About GRASAC

GRASAC was established in 2005 and can best be thought of as two related things: a network of people who meet, work together, and share ideas to learn about the histories, languages and cultures of the Great Lakes, as well as a database that digitally reunites Great Lakes materials from around the world, putting heritage items back into relationships with each other and with community members, teachers, researchers, and heritage staff.

Great Lakes heritage continues to be scattered across museums and archives in North America and Europe, often at a great distance from Indigenous community knowledge, memory and perspectives.

GRASAC seeks to benefit Indigenous communities and cultural institutions alike by bringing together members’ insights and knowledge from their own areas of understanding and inspiring multiple ways of knowing, recording, representing and supporting Great Lakes cultural practices.

We strive to model mutually supportive relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in our research ethics and methods, governance, funding, leadership and mentoring. We use both Indigenous and Western approaches to recover and incorporate distinctive Indigenous traditions of thought and knowledge into our understandings.

We respect communities’ sovereignty to pursue physical repatriation as they desire and to set the terms for sharing intellectual property and traditional knowledge. GRASAC has sought to foster a community of researchers and lifelong-learners who can, in this context, facilitate digital and knowledge repatriation, and work in ways that contribute to the understanding of and continuation of Great Lakes arts and cultures.

Grasac personnel

GRASAC recognizes that our work must be based in principles of respect for the value of different kinds of knowledge, and for the rights of individuals, groups, and institutions to determine the appropriate way knowledge can be shared. The following principles are practiced by GRASAC:

Respects the right of Indigenous people to be principals or partners in research related to their culture, identity, history and heritage.
Supports Indigenous peoples’ right to access their cultural materials, whether held in community or outside repositories, following culturally specific traditions and protocols, and as articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Recognizes that knowledge about Great Lakes Indigenous peoples and their cultural traditions is found in different kinds of sources that can be oral, material, visual, written, remembered, and performed.
Respects the right of holders of knowledge to give free and informed consent when asked to contribute that knowledge to research projects. GRASAC agrees to obtain this consent in conformity with the ethical guidelines set up by granting agencies, institutions, and Indigenous community organizations responsible for cultural research as appropriate.
Acknowledges that the owners or custodians of Indigenous cultural belongings and knowledge will decide how specific information can be shared or withheld in all or in part.

GRASAC’s Knowledge Sharing Platform

Prioritizes the rights of Indigenous individuals and nations to know where relatives (e.g. cultural belongings or artifacts) are stewarded and what information and knowledge exists about them.
Will remove from public view, and/or adjust available information if Indigenous nations or cultural institutions express concern about the public sharing of particular kinds of information or images.
Will normally identify contributors of information and media by name.
Will seek to identify any limits or parameters of use.

History and People

GRASAC was founded in 2005 by Ruth Phillips (Canada Research Chair, Department of Art History, Carleton University), Heidi Bohaker (Department of History, University of Toronto) and Darlene Johnston (Chippewas of Nawash First Nation and Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia). They invited Alan Corbiere (M’Chigeeng First Nation and Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program Coordinator at Lakeview School in M’Chigeeng) and John Borrows (Chippewas of Nawash First Nation and Faculty of Law, University of Victoria) to work with them on grant proposals to secure funding so that GRASAC could become a reality. Professor Cory Willmott in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville was a key technical adviser and collaborator from the beginning.

Funding

GRASAC gratefully acknowledges the funding assistance of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science and Faculty of Information, the Province of Ontario, the British Academy and other sources. We are thankful also for the cooperation of the many institutions that have contributed their photos and records to this project.