Matthew James T. Spriggs

The ‘Pasifika Perspectives on the History of Archaeology’ workshop aims to bring together leading Pacific Islands’ professionals who have experience in cultural heritage and archaeological research, to discuss local and indigenous perspectives on the historical development of archaeology in their region. The historiography of anthropology, and archaeology in particular, has provided innovative and insightful studies that have allowed for critical self-reflective analyses of the discipline. In the Pacific, this approach is extremely recent and was pioneered by the ‘Collective Biography of Archaeology in the Pacific’ project between 2015 and 2020. At the conclusion of the international conference that will close this research program in March 2020 and confronts its results with international research on the topic, this workshop will provide a first and unique opportunity to consider Indigenous perspectives on the research undertaken and the questions it asked. Indigenous and post-colonial approaches have been gaining recognition in anthropological research, but until now, their theoretical positions or the actual engagement of Indigenous scholars in past archaeological studies have very rarely been integrated in the historiography of archaeology. This workshop will enable the meeting ‘ and hopefully the combination ‘ of Indigenous and historiographical stances on anthropology with the potential to produce new ways of understanding the past of archaeology and better define its future.