Marlon Martin and Stephen Acabado - "Making Archaeology Indigenous: Lessons from Ifugao"

Panelists: Marlon Martin (SITMo) and Stephen Acabado (UCLA)
Moderated by: Piphal Heng (Yale)

Archaeology in Ifugao has changed through sustained engagement with local communities. This conversation reflects on what happens when community members take part in shaping research and interpreting the past. Their knowledge has helped revise long-standing claims about the rice terraces and has changed how archaeologists understand Ifugao responses to colonial rule. These experiences also challenge the idea that archaeological authority belongs mainly to scholars. In Ifugao, knowledge held within the community can redirect research, complicate archaeological interpretations, and influence how findings are shared. The result is a form of archaeology in which communities have a role in producing accounts of their own past. Drawing from these experiences, the discussion considers what Indigenous archaeology can mean in practice and how archaeology changes when authority is shared rather than assumed.