ABSTRACT
What of a country composed from the national identities of people gathered through the emigration/immigration policies of governments and where ‘multi-culturalism’ has been the theme and politically devised policy? Such is Canada-the home of people defined by ethnic origins-French Canadians, English Canadians, Italian Canadians, Japanese Canadians, German Canadians…The archives of their origins, their commencements rest elsewhere-they live in truncated sequentia. Within this country in search of nationhood, however, there are those whose origins lie within its boundaries. These are the people who came to be called the First Nations, these are the original peoples, the indigenous peoples. They stand apart from, but within, Canada and define themselves as Nations on the basis of shared culture, language and territory-their ethnicity. They do not define themselves as Cree-Canadians, Mohawk-Canadians, or through any such hyphenated hybrid term. However, until recently the place and the taking place of their lives has been ordered by those dominant in political, economic, and academic institutions composed by and for the immigrant peoples. Here archaeology has been part of the process of dispatched truth in support of a historical and political dogma. Emerging from this is a ‘new’ view on the role of archaeology driven by the worldviews of the First Nation Peoples themselves. This movement by indigenous peoples to control the interpretation of their pasts is echoed elsewhere in the world and presents to the archaeologists of dominant groups a serious ethical challenge.
