Unclasping the White Hand: Reclaiming and Refiguring the Archives to Support Indigenous Wellbeing and Sovereignty

The research explored whether the current dominant approaches to archiving and managing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges support the wellbeing of Indigenous people and recognise Indigenous sovereignty in an archival context. It investigated the contested nature of the archives and the level of agency that Indigenous people have to control and own their archives. The research identified immediate reforms required to support Indigenous peoples archiving needs and outlined a transformative model of Indigenous Living Archives on Country to support Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in the archives, and redress from the impacts of colonisation.