Michelle Lelièvre

This interdisciplinary study critically reflects on the process of conducting collaborative archaeological fieldwork with indigenous communities to ask broad questions about the relevance that humanistic social sciences have to contemporary conversations about reconciliation between settlers and indigenous peoples. The project puts evidence rooted in Western disciplines into dialogue with local indigenous knowledge to document the long-term presence of Nova Scotia's indigenous Mi'kmaq on a landscape encroached upon by Europeans. It also argues that the sociality fostered by the intimacy of archaeological fieldwork helps to collapse the essentializing categories of “settler” and “indigenous,” thus making it possible to examine the daily work of reconciliation. This is a collaborative project, whose team members shares the results of their research in academic publications and through public-facing experiential learning programs developed with Mi'kmaw communities.