|
|
This is no picnic. But her use of technology does not stop there. In locating and recording different discoveries, she and her new colleagues also must rely on global positioning technology. She is out of the traditional classroom, yet, like everyone else, she still receives 12 credits for her digging efforts. She has joined a relatively new and fast-growing species of this planet which first appeared at the end of the end of the twentieth century. This species relies almost exclusively on nontraditional, informal, and on-demand learning. Such a species does not enter doors of traditional classrooms. Instead, they are learning at the back door. The Internet has made it possible to learn as well as share one's learning in unique ways. On July 25, 2008, a week prior to completion of the Archaeology Field Program in Canada, Lily Henry Roberts provides a blog post about her experiences in the thick forests of Canada on an island near Hope, British Columbia. It is in that setting where she and her team are studying the complex history of a First Nation tribe called the Stó:lo people who lived there more than 10,000 years ago. This week, we had opportunity to see and travel through the land in much the same way that Stó:lo people did thousands of years prior to our arrival - on boats and on the Fraser River. Almost every feature that surrounds us here in the Fraser Valley has a special and unique story tying the land to the people who depend on it. These stories have been passed down through the generations by word of mouth. Our group is working closely with the Chawathil and Shxw'ow'hamel Bands of Stó:lo First Nations, and we were fortunate to learn Stó:lo oral history from historian Sonny McHalsie. For the best view of the Fraser River Canyon, we climbed aboard boats and floated down the middle of the rushing water. It is here that we saw the land the way the People of the River saw it - majestic and powerful, rising up all around us. On the river, Sonny spoke of tales passed down by elders, particularly those addressing how the world was once chaotic but came to be ordered by the Xexa:ls, powerful transformers who made the world morally right. Every nook and cranny of this huge canyon has an event or individual history tied to it and, as a whole, may be regarded as the Stó:lo people's history book. Hearing the stories embedded in the landscape brings home how our archaeological work at Welqámex connects to the past and present lives of people who have lived in the Fraser Valley for hundreds of generations. It also brings a spiritual aspect to the project - I now have so much more respect for the ground we are working so closely with. I think few field schools have this kind of opportunity, and I am grateful to be experiencing it. |
