Leading anthropologists and scholars from national and international organisations have called for a shake-up in established practices in archaeology at a four-day convened in Gujarat, India last month.

Experts, including Flinders University’s Professor Claire Smith and Flinders research colleague and adjunct lecturer Gary Jackson, discussed ways to ‘unsettle’ established archaeological practices to engage more with communities and use innovative ways to integrate Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge and involvement in the field.

Professor Smith and Mr Jackson’s talk, ‘Developing an Interpretive Theoretical Agenda that Integrates Indigenous World Views’, focused on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ affinity with land and culture could take equal or central footing in scientific studies and economic decision-making.

“In contemporary times, archaeology need not only be relevant to, and guided by, the communities with whom we work, but to be needed by these communities,” says Professor Smith, a co-convenor of the conference.

This would mean taking measures to safeguard material culture and heritage, understand the issues faced by Indigenous peoples, promotion of community wellbeing, and knowledge transfer to promote community and social inclusion.

Flinders graduate Dr Kellie Pollard, from Charles Darwin University, spoke on ‘Beyond Decolonisation: Emancipating Indigenous Control and Research.’

Other talks covered the themes of Archaeology and Sustainable Development Goals, Archaeology and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Archaeology and Heritage and Archaeology and Wellbeing.

The ‘International Workshop on Unsettling Archaeology’ workshop was run by the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) and Flinders University from September 26-29.