National Indigenous History Month 2024: Highlights from LAC collections

June is National Indigenous History Month, an opportunity to learn about the unique cultures, traditions, history, and experiences of First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation.

We encourage all Canadians to take this time to deepen their understanding of Indigenous Peoples and our collective past. Knowing and acknowledging the past and its ongoing impacts is a vital step toward healing and reconciliation.

Each week of June is dedicated to a different theme highlighting specific aspects of Indigenous history and perspectives. To launch National Indigenous History Month, we invite you to discover the archives we preciously preserve in our collections, along with resources and projects that celebrate the diversity and richness of Indigenous cultures and languages.

Week 1: Environment, traditional knowledge and territory

• Book launch: Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land by Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen. Attend the Ottawa event on June 4.
• Collection: We Are Here: Sharing Stories—The Alex Jerry Saley fonds includes photographs taken by Saley while he was employed along the Distant Early Warning Line, a series of radar stations built in the 1950s that had major environmental and cultural impacts on Inuit.
• Collection: The Making of a Birch Bark Canoe from the Wallace Kirkland fonds. Take a look at the film clip featuring John Push-ka-Gan and his family at the Seine River, circa 1928. It shows various steps of a birch bark canoe being constructed, beginning from the initial harvesting of the bark.
• Blog: Fifty Years after the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry: Part 1—Environmental Impacts in the Northwest and Part 2—Listening to Voices are available now. Part 3—Navigating the Records will be available on June 6.
• Project Naming: First Nation man seals birch bark. Do you recognize the man in this photo? More on Project Naming and how you can help.

Ādisōke, which means “the art of storytelling” in Anishinābemowin, is built on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinābe People. Set to open in 2026, Ādisōke was developed through a partnership agreement between Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada (LAC). From its inception, continuous engagement and collaboration with the Algonquin Anishinābe host nations have been key to the successful planning of Ādisōke’s design, services, and offerings. These include Algonquin and Indigenous art and literature, as well as features such as a circular lodge allowing for smudging, Anishinābemowin language on signs, and landscaping with Indigenous plants significant to the host nations. Respectful and ongoing engagement with Indigenous communities remains a top priority and will continue to shape the programs and services offered at this joint facility.

Week 2: Children and youth

• Collection: We Are Here: Sharing Stories—Throughout time immemorial, Indigenous women across Canada have practised many ways to swaddle, carry and protect their babies from the elements. Here are some recently digitized images:
  • Inuk woman with baby in amauti at Puvirnituq, 1950, Barclay McKone fonds
  • An Anishinaabe baby in a tiginaagan, Obishikokaang, Ontario, 1929, Isabel York fonds
• Blogs: First Nations cradleboards: understanding their significance and versatility and Cradleboards: keeping babies safe and portable
• Project Naming: Cree children stand next to a teepee, Chisasibi, Quebec, July 1927. Do you recognize anyone in this photo? More on Project Naming and how you can help.
• Project Naming: Inuit women and children dressed for warmer weather, Iqaluit, Nunavut. Do you recognize anyone in this photo? More on Project Naming and how you can help.
• Collection: Album: Indigenous people and children
• Flickr album: Children in Indigenous Cultures

We acknowledge that a great deal of records related to First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation held in our collections lack important contextual information. As outlined in Vision 2030: A strategic plan to 2030, LAC is doing more to place collections in context, making them easier to understand by setting them in a wider historical and cultural landscape. We do this in various ways, including by offering theme-based collections and programs and by encouraging a variety of uses for the collections. The projects We Are Here: Sharing Stories and Listen, Hear Our Voices support this commitment.

LAC preserves stories of First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation from across Canada. Providing access to more diverse historical documents will allow us to work towards healing the harms of the past, with hopes to forge a better future. Reconciliation will not be accomplished overnight and is a journey that requires commitment from all people in Canada.

#NIHM2024

Associated Links

• National Indigenous History Month
• Images for National Indigenous History Month (rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca)
• Project Naming | Facebook / Project Naming (canada.ca) / @project_naming
• Resources related to week 1: Environment, traditional knowledge and territory
• Resources related to week 2: Children and youth
• Resources related to week 3: Languages, cultures and arts
• Resources related to week 4: Women, girls and Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people