Moving beyond Pondering: Relationality and Indigenous Librarianship

Conference Year

Online Northwest 2026

Type

Keynote

Presenters

• Sandy Littletree, University of Washington

Abstract

In this keynote, Dr. Sandy Littletree invites librarians to reconsider what it means to practice librarianship through the lens of relationality. Drawing on more than a decade of teaching and research in Indigenous information science, she reflects honestly on where the profession has made progress—and where tensions, gaps, and hard questions remain.

Grounded in Indigenous systems of knowledge, Dr. Littletree challenges libraries to move beyond intention toward meaningful change. She asks what it would look like for libraries to be places not only about Indigenous communities, but accountable to them. With clarity and vision, she imagines a future of Indigenous librarianship where Indigenous knowledge is not marginalized or translated to fit existing systems, but supported, protected, and allowed to thrive.

Bio:

Sandy Littletree (Navajo/Eastern Shoshone) is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and a leading researcher in the field of Indigenous information science. Her research examines Indigenous librarianship and the intersections of tribal sovereignty, technology, policy, knowledge, and information in Native North America.

Grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and guided by relationality, Dr. Littletree’s scholarship advances ethical frameworks for libraries and information systems that are accountable to Indigenous communities. Her current research projects focus on Indigenous data sovereignty, community archives in public libraries, and library services to tribal communities across Washington State.

An enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation, she is originally from the Four Corners region of New Mexico.