“Settling for the Trowel rather than the Gun”: Indigenous Archaeology Perspectives from Northeast India

The participation of Indigenous communities in archaeological research has remained peripheral in the Indian context. Given this situation, the involvement of Indigenous archaeologists has become critical to ensuring more inclusive representation in archaeological studies of Indigenous peoples’ pasts, histories, and heritages. This entails an engaged archaeology that enhances the participation of Indigenous communities in Northeast India to facilitate more nuanced understandings of their cultural heritage. In the absence of inclusivity and respect for Indigenous peoples, conflict, marginalization, and misrepresentation become apparent. It is within this context that the present essay aims to examine the nature of collaboration and engagement in community archaeology projects in the study of Indigenous communities’ local histories and other areas of heritage and cultural patrimony in Northeast India and explore the possibilities for a way forward