Since June, I have been
working as an intern at ACCI in the collections department. As my brief time
here comes to an end, I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to come
work at ACCI. This spring, I finished my Masters of Library and Information
Studies degree at McGill University’s School of Information Studies, and came
to Oujé-Bougoumou shortly after. ACCI was a great fit for me because it is
entirely community-based, and because it includes so many different facets of
what makes up a cultural centre—a library, museum, archive, and educational
centre.
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| Nailisa Tanner at ACCI archives |
The two main projects I
worked on during my internship were appraising a large donation to the library,
and processing two different donations to the archives. Working alongside
Annie, ACCI’s librarian, we appraised over 1000 books donated by Dr. Harvey
Feit—to read more about this collection, read Annie’s post about the project here.
I tend to pay a lot of attention to design,
so one of my favourite parts of this job was seeing the covers of some of old
books we appraised. You can come visit the ACCI’s library to see all sorts of
questionable graphic design choices of the past!
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| Harvey Feit’s donation to the library |
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| A government publication from the 1960s, part of Dr. Feit’s donation |
Across the room, in the
archives, I worked on Dr. Feit’s donation to the archives, which included
several diaries of hunters and trappers, dating from the 1960s-80s. You can
even view one of these diaries on display in ACCI’s virtual exhibition.
In 1973, The Quebec Association of Indians, representing the
Eeyou Istchee Cree, sued the government of Quebec and won an injunction that
blocked hydroelectric development in the region while the James Bay and
Northern Quebec Agreement was being negotiated. These diaries were used as
evidence in the Quebec Superior Court to prove that people were using the land
in northern Quebec. I have a special interest in first nations and aboriginal
activism, and so it was really fascinating to work with these documents.
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| Hunters’ diaries in the archive |
I am extremely thankful to
the Young Canada Works program for providing funding for my internship, and to
ACCI for giving me to opportunity to work with them! I look forward to
returning as soon as I can.
