Supplementing, Transcending, and Subverting Conventional Archaeological Regulation

Session Hosting Format: 
in-person session
Organizer(s): 
  • Joshua Dent, PhD, TMHC Inc.
  • Natasha Lyons, PhD, Ursus Heritage Consulting
Contact Email: 
jdent@tmhc.ca
Session Description (300 word max): 

Although provincial and territorial regulation of archaeological practice varies across the country there is a consistent thread. Where and when these government laws, regulations, and policies fall short, other entities step up. This session explores the different facets of alternative archaeological oversight and service delivery. Examples may include: municipal planning and partnerships, Indigenous heritage stewardship, and service-oriented CRM. Across Canada, localized progressive solutions are bumping the needle towards better archaeological resource management outcomes. One of these outcomes includes early adoption of the principles of the United Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) even as most conventional governments drag their feet towards UNDRIP implementation. The objective of this session is to inspire similar unconventional activities capable of supplementing, transcending or subverting conventional archaeological regulation.

Presentations
Beyond Compliance: Indigenous Engagement and the Changing Practice of Archaeology in Northern Ontario ( David Norris )
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • David Norris - Woodland Heritage Northwest

Duty to consult in Ontario has evolved through constitutional law rather than a single policy decision. Rooted in Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and the principle of the Honour of the Crown, this obligation was clarified through landmark Supreme Court decisions such as R. v. Sparrow (1990) and Haida Nation v. British Columbia (2004), which established that governments must engage Indigenous peoples when actions may impact their rights. Archaeology and heritage management are closely tied to this framework, as they involve the protection and interpretation of Indigenous cultural landscapes, ancestral sites, and knowledge systems.

In 2011, Ontario introduced Standards and Guidelines to regulate archaeological assessments conducted under the Ontario Heritage Act. While these standards define field and reporting methods, they provide limited direction regarding meaningful engagement with First Nation communities. As expectations surrounding Indigenous rights, reconciliation, and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples continue to evolve, the regulatory framework has struggled.

This presentation examines two major Hydro One infrastructure projects in northern Ontario—the Waasigan Transmission Line and Northeast Power Line—demonstrating how proactive, collaborative engagement with Indigenous communities is reshaping archaeological practice and establishing emerging best practices across the region
Bibliography, Podcasting, and Public Archaeology: New Extra-Governmental Approaches to Research Dissemination in New Brunswick ( Kenneth Holyoke )
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Kenneth Holyoke - University of Lethbridge
  • Trevor Dow - Ecofor/University of New Brunswick
  • Gabriel  Hrynick - University of New Brunswick

Recent bibliometric research in New Brunswick suggests that following a peak in production in the mid-1980s, scholarly publication related to cultural resource management archaeology has declined. This is despite the increasing tempo and cost of both private sector and government-led CRM. Concurrently, many of the vehicles for public archaeology in the province, such as archaeological societies, have also floundered. As a result, rightsholders, stakeholders, and the public are confronted with an opaque respository of archaeological information. In this presentation, we report on two extra-governmental efforts to address this. The first, the New Brunswick Bibliography Project, seeks to inventory, and as a result render more useable, all of the published archaeological information about the province. The second, the New Brunswick Archaeology Podcast, provides accessible educational programming about the archaeology of the province. Absent robust government mandates for public archaeology, these initiatives help to increase transparency around archaeological research and indicate what sort of archaeological data may be available. 
K’ómoks First Nation’s Cultural Heritage Inspection Permits (CHIPs): A Reconcili-Action Tool ( Raini Bevilacqua )
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Raini Bevilacqua - K’ómoks First Nation

Although archaeology is provincially protected, the lack of awareness of the Heritage Conservation Act, as well as the shortcomings of the Act itself, led the K’ómoks First Nation (KFN) to enact it’s Cultural Heritage Policy (CHP) in 2020, which states that the KFN “in the spirit of reconciliation … commit to working with the newcomers in the appropriate management of our cultural heritage. By enacting the [CHP], we are reconciling our Aboriginal rights and title to our territory, with the newcomers'’ desire to live in and modify our territory.” The CHIP program is a way for KFN to obtain free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) on ground altering projects. CHIPs are required for medium/large project within the designated area of archaeological potential, a zone created by buffering known archaeological sites and major waterways. The minimum requirement of a site survey (preliminary field reconnaissance) or construction monitoring prior to ground alteration, as well as CHIPs for Provincially permitted projects, has allowed for KFN to obtain FPIC, and has created avenues for early site detection, cultural heritage mitigation, and increased public and governmental awareness of provincial requirements and the importance of K’ómoks history, while decreasing site destruction, and project timelines and costs.

Relationality as framework: Archaeology at Chimney Coulee (DjOe-6), Saskatchewan ( Solène Mallet Gauthier )
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Solène Mallet Gauthier - University of Alberta

I examine here the idea of academic archaeology as service through my experience at Chimney Coulee (DjOe-6) during my time as a PhD candidate. As an archaeological site with precontact and historic components located in a provincial park, the research undertaken there was subjected to both Saskatchewan parks and archaeology regulations. As part of a broader research project (EMITA project, lead by Dr. Kisha Supernant, University of Alberta), this work was also aligned with principles of Indigenous and heart-centered archaeology. A central theme emerged as a way to go beyond the basic requirements of regulatory frameworks: to embrace the fundamentally relational nature of archaeological work. I discuss the ways in which applying relationality as a framework allowed me to supplement conventional archaeological practice in the study of a late 19th century Métis overwintering site.
Self-propelled & Service-fueled: Surpassing Archaeological Regulation ( Joshua Dent )
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Joshua Dent - TMHC Inc.
  • Natasha Lyons - Ursus Heritage Consulting

Archaeological regulation is the engine of much of current archaeological practice in Canada. In this environment, archaeology is less about realizing any sort of inherent value and more about risk management. This paper discusses how and why archaeology cannot rely on regulation alone to justify the bulk of practice. Commercial archaeology especially, but other archaeologies as well, must innovate and cultivate the means to achieve heritage objectives outside of rote regulatory practice or seemingly narrow and introspective academic pursuits. A self-propelled archaeology is fueled by the value derived from its inherent mandate to better understand the past, but broadened to encompass the spectrum of interests invested in that understanding: to better understand the past in service of the present. Using macro and micro examples, this paper demonstrates that the present includes an array of rightsholders, stakeholders, and the public.
The role of archaeology in the cumulative effects space with a case study from q̓íc̓əy̓̓ (Katzie) territory, Fraser Delta, British Columbia ( Natasha Lyons )
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Natasha Lyons - Ursus Heritage Consulting; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
  • Emily Hails - Ursus Heritage Consulting
  • Colton Vogelaar - Ursus Heritage Consulting
  • Ian  Cameron - Ursus Heritage Consulting
  • Roma Leon - Katzie First Nation
  • Kimberly Armour - Katzie First Nation

Cumulative effects assessments (CEAs) evaluate the past, present and foreseeable future impacts of human and natural processes in proposed development areas, such as environmental stresses, loss of habitat and/or harvesting ranges. Many Indigenous communities are faced with multiple and intersecting claims to different resources and other forms of wealth within their territories, and are utilizing CEAs to assess impacts and inform decision-making about land use, rights and stewardship. In this paper, we consider the role that archaeology is playing in such assessments and how it connects to the growth of a service-oriented approach to compliance archaeology in British Columbia. We discuss the longstanding partnership between q̓íc̓əy̓̓ (Katzie First Nation), whose territory occupies the Fraser Delta of British Columbia, and Ursus Heritage Consulting, a BC-based CRM company. We illustrate with a case study from the sánəsaʔł (Alouette) watershed that shows Ursus’s role in compiling, analysing, mapping, and presenting cultural records and knowledge--including more than 175,000 belongings and 140 kilometres of paleo slough channels--in culturally-directed ways that demonstrate a cumulative picture of presence and flourishing at the site and landscape level. We discuss how this work was conceived and conducted to provide the groundwork to grow these analyses throughout the territory.