The Transformative Memory International Network is an initiative led by professors Pilar Riaño-Alcalá from the Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice Institute and Erin Baines from the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. The partnership consists of scholars from multiple disciplines, artists, and community-based practitioners working across diverse landscapes of loss and dispossession to address similar questions about what makes memory transformative.  We work in Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Uganda, Peru, Northern Ireland and the United States.

Our approach to data is informed by Indigenous knowledge, cosmologies and methodologies on data sovereignty, protocols, privacy, access and strategy on research, as well as by the legal jurisdictions and politics of memory in the different sites of our engagement. We understand that data are not neutral and that we work with sensitive materials and, the living memories of people, organizations and communities in difficult contexts. The public materials (photos, videos, artworks, reports, etc.) in this Digital Archive originate from ongoing engagement with landscapes of memory.  These materials are gathered, using collaborative processes at events organized at various memory sites. Our archiving practices are guided by our roles and responsibilities for the communities we are working in and with. All materials have been made public through dialogue with the documentarian(s) and the individuals or communities, and are made accessible to acknowledge the importance of building engagements across landscapes of memory, to hold space for discussions about ethics of sharing, to facilitate story-telling and to ensure representations that focus on the perspectives of the communities from which they originate.

Materials for the digital archive are selected through multiple curating processes to ensure the safety and protection of our counterparts, and most importantly, the communities that we are in dialogue with. Due to limited resources, preservation of all of these materials is currently the responsibility of each documentarian. The metadata fields for each item are crafted through consultation with our counterparts to ensure that the fields reflect the relationship between the records and the people involved/engaged with them and the needs of the communities. This is reflected in our titling practice -- some items might have titles that are appropriate or agreed upon, and some others are left untitled due the incommensurability inherent in/within titling practices when naming items.

We understand that memories and their impacts can be fluid and dynamic and subject to the politics of the state and powerful interests in the politics of memory and, thus, any materials that the documentarian(s) and/or communities find no longer safe for public access will be taken down by request.  However, withdrawal of these materials from the digital archive may not include others copied, cached or shared prior to takedown. While communities are consulted during the process of archiving, we understand that consent can be revoked at any time.

Any use of these materials must reflect the ethics and care through which these difficult materials are attended to and must credit the source(s) accordingly. Materials may be used for research, educational and creative purposes only, and not for commercial purposes.

This statement is written in November, 2020 and will be re-evaluated every two years to ensure that the policy continues to be updated to meet the needs of the project and the communities we are working with.

Below is a list of the institutional partners and the members of the Transformative Memory International Network:

• The University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
  • School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
  • Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Center
  • Department of History
  • Liu Institute for Global Issues
• Justice and Reconciliation Project, Uganda
• The Indonesian Institute of Social History (ISSI), Indonesia
• Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
  • Department of History
  • Department of Social Work
• The University of Guelph, Canada

• The Department of Political Science

Aimee Craft, University of Ottawa

Alejandra Gaviria, University of British Columbia

Ayu Ratih, Indonesian Institute of Social History and University of British Columbia

Boniface Ojok, Justice and Reconciliation Project

Brandon Hamber, Ulster University

Bronwyn Leebaw, University of California Riverside

David McDonald, University of Guelph

Docus Atyeno, Justice and Reconciliation Project

Eliana Suarez, Wilfrid Laurier University

Elizabeth Shaffer, University of British Columbia

Erika Diettes, Erika Diettes Studio

Erin Baines, University of British Columbia

Evelyn Amony, Justice and Reconciliation Project

Félix Reátegui, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Fernanda Barbosa dos Santos, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Isaac Odiya Okwir, Justice and Reconciliation Project

Jeffrey Kenneth Opiyo, Music for Peace

John Roosa, University of British Columbia

Juliane Okot Bitek, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Ketty Anyeko, Justice and Reconciliation Project and University of British Columbia

Made Alit Ambara Seputra, Indonesian Institute of Social History

Maria Emma Wills, Universidad de los Andes

Martha Nubia Bello, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Maxine Kamari Clarke, University of California, Los Angeles

Michael Otim, Justice and Reconciliation Project

Nila Ayu Utami, University of British Columbia

Paolo Vignolo, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Peter Morin, Ontario College of Art and Design University

Pilar Riaño Alcalá, University of British Columbia