Janine Ochoa

This project will investigate Indigenous ways of understanding archaeology and heritage in the Philippines from the perspectives of locals who inhabit highly biodiverse landscapes where archaeological sites are found. Our project sites are in Palawan and Luzon Islands, where we are native to, and I am co-leading this collaboration of local archaeologists and Indigenous leaders. Our team will combine methods in anthropology and archaeology such as interviews, story-telling, community workshops, material culture documentation and archaeological survey in order to build archaeological and heritage interpretations. To make archaeology more relevant and meaningful, we must understand how Indigenous inhabitants have been interpreting their ancestral landscapes and material culture across generations. This can amplify Indigenous theories and histories that have been suppressed by colonial domination. These forms of knowledge are rooted to the land, and exploring and nurturing such roots are vital to community flourishing. In the face of the global environmental crisis, we urgently need to resurface traditional ecological knowledge on local biodiversity, support Indigenous conservation practices, and apply these to archaeology and heritage research. Our work will incorporate an integrated ecological view of people, forests, native species, and their long-term interactions within the megadiverse habitats of these islands.