2026
CRKN Virtual Conference: Creative Collaborations, Collective Momentum
Virtual
May 12 - 14, 2026
Improving Discoverability of Day Schools Records: Truth, Reconciliation, and Archival Practice
Wednesday May 13, 2026
From 4:00pm to 4:30pm
The Day Schools Project (DSP) is an initiative of Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to digitize, describe, and increase access to archival records documenting the Federal Indian Day Schools system and its legacy. Running from 2022 to March 2026, the DSP is the second largest and one of the most complex multi-regional mass digitization projects undertaken at LAC, encompassing up to six million pages of records created primarily by the former Department of Indian Affairs and its predecessor agencies.
In this presentation, Brianne and Beth examine how the DSP navigates tensions between colonial archival systems and calls for truth and reconciliation. The records, spanning from the nineteenth century into the 2000s, were created for administrative purposes and reflect federal priorities, classification systems, and colonial worldviews rather than the lived experiences of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation children, families, and communities affected by the Day Schools system. As a result, these records often obscure, depersonalize, or fragment human experience.
The presenters discuss the practical and ethical challenges of improving access for Survivors, their families, and researchers while working within inherited archival structures. They highlight strategies developed by the DSP team, including enhanced file-level description that identifies document types, school and community names, geographic locations, and the presence of student or staff names. These descriptive interventions aim to bridge the gap between government-created records and the people they document, without over-interpreting colonial recordkeeping systems.
By situating the DSP within broader GLAM conversations, this presentation frames reconciliation as ongoing archival practice itself.
