The next Cultural Institution Working Group meeting will be held November 17 UTC. For this meeting, we will hear from the group’s Chair, Gwen Saul, and colleagues at the New York State Museum. Their team has engaged in a long term effort to implement Local Contexts Notices, and have launched their use within their collections …
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Local Contexts’ peer working groups and regional networks are virtual groups to connect people who are interested in or already using the Local Contexts Labels and Notices. We welcome group participants at all stages of experience and familiarity with Local Contexts to join one or multiple groups. If you are new to Local Contexts, we recommend first attending one of our introductory sessions.
To indicate your interest in joining a working group or network, please respond to our interest survey below. We will connect you with the group’s chairpeople or organizers who will add you to the email list and connect you with any shared resources.
To see upcoming meeting times, see our events page.
Our working groups are communities of practice that meet virtually every 2-3 months. Typical meetings have 20-40 attendees, though meetings are also recorded for sharing within each group.
Working Group Chair: Currently organized by the Local Contexts Outreach Team
About: The Indigenous Communities Working Group (ICWG) brings together Indigenous community members and Indigenous community staff internationally to support communities who are either using or interested in using the Labels. Meetings include members sharing their experiences customizing and using the Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels, group discussions around Local Contexts and the Hub, Local Contexts updates and feedback, and more. There are currently over 130 group members.
Working Group Chair: Dr. Gwen Saul, New York State Museum
About: The Cultural Institution Working Group (CIWG) brings together group members who work at or with cultural organizations around the world, including museums, libraries, archives, and universities, and who are interested in or using the Local Contexts system of Notices and Labels. Meetings include members sharing their experiences using the Local Contexts Notices, group discussions around Local Contexts and the Hub, Local Contexts updates and feedback, and more. There are currently over 200 group members from over 130 organizations.
Working Group Chairs: Joshua Shaw, Dartmouth College Libraries
About: The Technical Implementation Working Group (TIWG) connects institution and data repository staff, researchers, and others for technical discussions around implementing the Local Contexts Labels and Notices within metadata and databases. Meetings can be informal conversations, working meetings, or feature invited speakers. There are currently over 160 group members.
Working Group Chairs: Ori Atkins, The Library at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington; Nik Crombie (Ngāti Rongomaiwahine), Victoria University of Wellington
About: The Library Working Group (LWG) was established to support library-specific discussions and knowledge exchange around Indigenous data sovereignty, cultural authority, and use of the Local Contexts Notices and Labels. There are currently over 90 group members who are library staff and scholars.
Working Group Chair: Erin Robinson, Metadata Game Changers
About: The Biocultural & Sciences Working Group (BSWG) was established to bring together members who work within biocultural research and related science fields (including biodiversity, genomics, conservation, botanical gardens, ecology, climate research, land rematriation, ethnobotany, ethnobiology, bioacoustics, wild utilized plants and crop breeding, biopharmaceuticals, health data, and more) internationally who are interested in or are already using the Local Contexts system of Biocultural and Traditional Knowledge Labels and Notices. There are currently over 100 group members.
Working Group Chair: Amy June Breesman, Local Contexts
About: The Cultural Seed Workers Affinity Group (CSWAG) is a sub-group of the BSWG. This affinity space focuses on farmers/growers, seed keepers, seed banks, public interpreters, and related researchers who focus on culturally significant plants and seeds. Topics for meetings center on ethics and best practices to support Indigenous sovereignty in this space, with particular regard to Local Contexts and other actionable tools. There are currently over 20 members, and growing.
Our regional networks aim to connect community organizations and representatives, institutions and organizations, and others located in or with ties to a particular geographic area to see how we can together support momentum and interest for Local Contexts in the region.
These networks are for participants with established connections in these areas, including Indigenous Peoples with both ancestral and contemporary ties to these regions. While we hope these groups can create introductions and connections, they are not a substitute for relationship building, such as following appropriate protocols to establish contact with a community.
Each group varies in size, and meets every 1-3 months. Meetings are generally recorded for the group’s reference.
We recognize that current geopolitical boundaries are arbitrary and have been created by settler-colonial institutions. Additionally, Local Contexts is committed to Indigenous sovereignty and ethical data governance; we believe that naming and addressing the violence of settler-colonialism and its ongoing effects is central to the work that we do. While many of these geopolitical boundaries continue to uphold settler colonialism, we also see the benefit of establishing networks within them to connect around the particular needs and issues of supporting Indigenous data sovereignty.
The networks below were started by volunteers to chair the group and by the Local Contexts team to meet expressed interest. We would be excited to see networks for other regions (including Africa, Alaska, Australia, Oklahoma, the Pacific Northwest (US), and Midwest (US)), but have limited team capacity. If you are interested in seeing a network in another region, you can indicate this in the network survey. If you have capacity and interest in volunteering to chair a network, please email us and we would be happy to share more about what this would involve and what support we can offer.
Network Chair: Currently organized by the Local Contexts Outreach Team
Community Network Chairs: Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and Tehani M. Quitevis, Huliauapaʻa
Institution/Researcher Network Chairs: Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and Andy Rominger (haole/settler), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Network Chairs: Samantha Callaghan, King’s College London, and Valentina Scazzola, anthropologist and curatorial researcher
Network Chair: Tanya Richard, Canadian Museum of History
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, and other relevant cultural regions
Network Chair: Heather Moran, Maine State Archives, and Annie Tucker, Mount Holyoke College
We are grateful for the contributions of past Chairs of our Working Groups and Networks.
Monica Galassi, Europe & UK Network (2024-2025)
William Wood, Europe & UK Network (2024-2025)
Dr. Ann Mc Cartney, Technical Implementation Working Group (2023-2025)
Brandon Castle, Library Working Group (2025)
