Lucas da Costa Maciel

Lucas da Costa Maciel is a Research Fellow and Honorary Postdoctoral Student at Memorial University's Department of Archaeology, supported by the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on decolonizing museum practices, particularly regarding Indigenous collections in Chile's Mapuche de Cañete Museum. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) alongside multiple master's degrees in Social Anthropology, Art History, and Rural Development from institutions in Brazil and Mexico.

Research Interests:

• Heritage decolonization
• Indigenous politics and sovereignty
• Museum ethics and repatriation
• Gender and sexuality in Indigenous contexts
• Shamanism as political praxis
• Ontological conflicts in postcolonial contexts

His collaborative work with Mapuche colleagues explores transforming museums into decolonial tools, addressing the spiritual and political implications of keeping ancestral remains in colonial institutions. This research bridges anthropology, museum studies, and Indigenous rights, with future plans to link Mapuche initiatives with Canadian Indigenous organizations.

Scientific Awards:

• Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (Canada)

Collaborations: Supervised by Prof. Mario Blaser (Memorial University) and in partnership with Prof. Rosa Huenchulaf (Universidad Católica de Temuco, Chile). Active in cross-border Indigenous knowledge networks.

Labs/Teams: Core collaborator with the Mapuche de Cañete Museum's decolonization project and affiliated with Memorial University's archaeology and anthropology research groups.