Introduction
While the official APA citation style guide provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers as personal communication, NorQuest College has developed the following templates for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers (CC BY-NC 4.0) in the spirit of reconciliation, and we thank them for sharing their template.
For information on the development of these templates and how to use them in practice, please see:
Lorisia MacLeod. "More Than Personal Communication: Templates for Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers." KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 5, no. 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.135
Unlike other personal communications, Elders and Knowledge Keepers should be cited in-text and in the References list.
In-text citation:
The in-text citation should follow APA guidelines for formatting in-text citations for paraphrasing and direct quotes.
Include the Elder or Knowledge Keeper's last name and the year of communication. For example:
Delores Cardinal described the nature of the... (2004).
OR
The nature of the place was... (Cardinal, 2004).
Corresponding References list entry format:
Last name, First initial., Nation/Community. Treaty Territory if applicable. Where they live if applicable. Topic/subject of communication if applicable. personal communication. Month Date, Year.
For example: Cardinal, D., Goodfish Lake Cree Nation. Treaty 6. Lives in Edmonton. Oral teaching. personal communication. April 4, 2004.
Additional helpful sections and resources
For further details on citing Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions for Oral History purposes for research participants please see page 261 of the Publication Manual.
For further details on terms to use when describing Indigenous Peoples, see Section 5.7 (APA, 2020, pp. 142-145).
For an excellent resource on writing by and about Indigenous peoples see Dr. Greg Younging's book Elements of Indigenous style: A guide for writing by and about Indigenous Peoples. Additional resources are listed below.
(APA, 2020, pp. 260-261)