The ONWARD Project and Native Voices

The ONWARD Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to sharing the stories and materials associated with the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition (RBMVE), a 1930s multidisciplinary expedition through the Southwest. This case study will explore The ONWARD Project’s strategies and experiences in compensating for the lack of Native voices and perspectives in the archival materials from the RBMVE. Discussion is framed around experiences with seeking the identities of unnamed people in historical photographs through community outreach at the 2016 Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Arizona. This paper addresses the way in which The ONWARD Project has developed and implemented a collaborative methodology meant to work against lasting effects of colonialism found in archives and specifically, how it brings Native voices back to photographic material.