Demographic

Age: 22

Gender identity: female

Race: African Canadian

Indigenous: No

Class: lower middle

Other identity (e.g. linguistic, religious): french, not particularly religious

Education: Undergrad

Language: English, French

Location: born in Vancouver, currently living in Toronto

Widgets: Tools & Platforms

• IIIF – Mirador 
• Annotation – Triannon

Character description

• Gets frustrated
• Loves to share findings
• Will communicate challenges in hopes of solving them
• Doesn’t like asking for help
• Not direct in expressing difficulties they are having
• Will share findings when asked
• Self-motivated
• Will often ask for clarification of project requirements but will push through issues on their own
• Enjoys team building activities
• Independent problem solver

Brief Biography

Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa is a twenty-two-year-old graduate research assistant and curatorial and collections assistant for a corporation. She is African Canadian and identifies as Black, speaks French and English fluently and is lower-middle class. She was born in Vancouver but moved to Guelph as a young girl, before moving to Toronto for University where she has stayed since. She is interested in archives of cultural knowledge as a way to connect to her own heritage, and her passion for community and art has led to an art practice based in social and communal learning. She is professionally associated with OCAD University, where she earned her BFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practices, as well as Equitable Bank, where she is currently employed. She has access to Mac systems, Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, and has experience with PC systems, Zotero, and OneDrive. She is not familiar with any archiving tools and frameworks but is a quick learner who is quite comfortable with new technologies. She does not have any accessibility or mobility needs. Overall, she wants to study, build, and contribute to archives of cultural knowledge as well as work with community within her artistic practice to build programming from the archives. She is often frustrated by the lack of existing comprehensive information on Black artists and finds it difficult to work on a set schedule, preferring to set her own hours of work, but is continually motivated by her own passion for art, community support, and archives stemming from her childhood. She is very self-motivated and is an independent problem solver but enjoys working on a team and team building exercises. She will ask many questions for clarification of project requirements but prefers to push through problems on her own. She keeps organized records and will share her findings when asked.

Interest in archives & Life experience

Why interested in archives: Interested in archives for personal and professional reasons

Community affiliations: Black and Queer community in Toronto and small town Ontario (Guelph)

Represented in archives:

Professional affiliations: OCAD University, Equitable Bank

Access needs and mobility: None

Motivations

Why: Childhood interest in art and experience of lacking community, interest in community building through archival access and interest in art history

Frustrations

Barriers: Lack of comprehensive/ well known archives of black art, difficulty working on a strict schedule, prefers to determine their own work hours

Info and Tech Access & Experience

Hardware: Mac and PC

Software: Outlook, Creative Cloud, Zotero, Microsoft Office

Network connectivity:

Experience with archival tools: None

Experience with archival frameworks: limited

Comfort with learning technology: very comfortable, quick learner

Goals

What do they want to do: Study and build archives of cultural knowledge, work with community in their artistic practice

What relationship do they want to the archives: Access information for personal and professional research, contribute to the archive if possible, build public programming from the archive material