From Collaborative Archaeology to Collaborative Activism at a WWII Japanese Internment Center

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 2022 the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark, a WWII Japanese American incarceration center, became part of the National Park Service. This transfer was the result of generations of activism from community organizations, survivors and descendants, and 15 years of collaborative archaeological research.

To facilitate the nomination a diverse community needed to organize and work collaboratively towards a common goal. As archaeologists we moved from advocates to activists, strategizing with the community on how to use archaeology to meet community goals around demonstrating the site's significance, future preservation, and interpretation. Instead of inviting the community to collaborate with archaeological research we were invited to collaborate on community activism - shifting our shared understandings of the role of archaeological research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeology, Activism, and Protest

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow