Despite the contributions Halpern made during her career, "the tributes paid to Halpern, however ring hollow beside the somber observation, that in reality her scholarship on First Nations musics has largely been overlooked by ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and folklorists." These absences may be attributed to her research style which, "was derived from but only partially resembles, an Austro-German school of comparative musicology which was incompatible with popular North American ethnomusicology, anthropology, and folklore," according to Chen, the clash of four paradigms through differing theoretical backgrounds left Halpern "unduly ostracized." In addition, Halpern's name is strangely missing from the biography of Chief Martin, and the writings of George Clutesi, an artist she worked with. Regardless of these absences, there is physical evidence of her contributions. In 1984 Halpern donated the bulk of her collection (which amounted to over 80 file boxes of textual records, publications, moving images, photographs, sound recordings and interviews to the Provincial Archives of British Columbia. The remainder was donated to the archives of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.