An Archaeology of Redress

Black studies critical theorizations have much to offer the field of archaeology both in theory and in practice. For Saidiya Hartman, redress entails confronting formations of epistemic violence that undergird the archival record; it is a praxis that is always incomplete. This article maps Hartman’s theory of redress onto the practice of community archaeology to explore the opportunities and challenges that arise when archaeologists center youth engagement, capacity building, and cultural and natural heritage stewardship. Using the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project as a case study, we explore one way archaeologists attempt to offer restitution to the issues their work reveals (i.e., legacies of environmental racism, truncated avenues of economic sustainability, racialized disenfranchisement) through an “archaeology of redress.”