Digging the Past- Creating New Pathways for the Future: Graduate Student Perspective from the Field

Summary

As local communities are trying to adapt to the challenges of the anthropocene they are being faced not just with the loss of archaeological sites but also their livelihoods, identity and home. When living in a small island developing state (SIDS), the partnership of cultural heritage investigations with citizen science, transcends theory and provides the local participants with the tools to conserve and preserve the stories of the past while making empowered solutions towards challenges of the future. Teamwork and collaboration has always been key in archaeological fieldwork but it was mostly driven from the outside in. This new bottom up approach assists junior researchers in building cultural sensitivity and awareness while generating the colleagues of tomorrow from the very communities they have the privilege of working in. An archaeological understanding that values and is inclusive of local stakeholders is necessary to foster heritage and pride to combat paralysis in the face of climate change and create resilience for the future. Citizen science is not only life changing for the local citizens but a new way of training the scientists of tomorrow.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Many faces, many perspectives: archaeology and communities in practice.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage