AWA Statement on the Recent Anti-NAGPRA/Anti-Indigenous Paper at the 2021 SAA Annual Meeting

Dear AWA Members,

The AWA Board is monitoring what is happening at the SAA 2021 Annual Meeting. The SAA decided to platform anti-NAGPRA and anti-Indigenous proponents in a general session entitled, “Curation, Repatriation, and Accessibility: Vital Ethical Conversations” under the guise of “providing a space to offer diverse viewpoints.”

The AWA stands with our Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, scholars, and colleagues in objecting to the SAA platforming this paper. The AWA supports NAGPRA unequivocally and recognizes that it does not go far enough to address colonialism in archaeology. Additionally, the SAA should not have allowed this paper to have been presented, as 1) the submitted abstract should have alerted the conference committee to a non-inclusive fringe topic, and 2) objections were sent to the Annual Meeting’s Ombudsman earlier in the day with time to cancel the presentation.

The AWA Board of Directors will follow up this brief announcement with a more comprehensive statement in opposition to SAA’s decision to platform anti-NAGPRA and anti-Indigenous activists at their Annual Meeting.

Respectfully,

The AWA Board of Directors