Centering Care: Aunties as Praxis within Librarianship

In her book, Community as Rebellion, Dr. Peña posits that one of the roles of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) women is to be aunties to our colleagues, students, and ourselves. As defined by us, the use of Auntie refers to those within our communities that provide guidance, mentorship, and care inside and outside of legally defined familial or biological relationships. While the term “Auntie” has a racially charged history in the U.S., Dr. Peña’s call, points toward a radical community notion of the term Auntie that centers the experience and understandings of BIPOC communities. Occupying library and LIS academic spaces as Women of Color in historically and primarily white institutions and spaces, this call is something that we take seriously as we navigate our program as this impacts our physical, emotional, and mental health and well-being. This ideasXchange session will ask participants to engage with the ways they have acted or had “aunties” in the academic library space as well as other library spaces. We intend to interrogate the ways in which the structural systems of white classist, heteronormative, patriarchy affect our relationship within the academy and libraries and our research and the ways we take on the roles as our own Aunties to build community, center care, and move towards a more liberatory and equitable library space.