Indigenous Studies
Example of the material highlighted in the "Their Marks" project.
The Indigenous Studies initiative focuses on acknowledging, encouraging, and providing support for Indigenous studies as a central node in the history of the Americas.
Some examples of programs related to this initiative are:
- Ex Libris: Belongings, Archives, & Indigenizing Design (October 13, 2023). Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum, Lorén Spears, Narragansett, shared the history of the museum as well as strategies around decolonizing and Indigenizing museum policies and processes, the design of collections and archives within the current museum, and planning for a new museum campus. The Q&A portion of the program was moderated by Kim Toney, the John Carter Brown Library Coordinating Curator for Native American and Indigenous Collections.
- “Their Marks”: Building an Archive of Native History in the Northeastern Woodlands through Images (ongoing). In addition to her role as Coordinating Curator for Native American and Indigenous Materials, Kimberly Toney created and maintains the Instagram account “Their Marks.” Roughly every week since December 21, 2022, she has published a post featuring a pictograph entered in place of an alphabetic signature by a member of a community that lived in the Northeastern Woodlands.
