Archivist, Powley Institute

• Leads the acquisition and appraisal of archival materials, proactively identifying records of enduring historical, cultural, legal, or operational value and ensuring they align with the organization’s mandate and ethical standards.
• Oversees the arrangement and description of archival collections, applying established archival principles and description standards to create clear, accessible finding aids, inventories, and metadata that support long-term discoverability.
• Implements and monitors preservation and conservation strategies to safeguard physical and digital materials, ensuring appropriate environmental controls, storage systems, and handling practices are consistently maintained.
• Manages digital preservation activities, including the ingest, organization, and long-term stewardship of born-digital and digitized records, while maintaining the integrity, authenticity, and accessibility of digital assets.
• Provides responsive, knowledgeable reference and research support, facilitating access to archival materials for staff, researchers, community members, and the public, while balancing openness with privacy, confidentiality, and cultural protocols.
• Develops, updates, and enforces archival policies, procedures, and retention schedules, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and alignment with ethical standards, including Indigenous data sovereignty principles where applicable.
• Builds and maintains strong relationships with communities, donors, and stakeholders, supporting outreach initiatives such as exhibitions, workshops, presentations, and digital storytelling that enhance public engagement with the archives.
• Collaborates closely with records management teams to ensure seamless transfer, classification, retention, and disposition of records, and provides training and guidance to staff on archival and records management best practices.
• Contributes to institutional planning and stewardship, participating in long-term strategy development, managing archival projects, assisting interns, or volunteers involved in archival work.
• Promotes the values of the organization within the workplace and in the community by demonstrating positive and professional relationships with others (employees, citizens, council, volunteers, advocates, etc.)
• Reports all unsafe conditions, hazards or practices, accidents and incidents in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and adheres to all Health and Safety requirements within the MNO’s policies and procedures and provincial legislation.
• Performs other job/branch-related duties as required.

• University Degree
• 3 to 5 years of experience
• Graduate-level training in Indigenous studies, history, museum studies, or cultural heritage.
• Professional certifications or continuing education in archival description standards, digital preservation, or records management (e.g., RAD, ISAD9G), digital preservation certificates, and metadata standards training.
• Demonstrated knowledge of archival theory, principles, and standards, including appraisal, arrangement, description, and preservation, with the ability to apply frameworks such as Rules for Archival Description (RAD), International Standard Archival Description General ISAD(G), and digital preservation best practices.
• Strong proficiency in managing both physical and digital archival collections, including metadata creation, digital repository management, and long-term preservation strategies for born-digital and digitized materials.
• Comprehensive understanding of relevant legislation and ethical standards, such as privacy, copyright, access to information, and (where applicable) Indigenous data sovereignty and culturally grounded stewardship practices.
• Excellent research, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess complex records, develop clear access pathways, and support diverse users through responsive reference and research services.
• Effective communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to collaborate with internal teams, community partners, donors, and researchers, and to translate archival concepts into accessible guidance for non-specialists.

• Familiarity with Indigenous data governance frameworks, including OCAP®, Métis-specific data sovereignty principles, and culturally grounded approaches to stewardship, access, and community accountability.
• Knowledge of digital preservation platforms and archival management systems, such as Access to Memory (AtoM), Archivematica, Preservica, or comparable tools used for metadata creation, digital ingest, and long-term digital storage.
• Understanding of community-based archival practices, including relationship-centred approaches to acquisition, description, and access that honour community protocols and lived experience.
• Experience with public programming and outreach, such as developing exhibitions, digital storytelling projects, workshops, or educational materials that increase engagement with archival collections.
• Knowledge of records management principles and lifecycle practices, including classification systems, retention schedules, and the integration of records management with archival workflows.
• Master’s degree in Archival Studies, Library and Information Science, Information Management, or a closely related field.

Métis Nation of Ontario