Decolonizing Archaeology: A Conversation with George Nicholas

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• published: 05 Feb 2014
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The main idea of the IRMACS Centre's series "SFU Research Masterclass" is to have a group of prominent SFU researchers tell the story of their research path and the "best practices" and tips they learned along the way - how they came to be interested in the topic, how their research directions have changed over the years, any major shifts in direction, who their collaborators are and how they developed those collaborations, etc. George Nicholas is a professor of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), in Burnaby, British Columbia. He was the founding director of SFU's Indigenous Archaeology Program in Kamloops (1991--2005), and has worked closely with the Secwepemc and other First Nations in British Columbia, and Indigenous groups elsewhere. In 2013, he received the prestigious "Partnership Award" from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Nicholas' research focuses on Indigenous peoples and archaeology, intellectual property issues relating to archaeology, the archaeology and human ecology of wetlands, and archaeological theory, all of which he has published extensively on. His most recent book is Being and Becoming Indigenous Archaeologists, an edited volume that presents the life stories of 37 Indigenous archaeologists from around the world. He is also series co-editor of the World Archaeological Congress' Research Handbooks in Archaeology, and former editor of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology. Nicholas is the director of the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project, a 7-year initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The IPinCH project is an international collaboration of over 50 scholars and 25 partnering organizations concerned with the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of commodification, appropriation, and other flows of knowledge about the past, and with how these may affect communities, researchers, and other stakeholders (www.sfu.ca/ipinch). About Interviewer: Jenna Walsh is Simon Fraser University's Indigenous Initiatives Librarian and Liaison Librarian for the departments of Archaeology, First Nations Studies, and Political Science. The role of Indigenous Initiatives Librarian is newly-created as part of SFU's Aboriginal Strategic Plan, and Jenna has held it for one year. Jenna is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, the city in which she grew up. Her undergraduate degree was a self- designed, interdisciplinary exploration of global and local Indigeneity. Her Master of Library and Information Studies degree focused on Indigenous practices and issues concerning information organisation and access, research methodologies, intellectual property, and knowledge sharing. This talk was held on Jan 31, 2014 from 11:30am - 12:30pm at the IRMACS Centre.