Tool 07 · Spin A Yarn India · Sources & attribution

Cultural Source & Attribution Record

A cultural claim should not become detached from the person, publication or institution that made it. Keep the source and its limits attached before you quote, summarise or retell.

Use one record per important source or oral account. For interviews or community documentation, follow appropriate consent, safeguarding, privacy and permissions procedures in addition to this worksheet.

Practice / topicSource type

□ Practitioner / community member   □ Interview / oral account   □ Book / article   □ Museum / archive   □ Government / institution   □ News / media   □ Other

Person / author / organisationTitle / date / location / URL or archive reference

What does the source actually say?

Claim, account or observation I want to useIs this a direct statement, my paraphrase or my inference?What evidence or experience does the source itself rely on?

Whose account is it?

How should this person, community, practitioner or institution be attributed?What relationship does the source have to the practice?What perspective might this source not represent?

Check before retelling

□ I can distinguish what the source says from what I infer.

□ I have not converted “some”, “in this region” or “this practitioner” into “all”.

□ I have checked whether another credible source gives a different account.

□ I know whether a direct quotation needs permission or a specific citation.

□ If this came from an interview or private exchange, I know what the person agreed could be recorded, named or shared.

□ I have considered whether the knowledge is sensitive, sacred, private or inappropriate to reproduce.

When sources disagree

Source / account ASource / account BCan the difference be explained by region, time, practitioner, terminology, purpose or evidence?If not resolved, how will I represent the disagreement?

Publication decision

Use / use with qualification / seek another source / do not publish yetExact attribution or qualification I will keep with the claim

Documentation boundary: attribution is more than adding a citation at the end. It means preserving who is speaking, what they can support, where accounts vary and whether the knowledge should be reproduced at all. A published source is not automatically authoritative, and an oral account is not automatically representative of an entire community.

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