasing our awareness of and acknowledging our settler colonial listening habits, listeners canengage in decolonial listening practices that can deepen our understanding of how Indigenous songfunctions in history, medicine, and law. By centreing Indigenous Traditional Knowledge andstewardship in archival settings, Indigenous musical records can be described and preservedaccording to Indigenous frameworks. I propose the use of content management systems such asMukurtu and Local Contexts, as well as reparative archival description, to centre Indigenousframeworks and Traditional Knowledge in the archive. This paper also presents three case studies todemonstrate both the problematic aspects of current mainstream archival practices, as well as howMukurtu, Local Contexts, and reparative archival description can work to centre IndigenousTraditional Knowledge and stewardship.