Introductions
The Memory Keepers Fellowship program is a project partnered between ASU’s Community Driven Archive Initiative and the Labriola Center. The fellowship is geared for BIPOC students at local community colleges and for them to explore the field of Library Information Science early in their college career. The first cohort of recruits will focus primarily on learning the fundamentals of archiving and learning how archiving can be tailored to fit the cultural customs of their local communities. They will be writing a monthly blog post series on their experience working in the archives at the Labriola Center on West campus.
Ah’sha Notah (Diné) is a program coordinator for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project “Centering BIPOC Memory Keepers and Advancing Equity and Inclusion” fellowship program. She recruited a group of seven students from different backgrounds and walks of life to take on the opportunity of being in the fellowship. Five of whom are indigenous and some will be working with Labriola. From the first cohort is Myacedes Miller (Diné).
Myacedes Miller (Diné):
Hello my name is Myacedes Miller. I am Red House, born for the Bitter Water clan, my maternal grandfather is from the Salt clan and my paternal grandfather is Mexican clan. I am Navajo and am originally from Lechee, Arizona but later moved to the Valley during my freshman year of high school. I’m currently a student at Mesa Community College majoring in Business.
I first heard about the Community Driven Archives Memory Keeping Fellowship when I went to an info session at MCC. It sounded interesting and like a great opportunity to learn more about history from an Indigenous perspective. As I have started my mentoring, I feel like I have already learned so much. I didn't have much knowledge of archiving before the Fellowship. I hope to gain new perspectives and keep my mind open to all the information available to me. I'd also like to incorporate the information I learn into my career path. On my first day of mentoring I was really excited to learn more about Indigenous archives. The semester before, we had focused on the basics of archiving and Indigenous Librarianship. I knew that there is a high demand for Indigenous Archivists and Librarians, but hearing from Vina on the first day really put it into perspective. I remember thinking how neat archiving is and how it can expand into different areas. On the first day, we talked about how Indigenous Archiving is different from western societies. The way we hold our knowledge as Indigenous people is quite different. Throughout history as Indigenous people we didn’t have libraries. Our libraries are our Elders who hold knowledge and stories. We talked about how as Indigenous people it is important to keep sacred knowledge, sacred, especially since a lot of our knowledge has been transferred to books.
My service-learning project is focused on Jean Chadhuri. On the first day, Vina told us about Jean and gave us a quick overview of who she was. As I got to know more, I knew I wanted to focus my service-learning project on her. After hearing a part of Jean's story I had already felt inspired. What draws me to her collection was the work she did for the Native community. She had owned many Non-profit organizations. I thought this was amazing because I hope to do similar work to hers. My second project is going to be focused on the history of trading posts and the native art market as it can relate to my major.