ABSTRACT
Drawing on over two decades of work as a historian, archivist and curator in major Canadian history institutions, Lainey offers advice for researchers to overcome information gaps and to ensure the accuracy of existing information when interpreting museum objects, and specifically Indigenous objects. Lainey argues that research takes not only time and diligent questioning but also consciousness of the historical contexts and systems that generate the information. He argues that the accuracy of documentation around a museum object’s provenance should always be interrogated and augmented with additional research and offers avenues of research beyond museum documentation. Lainey cautions that biases and gaps are not only perpetuated by bad actors and that misinformation, regardless of intentions, has the potential to become truth through enough repetition. Responsible researchers, he suggests, should look at every source in every direction, whether it supports or challenges one’s stance.
