Community and Indigenous Archaeology

Japanese bomb magazine where explosives were stored prior to and during the war on Saipan (Photo by Jennifer McKinnon).

Dr. Jennifer McKinnon directs/co-directs projects related to Indigenous heritage in the Pacific and Australia including a seascape study of Saipan, a community consensus and protection program for caves on private property in Saipan, and an indigenous archaeology project in South Australia. These projects take a specific community archaeology methodology and draw upon an Indigenous archaeology approach. She supervises a range of theses from Indigenous experiences in WWII, to the study of Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes and seascapes.

Most recently, Dr. McKinnon and ECU College of Education Associate Professor Anne Ticknor received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture program for their project titled, “Saipan’s Land and Sea: Battle Scars and Sites of Resilience.” With this grant, Dr. Ticknor and Dr. McKinnon will host two one-week workshops for 72 K-12 educators on the history of military conflicts in Saipan. The program will host teachers from the island, as well as the surrounding region and the U.S. West Coast. The interdisciplinary project will take participants from the classroom and into Saipan’s jungle, beach and mountain environments to explore the historical relics of war and conflict on the island.

News Article: BACK TO SAIPAN: ECU educators return to island to explore historic landmarks