Archaeology outreach: It takes a community

Abstract

As archaeologists we are often called upon to explain the value of our work to the public and to the agencies that fund cultural resource studies. Creative public outreach products associated with archaeological investigations can be effective tools for not only explaining what archaeology is, but in revealing the history of a community. Outreach products that inform and entertain are effective tools for reaching the minds and hearts of people living in a community or having ties to a community. Products such as exhibits, popular reports, and videos can be used to tell important stories of past life that contribute to knowledge of local history and develop an individual's sense of place. The participation of community members in the development of outreach products enhance the result by their own stories and achieve further depth into the richness of their own family history and that of the larger community. Involving community members and/or local organizations in the planning of cultural resource outreach products, such as an exhibit or an entertaining documentary of an archaeology project, instills within the public a regard for archaeological process and a deeper sense of their heritage. Knowledge of forgotten lifeways shared by individuals in the community past and present are valuable not only to the greater goals of anthropology, but also for the community at large who can then advocate the importance of recognizing a cultural resource and sharing history with others in their community. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed a portion of the Cypress Freeway in West Oakland, California and precipitated historical archaeological field investigations for the I-880 replacement project by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Caltrans contracted with the Anthropological Study Center (ASC) at Sonoma State University to produce several outreach products enriched by oral histories and community involvement. The following is an examination of a few of these creative works. They illustrate how individuals from the community brought the history of the neighborhood to relevance and contributed to the greater success of each outreach product by sharing their personal experiences and family histories.