Critical self-reflection

Personal reflection: Looking backward and moving forward

Part of the reason I wanted to challenge myself with this blog series is to ensure I’m continuing to reflect and learn.

I’ve always struggled to write, think, reflect in the third person. Which, come to think of it, is probably why I haven’t ever managed to get any of my research project ideas out of my head and onto paper. Everything IS personal for me.

The relationships I build at work, are relationships with me, not with the library. Each relationship built with individuals within a library can lead, over time, to a broader trust in the library as an institution. But it starts personal. And it starts with reflection.

Reflecting together

I don’t know how I missed the cultural protocols Nathan Sentance wrote for the University of Sydney Library, but so much of it resonates with what I’d like to see happening at libraries across the country. One line resonated above all others:

“create space for organisational critical self-reflection about its practices.”

Self-reflection, imho, is the only way to successfully grow. So as an organisation, we need self-reflection built into our workflows and planning, built into our workplace culture.

Own voices

Nathan Sentance (with University of Sydney Library) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols https://doi.org/10.25910/hrdq-9n85

No wildcard needed

Boolean

Like most librarians I know, I love a well constructed search string. Get me some ANDs and ORs, group some terms in “quotation marks”, use a wildcard or two… Damn, can you hear my heart racing?

But there is one search that I actively discourage the use of a truncation tool.

I would never say that word

So why would we be searching for literature that uses a racist word?

Aboriginal does not need to be truncated.

Sure, I’ll search for (Aboriginal OR Indigenous OR “Torres Strait Islander”) and I’ll include name of Country, or First Nation, depending on the search context. But there is NO need to search for Aborigin* unless, of course, you are searching for very old resources. Or if you want the racist point of view. If an article has been recently written and uses the term ‘aborigine,’ I don’t want to reference it.

Own Voices

Still researching this one… please stand by!This article does give some good background reading about decolonising education:Martin, B., Stewart, G., Watson, B. K., Silva, O. K., Teisina, J., Matapo, J., & Mika, C. (2019). Situating decolonization: An Indigenous dilemma. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(3), 312–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1652164

Afraid of saying the wrong thing

Fear as an excuse

I am often afraid of saying the wrong thing. When parenting, when meeting people, when helping students, and especially, when talking about Indigenous Knowledge. So here’s the thing. I think I’ve been using my fear of saying the wrong thing as an excuse.

Speaking up is a luxury

I don’t want to speak for other people. I want to amplify marginalised voices, not speak for them. That’s what I tell myself. But the reality is, when push comes to shove, I have stayed silent because I don’t feel like I am the best person to speak up. Time to call bullshit on my silence.

If I have the luxury of an audience, I should do what I can, and accept, that often I will say the wrong thing but hopefully it is better than saying nothing.

Shawn Wilson, a phenomenal researcher whom I have the pleasure of knowing, says that we don’t need more allies or advocates, we need more accomplices. We need people willing to go out there and make a stand. And take the blame if need be.

And so I start a series of blog posts about being a white librarian in Australia, an accomplice for Indigenous Knowledge.

I come with my lens, my background, my privilege. When I know of own-voice resources , I will try to refer. And I will get it wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m allowed to stay quiet.

Own voices

There are so many fantastic people in this space but I will highlight two who carry far more than their fair share of the education load in the GLAM sector in Australia: Kristen Thorpe and Nathan Sentence. Go read what they’ve written and listen to what they’ve said before asking more questions.

Adding a quite from a post that I just read this eve (18/6/21), interview with Ione Damasco:

But the majority of this work should not fall on the same people every single time—what are institutions doing to build capacity among all of their workers to do this work authentically and effectively?

https://acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/val-spotlight-series-practices-of-equity-social-justice-ione-damasco/