Lessons from community-based participatory archaeology : creating a model for a more collaborative museum space

Museums are beginning to attempt to understand and undo the lasting effects that colonialism has had on museums as institutions. Given the foundations of museums, the relationship between colonialism and museums are inextricably intertwined, and therefore any efforts at decolonization are deeply challenging. However, the field of archaeology and archaeologists have spent many decades engaging in the decolonial project, and many archaeological projects are currently experiencing successful decolonial outcomes. Because of this, the decolonial efforts currently underway in the field of archaeology provides excellent examples of how decolonial efforts can be used in the cultural humanities and can provide a model with a through line to be applied in a museum setting.