Maritime heritage in crisis: indigenous landscapes and global ecological breakdown

Abstract

[Extract] Reading the preface of Richard M. Hutching's provocative Maritime Heritage in Crisis, I found myself agreeing with the prominent archaeology professor who argued that archaeologies' colonialist agenda, driven by capitalism and producing elitist, racist and pro-development narratives, is "old news" (xii–xiii). However, by the conclusion of the book, Hutchings had convinced me that this "head in the sand" attitude is no longer sustainable. Archaeologists and resource managers model themselves as experts", "saviors" and "specialists", yet hide behind these roles like the pianists on RMS Titanic – part of the problem yet blind to the fact. For decades, archaeology and cultural resource management (CRM) have been complicit in the destruction of Indigenous heritage in colonial states like Canada and America – the settings for this volume. Yet, as argued by Hutchings in his frank, first person voice, this destruction is as inherent today, to the point that he describes it as a type of "violence" (96). Through controlling heritage, archaeology and CRM dominate the production of knowledge about Indigenous pasts, and so control these people (101).