A Braiding, Not Abrasive, Approach to Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Archaeology: The Eastern Pequot Example

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A key challenge in the development and sustainability of collaborative archaeological approaches with indigenous communities is ensuring that community members participate as true partners in knowledge production and dissemination. If not, hopes for a braiding knowledge approach could end up being more "abrading" to community participants. The indigenization of archaeology and community heritage can involve indigenous community members having more voices in academic worlds, but it can and should also involve indigenous people being able to use and develop heritage materials for community-based initiatives that draw upon the skills and resources of the archaeologists who work with and for them. The Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School has been exploring these issues since 2003, and despite what we feel are notable successes, the maturation that more than 15 years brings has helped us realize some gaps and new opportunities. We use this paper to outline new heritage directions that we have been developing that ensure more community voices are in the foreground of this project, including the weaving together of a commemorative book, videography, guided tours, and augmented reality applications.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26203