Indigenous Archaeology

Abstract

This chapter discusses archaeological approaches to colonial history and heritage, focusing on Indigenous archaeology, a movement of critical archaeology that has gained importance globally in recent years. Indigenous archaeology has been promoted as a movement aiming to challenge and transform traditional archaeology and heritage management; its goal here is to work for decolonization and the empowerment of Indigenous groups, with a strong focus on collaborative and participatory methodologies, as well as community-based and community-initiated research. The most influential debates on Indigenous archaeology have taken place in English-speaking settler colonial nations—the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. What are the possibilities and challenges of applying approaches to Indigenous archaeology in the Arctic regions? What can be learned from debates in other parts of the world, and how can these debates contribute to socially engaged archaeology in the North? In discussing these questions, this chapter focuses primarily on Sápmi (the Sámi areas in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwestern Russia) and Sámi archaeology and heritage management. These discussions raise many critical questions about the ethics and politics of archaeology, and the roles and responsibilities of archaeologists and heritage workers in colonial contexts in the Arctic and Subarctic.