Centering Communities in Collections Representation

We endeavor to chart a process for evaluating the appropriateness of current representational tools and current organizational structures for our collections, in order to develop more culturally-sensitive and historically-minded modes of presenting and accessing Philippine materials.

We especially seek ways to represent the collections that do not privilege colonial provenance and subjects. For this session, we invited Dorothy Berry, Liza Posas, and Hannah Turner. With these goals in mind, we ask our speakers to consider the following questions: 

  1. What are some specific methods for decentering the colonial creators of materials in our finding aids, and providing equal, if not greater, attribution to the communities represented in the record? 
  2. What additional changes to descriptive materials might be needed in order to address racist, outdated, and culturally-insensitive terminologies?