Is this you? Archives Canada celebrating 15 years of putting names on faces in old photographs

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Is this you? Archives Canada celebrating 15 years of putting names on faces in old photographs

National News | March 2, 2017 by Annette Francis

Annette Francis
APTN National News
Library and Archives Canada is starting its 15th anniversary of trying to put a name to the faces of thousands of people in old archived photographs.

The program is designed to digitize, identify and document the collections of photographs of First Nations, Metis and Inuit, held in the archives vault in Ottawa.

Peter Irniq, an elder and cultural teacher from Naujaat, Nunavut got the program rolling.

In 2005 he wrote a letter to the minister of Culture, stating that he was tired of seeing so many un-identified  “Eskimos” in Canadian publications. He said now is the time for the program to do all it can to identify
people in the photos.

This photo appears on the the website of Library and Archives Canada. In September 2014, Ashevak Geetah (left) and her daughter, Eva Geetah (right) reconnected with their father and grandfather, Eetooloopak, after seeing his photo, which was taken in Iqaluit, Nunavut in March 1956. Photo courtesy of Sheila Pokiak Lumsden. Photo by Gar Lunney. Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada

“We need to get the elders involved in a much bigger way today,” he said. “Because we don’t have a lot of time, the elders are the ones who know the photographs.”

Beth Greenhorn has been involved with Project Naming since she started her position at the Library and Archives Canada.

She said it began as a partnership with the Government of Nunavut and for the first 12 years it focused on the collection of photographs from that area.

In May 2015 it expanded to include First Nations, Metis and Inuit from all regions.

Greenhorn said the program not only adds missing names to faces, it has told many stories.

“I have a masters in history and I thought I knew more than others,” she said. “The history of Canada and of the north and what I’ve really learned is that I knew very little about Nunavut or the history of
Inuit, about colonization and the effects of that.”

Curtis Konek has come for the celebration from Arviat, Nunavut.

He helped to digitize some of the photographs from his area, and he knows what they’re worth.

“We brought them home and we had a lot of good experiences and gained more knowledge from those photos because the people in our community,” he said. “Some of them recognized themselves as a teen or a
boy, they recognized other people like their family, their friends or their peers.”

The celebration of Project Naming continues tomorrow with a panel of artists who’ll discuss how they’re reclaiming their history through the use of archival images.

Project Naming can be found on the Library and Archives website and on Facebook.

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