Indigenous Community Open Research Night at the John Carter Brown Library
Join us for an after-hours open-house style gathering for Indigenous and Native community members to explore the collections of the John Carter Brown Library.
This research night highlights materials related to Indigenous languages, including Nahuatl, Quechua, K’iche’, Guaraní, Aymara, Iroquoian and Algonquian languages and more. Items from the collection include early grammars, dictionaries, and religious texts produced in the 16th through 18th centuries, a subject area for which the JCB has significant holdings. These materials are complex. Many were created through processes of colonial extraction, translation, and control—often shaping how Indigenous languages were recorded, interpreted, and constrained. At the same time, they often hold knowledge, histories, and connections that remain meaningful for communities today.
[This evening is an invitation to:]
- Spend time with these materials on your own terms
- Reflect on the histories they carry
- Connect with library staff and learn what’s available
- Share knowledge, questions, and perspectives (if you wish)
- Explore how these resources might support your community, research, or language work
We recognize that languages are living and relational. We encourage all attendees to engage with materials in ways that align with their own community protocols and responsibilities, and to please reach out with questions or concerns.
Light refreshments provided.
Registration is encouraged but not required.
Open to Indigenous and Native community members.
(Header image from:Eliot, John, & Indigenous Languages Digitization Project. (1666). The Indian grammar begun: or, An essay to bring the Indian language into rules, for the help of such as desire to learn the same, for the furtherance of the Gospel among them. Printed by Marmaduke Johnson. http://www.archive.org/details/indiangrammarbeg00elio)
