Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM) are spaces of memory, encounter, and reconnection for Indigenous peoples worldwide. They are also institutions whose colonial foundations continue to shape who decides, who is named, and on whose terms, knowledge is accessed and shared. For Indigenous peoples, engagement with archives is a long-standing question, grounded in the Right to Know and the Right of Reply, and one that takes on new urgency as GLAM and digital humanities operate within a changing technological landscape.

This keynote presents a Living Indigenous Archives methodology as a framework for engaging meaningfully and responsibly with archives. Drawing on three decades of practice across Australian archives, libraries, and Indigenous-led research, the methodology examines the colonial foundations of archival practice while centring Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. It supports Living Indigenous Archives on Country and the provision of appropriate care for community archives, and offers new approaches for negotiating the colonial archive through relational research methods.

The presentation places this work within two important Indigenous-led international movements that influence GLAM and the digital humanities. The International Council on Archives’ Tandanya–Adelaide Declaration urges archives globally to become ethical spaces that promote encounters, respect, and collaboration with Indigenous communities. Additionally, Indigenous Data Sovereignty emphasises the rights of Indigenous peoples to control data, records, and knowledge concerning themselves, their communities, and their land.

The talk offers opportunities for context-aware, community-led practice in GLAM and digital humanities, organised around three connected conversations: relationality, transparency and accountability.