The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing
Decolonizing the index
Abstract
Stephen Ullstrom won the 2014 Purple Pen Award for his index to Keith Smith’s Strange visitors: documents in the history of Indigenous and settler relations in Canada from 1876. In an article published in Geez (Fall 2015, issue 39) he wrote about some of the challenges facing the indexer of a book about Indigenous peoples. This article is reprinted, with the kind permission of Geez, immediately below. Stephen went on reflecting, in consultation with colleagues, on how an indexer should approach these challenges. His further thoughts are published below as a Postcript to his Geez reflection.