Knowledge Sharing Platform

The GRASAC Knowledge Sharing Platform (GKS)

The GKS hosts digital records of 5,000 Great Lakes heritage items and 17,000 Anishinaabemowin and Cayuga words. The GKS seeks to reconnect these records with their Indigenous kin and communities. GRASAC members collaboratively care for and contribute to GKS records, supported by the 54 cultural institutions that hold these items on Turtle Island and in Europe.

What is a Heritage Item? What is a Relative?

In the Great Lakes region, many cultural belongings like those described in the GKS are thought of as Relatives or Grandparents, with intimate kinship ties to past and present families and nations. The GKS also has records of relevant archival materials. We use the term heritage item to include this broader range.

GRASAC works to share institutional information through the GKS, and also to bring forward Indigenous knowledge as crucial aspects of these relatives’ histories.