Critical Ethnography as an Archival Tool

A Case Study of the Afghan Diaspora in Canada

  • Moska Rokay

Abstract

Due to the limitations of existing archival theories and methodologies, there are few clear options that allow underrepresented and marginalized communities to represent themselves ethically, faithfully, and responsibly in their own voices in mainstream archival institutions. As a result, many of these communities lack knowledge and fundamental pedagogical resources about themselves and their history in Canada. Based on research from the author’s one-year master’s degree, this article uses a critical ethnographic framework and oral history interviews to understand the archival needs of a segment of the Afghan diaspora that has long been settled in Canada. The Afghan Canadian participants agreed that digital archives could provide a solution to the community’s dearth of knowledge and material about itself – its own histories and stories. The research demonstrates that a critical ethnographic framework can be applied as an instrument in the archives in order to understand the desires, identity-formation processes, and representations of a marginalized community to ensure faithful archival representation.

RÉSUMÉ

En raison des limites des théories et des méthodologies archivistiques existantes, il y a peu d’options évidentes permettant aux communautés sousreprésentées et marginalisées de se représenter de façon éthique, fidèle et responsable par le biais de leurs propres voix au sein des archives institutionnelles conventionnelles. De ce fait, bon nombre de ces communautés sont privées de connaissances et de ressources pédagogiques de base sur elles-mêmes et leur histoire au Canada. Basé sur les recherches effectuées au cours d’un programme de maîtrise d’un an, cet article utilise un cadre critique ethnographique et des entrevues d’histoire orale afin de comprendre les besoins archivistiques d’une portion de la diaspora afghane, établie depuis longtemps au Canada. Les Canadiens- Afghans participants s’accordent pour dire que les archives numériques offrent une solution à la rareté des connaissances et de matériel portant sur eux-mêmes – leur propres histoires et récits. La recherche démontre que le cadre critique ethnographique peut être un outil dans les archives pour comprendre les désirs, le processus de formation identitaire et les représentations des communautés marginalisées afin d’assurer une représentation fidèle dans les archives.

Author Biography

Moska Rokay

Moska Rokay is the Digital Humanities Research Fellow at the Institute of Islamic Studies (University of Toronto) tasked with coordinating the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA). As a refugee and immigrant settler on Turtle Island, she is actively involved in the Afghan Canadian diaspora community and is a co-founder of a Canadian non-profit organization called Afghans Reviving Culture and Heritage (ARCH). Moska’s research interests lie in the interdisciplinary crossroads of archives, critical race and ethnicity studies, media studies, and identity formation in diaspora communities of war and trauma. She is an advocate for community-centred activist archives and archives of diaspora and migrant communities. In 2020, she was the recipient of the ACA New Professional Award as well as the Archivaria Gordon Dodds Student Paper Prize. She completed her Master of Information degree at the University of Toronto and defended her MI thesis in 2019.

Published
2021-06-03
How to Cite
Rokay, Moska. 2021. “Critical Ethnography As an Archival Tool: A Case Study of the Afghan Diaspora in Canada”. Archivaria 91 (June), 176-201. https://www.archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13795.
Section
Gordon Dodds Prize