This session is dedicated to presenting and synthesizing results from sARP (shíshálh Archaeological Research Project) and its subsidiary sEARCH (sinku Environmental ARCHaeology), bringing together project collaborators to demonstrate how diverse archaeological, climate, and Indigenous knowledge datasets can be integrated to better understand long-term resource management, status inequality, settlement patterns, territoriality, ritual, and human–environment relationships within shíshálh lands (swiya) on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. sARP and sEARCH are collaborative, community-based research initiatives developed in partnership with the shíshálh Nation to investigate long-term adaptive land management patterns from time immemorial through the present to plan for the future.

Central to both sARP and sEARCH is the integrated analysis of archaeological evidence, palaeoenvironmental and climate records, and shíshálh knowledge. Access to the shíshálh Nation’s extensive ethnographic archival database—including interviews, traditional use studies, and land-use documentation—enables detailed reconstructions of past human–environment interactions. Archaeological research focuses on the antiquity and intensity of resource management through examinations of both previously excavated and newly obtained archaeological collections combined with investigations into behavioural patterns reflecting ideology, mobility, and status. Importantly, sARP and sEARCH operate within a formal legal framework of Reconciliation, aligning with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This session presents sARP and sEARCH as models for archaeological research in the Era of Reconciliation, offering critical reflection on collaborative practices, data integration, and governance while advancing new understandings of Indigenous economies on the Northwest Coast.