Ye’ yumnuts project: Beginnings

After visiting Ye’yumnuts the first time ideas were swirling. Teachers administrators and community members all had ideas for how to connect students toYe’yumnuts. Since that visit the dust has settled, and some direction has begun to emerge. Myself and my colleagues have decided we would like to  create something tangible, a physical resource that could be used to facilitate lessons both at and about Ye’yumnuts. Cowichan had articulated a desire for a kit of artifact replicas from the site, and so we focused on that goal.

In the weeks that have passed the artifact kit project has matured. I started by visualizing a kit of direct replicas found on site. Creating this kit would require skills in manufacturing and archeology that are beyond me, so I started a partnership with UVic Archeology professor Quentin Mackie. Dr Mackie is a hero of northwest coast archeology, and has worked extensively with the Haida Nation to help prove their claim to Haida Gwaii since time immemorial (link to his excellent blog here). He is also a family friend I have known since childhood.

Myself and my colleagues met with Dr. Mackie last week. He suggested several strategies for directly re-producing objects found at Ye’yumnuts including 3D printing, silicone casting and flint knapping. While speaking with Dr. Mackie, the question of involvement became central to our discussion. How would students become invested in artifact replicas as working objects connected to a cultural context? Are static objects the most dynamic option for highschool students? Dr. Mackie suggested students might have a more wholistic experience of artifacts by creating their own artifact replica, specifically a flake point made from slate. Dr. Mackie explained that this is an approachable and safe activity that can be done in an hour.  We are currently working on connecting to one of Dr. Mackie’s colleagues who is an expert on making flake point tools, with the hope of developing an instructional video that accompanies the artifact kit. In the meantime here is a link to a great instructional post on making a basic flaked point.

Photo by Kaibab National Forest / CC BY

Yesterday, our group of education students met with Dr Thom to discuss our progress. We were connected with an anthropology student who also wants to create an artifact kit, and has considerable expertise in the production of one. We have also added two new education students to the project, both of whom bring new expertise in math and GIS mapping.

Our meeting was focused on uses for the archeology kit in the classroom. We are planning to each create a set of suggestions or prompts specific to the competencies of our respective subjects. In addition, we discussed the importance of connecting the kit to present day Cowichan culture. We discussed displaying the flake point in connection to modern practices of spear fishing vital to Cowichan life today peoples today, and that the lessons also connect to contemporary Cowichan claims to the land and resources (See a SD79 schoolteacher integrating spearfishing into her classroom here).

Our next step in this project is to pause, and present our ideas to the Cowichan representatives at SD 79. This will take me and my colleagues back up island this Friday, where we will workshop with our partners on how best to move forward. I look forward to attending this meeting with my new colleagues, and hearing what our Cowichan partners have to say about our ideas.

 

Ye’yumnuts Project: First Visit

Last Friday, September 21st Ryon, Spencer and myself made our first trip to Cowichan territory to visit Ye’yumnuts. Ye’yumnuts is a sacred site to the Cowichan peoples, a place where people have lived since time immemorial and a burial ground where the Cowichan have laid ancestors to rest. Ye’yumnuts also has a more recent archeological history. Over the past 25 years teams of researchers including UVic’s Dr Brian Thom have worked under the guidance of the Cowichan Nation to excavate and catalogue the site. Thanks to the efforts of the Cowichan peoples and their partners,  Ye’yumnuts is protected as a historical site under the Heritage Conservation Act today.

Signage informs visitors of the importance of Ye’yumnuts and it’s protection under the Heritage Conservation Act. Image shows archeological dig.

The purpose of our visit on Friday was to begin a dialogue between archeologists, educators, school board administrators and Cowichan leadership about Ye’yumnuts as a place for education. This was sparked by Dr. Thom, who saw a need for engagement with local Indigenous history in his own children’s lesson plans . What better place than Ye’yumnuts, a major cultural and scientific site in the back yard of School District 79, steps away from the district headquarter building and in the heart of the Cowichan Valley.

The conversation we had  before visiting Ye’yumnuts was inspiring. The superintendent of SD 79 spoke at length to the value of BC’s curriculum and highlighted it’s ability to facilitate place based learning. Ye’yumnuts was discussed as a place where cross curricular inquiry could flourish between the arts, sciences, social sciences, trades and indeed all subjects. An experienced outdoor education teacher spoke to the power of being on the land to teach emergent curriculum, and the importance of multi age groupings for facilitating peer learning. Perhaps most importantly we discussed the importance of an Indigenous pedagogy, described beautifully by an Aboriginal Education Consultant in the following diagram:

Diagram describing indigenous pedagogy as radiating out from the middle, with each ring in connection.

At the end of our discussion we came up with some principles to guide the work we were embarking on. We did this through a process not dissimilar to the EdCamp model: discussing with a small group to workshop our personal guiding principles. The answers were then shared and up-voted, providing  a final set of philosophies behind our work at Ye’yumnuts. These philosophies included:

• Explicitly teaching the First Peoples Principles of knowledge and modelling Indigenous pedagogy as described by the above diagram.
• Grounding learning in place by physically visiting and interacting with Ye’yumnuts
• Knowing your learners: building time for all resources to build community and access the prior knowledge of students.
• Working in with and for community: regarding our consultation and partnerships with the Cowichan as a living agreement.

Colleagues documenting our EdCamp style brainstorm for guiding principles behind our work at Ye yumnuts.

Following our conversation, Dr Thom and Cowichan leaders guided us on a walk through Ye’yumnuts. We were accompanied by over 60 teachers from SD 79 who are interested in incorporating the site into their lessons. Together we were shown the places where houses had been, touched fire cracked rocks from the hearths of Cowichan homes, and learned protocol for respecting the dead who rest at Ye’yumnuts.

depression where a hearth would have been. Dr Thom speaking to SD 79 teachers

After our walk we discussed the next steps in our engagement with Ye’yumnuts. There is so much work to be done. Our primary goal at this stage is to begin sketching out resources that enrich place based lessons at Ye’yumnuts. Some ideas I was particularly interested in include:

• An artifact replica kit. Corresponding lesson plan that combines Art, Social Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Archeology, Geology, Political Science and Economics (trade of materials to build Obsidian tools).
• Augmented reality at Ye’yumnuts: QR codes that connect learners to images of what would have been there through time. Used as a virtual field trip through time.

I see both of these ideas as having huge potential for creative engagement with Ye’yumnuts that could be brought from site to  classroom. As an artist and an Art teacher, I want students to have opportunities to react to their learning multi-modally and from a place of emotional authenticity. It is my goal to work on connecting cross curricular Art and Social Studies lesson plans on these ideas.

More visits are scheduled to Cowichan to continue developing resources for teaching at Ye’yumnuts. The ball is rolling and I have meetings this week with the Archeology department to discuss strategy for artifact re-production (see interesting links below). The First Peoples Principles of Knowledge tell us that learning should take patience and time. I can see that this will be the case with this project, and that the learning will be deep and meaningful.

3D Rendering of Artifacts: https://arck-project.org/project/nesikep-point-of-the-secwepemc-museum/