by Haley Bryant
From May 26th to May 29th of 2019, GRASAC members and guests gathered together at the Black River Wilderness Park on the Rama First Nation for the GRASAC Partnership Grant Workshop. The meeting, which consisted of two full days of discussions and activities, had a particular focus on archival work, digitization, and digital initiatives. Invited guests included Dr. Diana Marsh from The Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives, Dr. Ricardo Punzalan from the University of Maryland, Dr. Michelle Caswell from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dr. Wendy Duff from the University of Toronto. The first day of the workshop centered the work of these archival scholars who led discussions about the personal impact of archival work, how to measure the impact of the kind of work GRASAC members do in terms familiar to granting agencies, and the special forms of responsibility that come with digital heritage projects. On day two of the workshop GRASAC member Dr. Heidi Bohaker of the University of Toronto led discussions about the future of the GRASAC Knowledge Sharing Tool (GKS) which included presentations by a group of undergraduate user experience design scholars from the Jackman Institute for the Humanities at the University of Toronto and several brainstorming sessions. The workshop participants are grateful to Seanna Savoie and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation for the opportunity to spend time on the beautiful Black River Wilderness camp grounds and to Tami Lamb and Cornucopia Catering for providing the delicious food.