EAGER: James Bay Cree Visual Ethnographic Resource: Digitization of a Collection of a Photographic Archive from 1973

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER project will contribute to the visual ethnographic and historical record of a Northern indigenous culture, the James Bay Cree in northern Quebec, Canada, through the digitization of a selection from a collection of over 2800 photographs taken in four coastal James Bay villages (Chisasibi, Wemindji, Eastmain and Waskaganish) in the summer of 1973. The images will be available through an online database, annotated with metadata describing the subject of the photographs. The intent is to provide access to the images to the Cree and science research communities to advance historical preservation and ethnographic research. It is envisioned that the digitization of the images in high-resolution quality will further increase circulation for a broad range of applications in media, publications, and exhibitions, contextualized according to a range of interests from indigenous history, ethnography, social research, and studies in visual communication, and the arts. In addition to the digitization and repatriation portion of the project, the PI is collaborating with anthropologists to explore the cultural and social research opportunities that returning such historical photographs to the James Bay Cree Communities may generate. The visual materials will be returned through a scientific field trip to Wemindji, one of the four communities where the photographs were taken, and will be presented in public and in more intimate familial venues through slide shows followed by organized discussions. The first objective will be to identify individuals who were subjects of the images as a necessary step in creating the digital archive and facilitating social science analysis. The major tasks of this EAGER consist of 1) Scanning of contact sheets for discussion with ethnographers and selection of images from the inventory; 2) digitization of the images; 3) creation of an online database; 4) a scientific field trip to Wemindji, one of the four communities represented in the visual material to create community collaboration opportunities and to present the images and to annotate the images through community participation; 5) to test and document the multimedia presentation and repatriation process; 6) to integrate the metadata with the online visual database; and 7) and to verify the results through informal evaluations of user interactions with the database environment. This EAGER project is a unique opportunity for social scientists, visual commumications educators, and visual artists to collaborate with an indigenous community on repatriating images and memories in order to better understand the social significance of both.