ABSTRACT
The fields of biological anthropology and bioarchaeology have changed significantly over the past 30 years. Many non-Indigenous biological anthropologists are working collaboratively with communities on projects where analysis is being done on Ancestors and sacred places, providing information for Indigenous peoples about their past at their request, as demonstrated by the chapters in this volume. However, there are still significant barriers to transformative and sustained change in biological anthropology and bioarchaeology, as researchers continue to analyze Ancestors without permission, museums repatriate Ancestors yet retain their belongings, and settler colonial frameworks continue to define much anthropological practice. In this chapter, I evaluate how far the field has come and explore where we need to go next. Using the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action as a starting place, I explore how research in Canada and other settler colonial contexts can shift the power to communities and build models of decolonial, Indigenous-led practice, not just collaboration. Using recent examples of cases where analysis of Ancestors had occurred without collaboration, I argue that we need to push further into the foundational structures of the discipline to advocate for lasting change.
