Q: "I interviewed several Mi’kmaq elders for a report on Indigenous medical traditions. The interviews were not recorded. How should I cite this correspondence in APA style?"
A: You can do this in one of two ways:
1. APA 7th ed. – Personal Communications
If the interviews are not available to readers in some recorded format (e.g., video, audio, written transcript), the American Psychological Association (2020, p. 260) recommends that traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples be treated as a form of personal communication. No reference list entry is required, but you should provide an in-text citation with the following components:
Example of in-text citation:
(George Bernard, Membertou First Nation, Mi’kma’ki, lives in Membertou, Unama'ki, personal communication, October 4, 2023)
2. Citation templates specifically designed for Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers
Indigenous scholar, Lorisia MacLeod (2021), in partnership with staff of the NorQuest Indigenous Student Centre, created citation templates for both APA and MLA style to better respect and acknowledge Indigenous oral traditions. She reasons that “to use the [APA or MLA] template for personal communication is to place an Indigenous oral teaching on the same footing as a quick phone call, giving it only a short in-text citation (as is the standard with personal communication citations) while even tweets are given a reference citation” (MacLeod, 2022, p. 2). Numerous institutions across Canada and the United States have adopted these templates.
MacLeod suggests including an entry in the reference list, in addition to the in-text citation recommended by APA (see above), using this 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.
Example of reference list entry:
Bernard, G. Membertou First Nation. Mi’kma’ki. Lives in Membertou, Unama’ki. Mi’kmaq medicines. personal communication. October 4, 2023.
Note: It is always important to ask how an individual wishes to identify themselves and their community.
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1. American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
2. MacLeod, L. (2021). More than personal communication: Templates for citing Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 5(1). https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.135. CC BY 4.0.
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