On Listening and Telling Anew: Possibilities for Archaeologies of Survivance

Abstract

AbstractArchaeologists increasingly use Gerald Vizenor's concept of survivance in research on colonial‐era Indigenous histories. However, these studies tend to situate survivance within the realm of archaeological interpretation, with less attention paid to the concept's broader intellectual tradition or implications for archaeological practice. In this article, we argue that deeper engagement with survivance scholarship stands to alter the process and product of materials‐based Indigenous histories. We discuss four definitions of survivance—as histories of struggle and success, as practice, as situated response to settler colonialism, and as storytelling—highlighting how the concept may reframe or expand existing archaeologies of colonialism. We conclude with a case study drawn from our work with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. It traces the creative reexpression of historic foodways within the Grand Ronde community during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in northwestern Oregon. Archaeologies of survivance have the potential to reposition archaeologists and their Indigenous research partners as listeners to the survivance stories composed, lived, and told by historic Indigenous communities.