This presentation was provided by Stacy Allison-Cassin of the University of Toronto, and Melissa Stoner of the University of California - Berkeley, during the NISO DEIA workshop "Metadata to Support Indigenous Knowledge and Non Traditional Outputs," which was held on December 6, 2021.

1. Metadata to Support
Indigenous Knowledge and
Non-Traditional Outputs
A NISO Webinar
December 6/7, 2021
@NISOInfo

2. AGENDA
● Welcome
● Keynotes: Stacy Allison-Cassin, University of Toronto; Melissa
Stoner, University of California - Berkeley
● Q&A
● Discussion
● Closing comments

3. IMPORTANT INFORMATION
● Code of Conduct — see https://niso.plus/codeofconduct-2/
● Webinar recording (presentation only)

4. NISO acknowledges that the land on which our office sits in
Baltimore is rooted in the unceded, traditional territories of
the Piscataway, Susquehannock, and Nanticoke peoples, as
well as being the contemporary home to a living community
of Lumbee people.

5. ● Background
○ DEIA Committee
○ Survey
● Objectives for the webinars
○ Increase understanding of challenges and opportunities
○ For NISO and our community

6. ● Chatham House rules
○ When talking or writing about this webinar, please avoid attributing
specific comments or questions to specific individuals
● Please share your questions and comments in the chat
box/Q&A throughout the webinar (including anything you
don’t understand)

7. Metadata to Support Indigenous Knowledge and
Non-Traditional Outputs
@NISOInfo
● Keynote presentations
● Q&A with speakers
● Discussion
● Wrap up and next steps

8. Melissa Stoner, University of
California - Berkeley
Stacy Allison-Cassin
University of Toronto
Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario

9. Stacy Allison-Cassin is an Assistant Professor,Teaching
Stream, in the LIS program at the Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto. Her work is centered in the areas of
knowledge organization, metadata, and knowledge equity.A
Citizen of the Métis (M-eh-T) Nation of Ontario, she
engages in work and research related to Indigenous matters
in libraries and the larger cultural heritage sector.With a
deep interest in increasing access and visibility for
non-textual materials and marginalized knowledge, Stacy is a
passionate advocate for change in information structures
and metadata systems within the library profession and
across the wider GLAM sector.
Stacy Allison-Cassin
University of Toronto
Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario

10. Perspectives on Indigenous
Metadata
Stacy Allison-Cassin
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto

12. “In order for the settlers to make a place their home,
they must destroy and disappear the Indigenous
peoples that live there.”
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity,
Education & Society, 1(1), Article 1. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630

13. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27820730

15. “A system’s effectiveness in organizing
information is in part a function of an
ideology that states the ambitions of its
creators and what they hope to achieve”
Svenonius, E. (2000). The intellectual foundation of information organization.
MIT Press.

16. CFLA Report on the Truth and Reconciliation Report
● Report released in 2017
● A number of key areas and
recommendations concern subject
headings and classifications
● The Report lead to the formation of the
CFLA Indigneous Matters Committee
● The Committee is comprised of
representatives from Associations
● The Red Team Subject headings and the
Classification working groups are two of a
number of working groups
● The working groups have primarily met
jointly

17. CFLA-FCAB Truth & Reconciliation Committee Report and
Recommendations
“...there is a widely-recognized fundamental mismatch
between the Western reductionist, hierarchical, and linear
system and those of many Indigenous peoples which are
premised on relationships and wholism. This mismatch
restricts, if not denies, access to information by, for and
about Indigenous peoples.”

18. CFLA-FCAB Truth & Reconciliation Committee Report and
Recommendations
“Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous library and information science (LIS)
professionals have long criticized the Eurocentric bias of these systems:
Indigenous names for peoples and places are either not used or
inaccurately Anglicized; Indigenous sovereignty and
worldviews are unrecognized; almost all literature save some
aspects of tribal law are classed narrowly in American history regardless of
their currency; and ideologically-biased terminology renders
invisible the genocides committed by colonial states
against Indigenous North Americans.”

19. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSOKcm9HB-28iSqNN3sQd5hV7bMLMGpCeGL0d
kQgyg2AiZAMWUF0sp98GyxIvLXYIWqSZ3nX_j_q4UN/pubhtml
Example of Nunavut Names

20. FNMII Vocabulary
Fundamental questions about how we document the
concepts of nation, community, historical community,
colonial names and the relationships between these
concepts

21. (normalize and standardize the)
Use the names people call themselves

22. Respect Indigenous data sovereignty

23. 1.Indigenous peoples have the right to
maintain, control, protect and develop
their cultural heritage, traditional
knowledge and traditional cultural
expressions, as well as the
manifestations of their sciences,
technologies and cultures,...
UNDRIP Article 31

24. Increase the visibility of Indigenous cultures,
peoples, and knowledges through the use of
rich metadata / semantic data and make that
data freely available.

25. Encourage the use of Indigenous languages
● Support the use of Indigenous languages on the
internet.
● Make Indigenous language descriptions and
metadata available--it’s not enough to have
Indigenous language materials.

26. Make it FAIR + CARE

27. Findable
Accessible
Interoperable
Reuseable

28. Collective benefit, Authority to control,
Responsibility and Ethics.
https://www.gida-global.org/care

29. ● Make it easy(ier) to share data. Metadata is important
for visibility
● Make data openly available for use and reuse where
appropriate
● Consider adding “extra” information like gender
expression, community connections.
● Consider why and how community information is
marginalized

30. IM4 Lab Visualization
produced through
Scholia with Wikidata
Data created by Cora Coady

31. Thank you.

32. Melissa Stoner, University of
California - Berkeley
Melissa Stoner (Diné) is the Native American Studies
Librarian at the Ethnic Studies Library at UC, Berkeley.
Previously, she worked in the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas Library Digital Collections Department as Project
Manager for the National Endowment for the Humanities
funded National Digital Newspaper Program for the state
of Nevada. Melissa also worked as Digital Projects
Librarian for Nevada State College on a Institute of
Museum and Library Services grant to digitize oral
histories. Melissa graduated from San Jose State
University with a Masters of Library and Information
Science, with a focus on emerging technologies which
led to her main focus, the digitization practices of
historical and ethnographic materials that contain
culturally sensitive information and/or restricted tribal
knowledge.

33. Yá'át'ééh
(hello)
The Ethnic Studies Library recognizes that UC
Berkeley sits on the territory of xučyun
(Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of
the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people, the
successors of the sovereign Verona Band of
Alameda County. This land was and continues
to be of great importance to the Muwekma
Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of
the Verona Band.
Melissa S. Stoner
melissa.s.stoner@berkeley.edu
Native American Studies Librarian
Ethnic Studies Library
University of California, Berkeley

34. Metadata: an Indigenous
perspective
Figure 1
Hooghan Łání — Many
Hogans/Many Homes
Táchii’nii — Red Running
Into the-Water
Naakaii Dine’é
— Mexican Clan
Tó Dích’íi’nii
— Bitter Water
Maternal
Paternal
Maternal Grandfather
Paternal
Grandfather

35. Projects
● Ethnic Studies Library
○ Digital Path Forward
■ Application Profile
■ Calisphere
● Social Networks and Archival
Context (SNAC)
○ Indigenous advisory board
○ Indigenous edit-a-thon

36. Ahéhee'
(thank you)
melissa.s.stoner@berkeley.edu

37. FOR DISCUSSION
● What are some ways that standards (and especially metadata) can amplify and
make Indigenous peoples, cultures, and knowledge more visible?
● How can we balance FAIR and CARE?
● How should/do publishers deal with issues around data sovereignty?
● What is one thing NISO could/should do to help improve metadata for
Indigenous knowledge and non-traditional outputs?

38. CLOSING POLL
How valuable have you found this webinar?
1. Extremely valuable
2. Valuable
3. Somewhat valuable
4. Not valuable
Please feel free to add any specific feedback in the
chat or by email (nisohq@niso.org)

39. THANK YOU!
Feel free to contact us
● Email — nisohq@niso.org
● Twitter — @NISOInfo
● Sign up for NISO alerts — scan this QR code
We will be sharing news about the next steps
from this and the other two DEIA webinars in
early 2022.