Métis archaeologist transforms her field from 'grave robber' to 'grave finder'
Kisha Supernant helps Indigenous communities search for unmarked graves at former residential schools
Kisha Supernant admits she was drawn to archaeology by romantic notions of exploring ancient civilizations.
"You know, the Indiana Jones phenomenon," she said.
But she remained in the field for other reasons.
"I realized how much it could be better than it was, and how much it could matter to Indigenous communities, descendent communities. And just generally how we tell the truth of the past."
Professor Supernant is the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous archeology and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
Over the last seven years, she's been at the forefront of the search for unmarked graves at residential schools using ground-penetrating radar.
'She Brings the Children Home'
From the 1870s until 1997, approximately 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run and government-funded residential schools, where more than 4,000 of them died, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
Supernant and her team have investigated 14 different sites.
Their ground-penetrating radar technology is non-invasive and signals when something unusual is beneath the surface.
While the geophysical technique can provide some new information, Supernant says it's only part of the picture, which also includes extensive archives and survivor testimony.
But she adds she's not concerned with proving that children died at residential schools.
"We're not out to prove that. That's already known. We are just trying to figure out where and maybe who so that families can bring them home and families can know what happened to their children."
For Supernant, the work can weigh heavy on the heart, but she still feels called to do it.
A late elder from Big Stone Cree Nation gave her an Indigenous name that means 'She Brings the Children Home.'
Supernant acknowledges that the impact of the naming ritual was profound: "When you carry a name like that you have to live up to it."
An archaeology of heart and head
When Supernant started working with Indigenous communities, her help wasn't always welcome.
"One of the things that I've reflected a lot on is the transition I've gone through since being called a grave robber when I first started working in community — to now being called to find graves," she said during a recent talk at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.
She says archaeology has a long colonial legacy. But it's changing — in part through her own efforts.
"For me, doing archeology with an eye to restorative justice also means doing archaeology that starts from the heart, and not necessarily the head."
Supernant says that means recognizing the role of ceremony and protocol, the need for wraparound support for everyone who is involved, and making more space for multiple ways of understanding and knowing the past.
She has come to this approach partly through her experience uncovering her own family's story.
Metis Roots
Supernant knew little about her roots growing up.
Her father's mother was Métis, but the connection to the family history was lost.
"He ended up in an orphanage and then in the foster care system his whole life," Supernant said.
But she has reclaimed those roots.
"I have been on a lifelong journey of coming home to my Métis family and it has been really important for me to learn the stories of my ancestors from the work that I do as an archeologist. But it's also been very important for me to reconnect with my living relatives."
One of Kisha Supernant's living relatives is her 10-year-old daughter, who has expressed an interest in following in her mother's footsteps.
"She's been on sites with me a few times. And holding those belongings and learning about them, I think, is really valuable," said Supernant.
"So I would hope that if she wanted to take that journey, that when she went to do her studies [...] that she would have a very different experience than I did about what archeology is and can be."
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*This episode was produced by Allison Dempster.
