Archaeological Remote Sensing with Indigenous Communities – William T. D. Wadsworth

Archaeological Remote Sensing with Indigenous Communities – William T. D. Wadsworth

Recently, the use of remote sensing technologies (i.e., ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, LiDAR, and GIS) to locate, manage, and study archaeological sites is becoming more common due to their non-destructive nature and survey speed. These qualities also make these tools attractive to Indigenous communities who wish to protect their culturally significant places but seek time and cost-effective alternatives to traditional archaeology. Although the collaborative use of these techniques for Indigenous-led projects may seem obvious, few projects have meaningfully included both.

This presentation will briefly introduce an Archaeological Remote Sensing (ARS) approach where these new and emerging technologies are applied in archaeological contexts at the request of Indigenous communities. Following a brief description and history of commonly used geophysical and geospatial techniques, it will be argued that the overall field of remote sensing in archaeology continues to be discovery- and innovation-focused. Subsequently, this has left little room to discuss the ethics of our research and the field’s treatment of Indigenous peoples.

I propose that the inclusion of community-driven practice and Indigenous archaeology into remote sensing stands to change research methods, processes, and outcomes by creating a more reflexive and interpretive space. To demonstrate how community-driven projects can be used in archaeological/remote sensing research, short case studies highlighting surveys from my master’s and burgeoning doctoral research will be presented.

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