This guide aims to provide a starting point for recognizing, naming and researching the presence, influence and traces of Indigenous artists, producers, contributors, movements, organizations and communities within the CDMLA archival collections. It also reflects the limitations and biases of the media arts scene on the west coast.

Across the 50 years represented within the collections, Indigenous people have  produced videos, collaborated, run events, distributed flyers, organized, resisted, held ceremony, been featured in videos, performed, and otherwise been a presence within the local and global media arts scene.

Although the CDMLA collections primarily feature media and textual records, which are documented in this guide as a place to begin research, these video works, publications, and ephemera are only one set of paths for navigating this topic.

Content Note

Please take care when navigating the guide and when accessing any archival resources. You may encounter outdated or actively harmful terminology, and other materials may depict or reflect harmful perspectives and exclusions. Videos cover multiple decades and include both Indigenous and non-Indigenous creators and contributors.

If you need support or wish to discuss any of the materials, please reach out to library@vivomediaarts.com

• Source and context of item

  • For video library and video distribution works, who contributed the work to the catalogue; the context and intent of that contribution.

• Artist/Creator/Producer(s)

  • any biographic details and affiliations shared at the time or later

• Crew and Cast

• Other Contributors

• Dedications, Credits, and Gratitude

• Places and locations (depicted, named, or affiliated)

• Nations, Communities, Bands, Organizations (depicted, named, or affiliated)

• How the item and its creator have been described in the past

• Review for possible sensitive information or depictions

• Review of prior VIVO subject headings and access points in legacy catalogues and database

• General metadata cleaning and enhancement (formats, dates, languages, length, genre...)

  • Also attempted to surface information useful for other projects and intents (catalogue migration, future archival description work, greater clarity and accessibility work)

• Does VIVO have the agreement on file? Does VIVO have recent contact information for the creator/artist/producer(s) and/or donor(s) (if differing)?

Artists and projects along with varied intentions, successes, and challenges move through all of these records depicting SVES activities

as well as the the other fonds and special collections at the repository