How to Enact Reconciliation in British Columbia CRM

Summary

Righting the balance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations is the defining challenge of 21st century nationhood in Canada. Archaeology, as a discipline and an industry, has specific responsibilities and opportunities in this reconciliation. Despite recent attention brought to the social injustices of colonization, reconciliation is still scantily considered and spottily applied by heritage practitioners, governments and businesses. I discuss how we can and must enact reconciliation in the heritage resource management industry in BC, and consider its actual and potential effects on the practice of archaeology in general and CRM in particular. I set the challenges of decolonizing BC CRM in wider legal, political, and economic contexts, including how archaeology interacts with case law big and small, treaty processes, UNDRIP, the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and evolving government-to-government relationships. I propose a ‘republic of archaeology’ as unifying philosophy through which reconciliation can be pursued through specific kinds of engagements with the primary constituencies of CRM: Indigenous groups, professional practitioners, regulatory bodies and the non-Indigenous public. I suggest concrete steps we can take as individuals and organizations to support reconciliation, and evaluate some of the potential barriers to this shift in heritage practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17575