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Archaeology
SFU professor publishes new collection of autobiographical accounts from Indigenous archaeologists to advance decolonization in the discipline
In a new book available on September 30th, 60 Indigenous archaeologists and heritage specialists from around the world share their stories.
Working as Indigenous Archaeologists: Reckoning New Paths Between Past and Present Lives is edited by SFU Archaeology Distinguished Professor George Nicholas and his long-term research partner Joe Watkins, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Nicholas, who retired in August, began teaching archaeology and anthropology at SFU’s campus on the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc reserve in Kamloops in 1991. There he developed the first post-secondary Indigenous archaeology program in North America and has continued to work with Indigenous groups in B.C. and around the world ever since.
Throughout his career, Watkins has held a variety of positions in academia, government and the private sector, including president of the Society for American Archaeology and, most recently, visiting professor at Hokkaido University in Japan.
Their new book is a follow up to Nicholas’s earlier volume, Being and Becoming Indigenous Archaeologists (Routledge, 2010), a collection of 36 autobiographical chapters. The book’s goal was to answer the question, “what brought members of culturally diverse communities worldwide to become involved in archaeology?” and provide a means for the contributors to detail the challenges they faced and their accomplishments.
“That book, the first of its kind, provided deep insights into the aspirations, education, joys and heartaches felt by the contributors as they followed what was, in many cases, a difficult journey,” says Nicholas.
The new volume nearly doubles the number of autobiographical chapters to tell a new set of stories from Indigenous individuals “living in a world much different from 15 years ago,” he adds.
To provide a wide range of perspectives, the authors vary by age, gender, cultural affiliation and geographic location. While several work and reside in Canada, the rest write from Tahiti, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Sweden, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and beyond. Nicholas explains that this diversity is critical because there is no one way to do Indigenous archaeology.
“Some contributors work to preserve and learn from their own ancestral sites; others see archaeology as a way to connect youth to their heritage; and others still take a more scientific approach to gaining new knowledge about their ancestors’ lives.”
Chapters are all written in each contributor’s own unique voice, generally in a non-academic style suitable for a broad audience.
“Most read like conversations with the author. These are very powerful, very moving accounts,” Nicholas says. “Joe Watkins and I are so privileged to be the first readers and found ourselves deeply touched by the honesty conveyed in the autobiographical accounts.”
By providing readers with an opportunity to listen to voices historically marginalized in the field of archaeology, this volume is another step towards reconciliation and decolonization, which Nicholas says has to mean fundamentally changing how things are done.
“And that change involves rectifying the continuing power imbalance between the colonizers and formerly colonized. Indigenous archaeology helps to accomplish this.”
You can place an order for a copy of Working as Indigenous Archaeologists here.