71 4 Indigenous items in museums and archives have long been obscured, if not silenced, by theoretical and structural categories that limit conceptions of agency and animacy. An object that occupies space clearly has measurable dimensions, appearance, and substance, but how is it perceived? Objects are visible only in so much as they can be seen—by which, I mean physically and conceptually sensed and recognized. en they can be classified—as iterations of other words, objects, categories, and things that are already known or knowable. Archivists and curators have long been trained to use selective filters to sort through these classifications, to see what is expected, to recognize a familiar form, to know what fits into the system. But if we look closer, if we consider subtle details in the construction of these object-beings, perhaps we can better understand how they reflect the intentions of those who brought them into being. Here, I reflect upon methods for identifying and interrogating material evidence that records the intentions of “invisible labourers” who might still speak to us through the traces that remain. SPEAKING OF ANIMACY Anthropological discussions of object agency have long circled around the notion that objects can only be imbued with meaning through the processes of handling and dis- tribution by humans. 1 Indigenous knowledge-keepers, in contrast, assert that objects can have agency of their own, and that they can, therefore, choose to collaborate with humans in constructing and circulating meaning . . . or not. Traditionally, Indigenous peoples recognize the coexistence of “other-than-human” beings (animals, shape- shifters, ancestral spirits, natural forces, etc.), perceived as “persons” with the capac- ity to manifest, transform, and direct power. 2 In Algonquian languages and cultural Of Animacy and Afterlives Material Memories in Indigenous Collections Margaret M. Bruchac Invisible Labour in Modern Science, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=7081378. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2024-03-23 13:39:41. Copyright © 2022. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.