
The following is a guest post from Raegan Swanson, Archivist with Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute. Reagan contacted members of the NDSA group working on the levels of digital preservation with her thoughts and comments and we were excited to offer her the opportunity to share her comments on the utility of the levels with a broader audience here on the blog.
In this post I briefly describe the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the value that the NDSA levels of digital preservation provided in helping me think through how to best to prioritize our work to ensure long term access to the records of the commission. The following represents my own personal views and experience working with the NDSA levels, not those of the TRC itself.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was established in 2008 with a 5-year mandate to gather information relating to Indian Residential Schools in Canada. These government and church-run schools date back to the 1870s, and over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were placed in over 130 schools across the country, with the last school closing its doors in 1996. Part of the TRC’s mandate is to collect testimonies from Residential Sch