George Nicholas

I am an anthropological archaeologist and am Professor of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby, British Columbia. I was the founding director of SFU's Indigenous Archaeology Program in Kamloops (1991–2005), and have worked closely with the Secwepemc and other First Nations in British Columbia, and Indigenous groups worldwide. Since 2003 I have been an adjunct faculty member of the Flinders University Archaeology Department in South Australia.

One major research theme has been the archaeology and human ecology of wetlands worldwide in relation to hunter-gatherer societies, often atypical, as well as more general studies of early postglacial land use in both the northeastern United States and the Interior Plateau of western Canada. My other research focuses on the evolving relationship between archaeology and Indigenous peoples worldwide, as expressed in differential power relations, theoretical discourse, and actual practice.

I was the director of the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project (2008-2016), an international initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This collaboration of over 50 scholar, 25 partnering organizations, and 140 associate members and students was concerned with the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of commodification, appropriation, and other flows of knowledge about the past, and with how these may affect communities, researchers, and other stakeholders.