“What my daduk told me”: incorporating Elders’ stories, memories and knowledge into interpretations of the past

Date/Time: 
Vendredi, mai 17, 2019 - 09:40
Presentation Type: 
Oral (live)
Author(s): 
Rebecca Goodwin - University of Western Ontario
Lisa Hodgetts - University of Western Ontario
Key Word(s): 
community-oriented archaeology
arctic archaeology
oral history
Inuvialuit

Community-oriented archaeology is becoming increasingly common within North America, including the Canadian Arctic, although it is still far from the norm. As part of the Inuvialuit Living History Project (ILH), Goodwin’s doctoral research has interrogated the complexities in Inuvialuit gender identity and performance, past and present. In partnership with Inuvialuit Elders, her research attempts to centre the voices of descendant community members in interpretations of the archaeological record. Through a series of semi-structured interviews and archaeological ethnographic processes Goodwin and the Inuvialuit Elders attempt to answer the question of what it means to be an Inuvialuit man, woman or other gendered individual both now and far into the past. In this paper we will describe the process of Goodwin’s PhD from inception through to dissemination back to the wider Inuvialuit community. We will focus in particular on the successes and difficulties in building a meaningful, community-oriented research project under the limitations of a doctoral program. In addition, this paper will discuss how centering the voices of community Knowledge Holders can reveal important insights into complex questions of identity. The privileging of Elders voices within the archaeology of the Inuvialuit and their ancestors can help us work towards decolonizing archaeological practice.