7Learning to Listen: Stakeholder Perspectives on Gender at a Thule-Era Alaskan Village

Abstract

This paper explores how feminist and indigenous archaeologies can ally to produce decolonizing heritage practice through intersubjective methods. Intersectional feminisms, particularly Native feminisms, suggest that focusing on local gender contexts in indigenous community research can subvert settler colonial systems, under which sexism and racism conspire to oppress Native people. I apply these insights about the decolonizing potential of localized gender research to a community-centered project at Nunalleq, a Thule-era site near the Yup'ik village of Quinhagak, Alaska. Here, stakeholder perspectives on gender suggest that framing site interpretations through concepts of family and teaching/learning would align with community values in potentially powerful ways.