This introductory paper reviews recent writings on archaeology and confl ict, setting the other contributions to this volume into context. We draw attention to the political nature of archaeological work, and to the problems of reconciling professional interest in the protection and management of cultural property with needs of communities affected by war. We focus on two areas of current concern -the ethical and moral dimension to professional conduct, and the need to reconcile post-processual critiques of practice with the need to draw on empirical science in the competent conduct of work -fi nding middle ground in both areas of debate. We also conclude that heritage management and archaeological practice have an important contribution to make in the rehabilitation of war-torn societies, but that the top-down approaches that are most widely favoured can fail to meet the needs of local communities. Best archaeological practice should build from an understanding of local socio-political and cultural power structures, draw on assessments of need, and build upon a notion of heritage that moves beyond the purely materialistic. The concept of heritage as 'care' is perhaps more important to our work than that of 'curation'.

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The racially based murders of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others as perpetrated by white police officers and vigilantes have brought systemic racism, anti-Black aggression, and race-based injustices perpetuated against Black Americans to the forefront of our collective consciousness. The disciplines of anthropology and archaeology are complicit in the historical basis for these events. Indigenous peoples have also experienced institutional injustices, racism, and inequalities all over the world. Archaeologists are part of this history, and as a discipline, at its core, archaeology has been a colonial practice, which has had cumulative negative effects on not only Black populations but also on Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented populations. We recognize and include these populations in our statements below and advocate for more diversity and inclusivity in the archaeology community.

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In this article, a creative heritage value assessment that was developed on the island of St Christopher (St Kitts), West Indies is discussed and evaluated. A synergetic approach emerged out of a collaboration between local heritage managers and policy officials with foreign heritage researchers and archaeologists. Together, they developed a transdisciplinary and practiceoriented approach based upon capturing values with audiovisual methods, which effectively integrated archaeological-historical research as well as outreach and dissemination activities in the value-assessment process. This effectively brought valorisation as well as the contested and multivocal nature of heritage to the heart of a transparent heritage management process. The practicalities and rationale of this approach are discussed, as well as its potential benefits for the combined three fields of local heritage management, archaeologicalhistorical research, and public outreach. KEYWORDS value-based assessments, local heritage management, archaeologicalhistorical research, visual outreach, transdisciplinary research, co-creation.