Introduction.(libraries provides services regarding indigenous knowledge )

If it is possible to guide the way readers respond to chapters in this book, then perhaps the first thing we would like readers to take away would be an appreciation and understanding of the complexities that library, archives and information professionals must engage with in meeting the needs of Indigenous people and managing Indigenous knowledge within their organisations.

From the Indigenous perspective, we can well understand the profession's desire to have clear prescriptions for practice and practical assistance. However, the path to developing clear and high standards of practice in this area rests on building a strong foundation for understanding what informs the concerns of Indigenous people about the intersection of our knowledge and cultural materials with library and archival systems and practice. This requires a broad sweep across issues of knowledge, culture, history, heritage, law, disciplines, technologies and so forth. It requires consideration of articulations between the local/global, the Indigenous/Western, as well as traditional/contemporary spheres. Most importantly, it requires professional understanding at a level deep enough to generate problem-solving and innovations in practice to overcome the manifold tensions that emerge across all these in a diverse range of situations.

To be even more emphatic on these points, we would suggest that developing understanding of complexities requires the profession to do more than understand Indigenous concerns and perspectives on the issues. It requires, as much, an unsettling of established practice, and the questioning of some of the assumptions on which accepted practice rests. This is not to suggest that professionals should undermine or abandon their codes and standards of practice. Quite the opposite, we would argue. It is important for professionals to be clear on why the tenets of the profession are so important and central to their practice. Then perhaps it…