Finding Intersections Between Archaeology & Ecology on the Central Coast: Student Reflections on a Hakai Beach Institute (HBI) Course Exploring a Kwakshua channel clam garden at low tide. Photo: Iain McKechnie
In Late May 2014, Hakai faculty Margot Hessing-Lewis and Iain McKechnie co-instructed a 2-week
course focused on the intersections between Archaeology and Ecology. The goal of the course was to
bring together students and experts from both disciplines to productively converse and converge our
different perspectives and methodologies. In doing so, our aim was to improve, reconcile, and find new
collaborative approaches to understand the social and ecological landscape of BC’s Central Coast, and
beyond. Twelve students from diverse fields and backgrounds took part in the course’s daily lectures
and field trips. During their busy 2-week stay at HBI, they heard from and took part in discussion with
22 guest lecturers, including academics, Indigenous knowledge holders and Hakai affiliated
researchers. Below is a selection of student reflections on the course, including photos from the
experience. Many thanks to the Hakai Beach Institute, including Eric and Christina, HBI staff, guest
lecturers, and students for taking the time to make this incredible learning opportunity.
Iain and Margot
Participant Reflections Cal Abbot, MA Student in Archaeology, University of Victoria During my last two weeks on the central coast, I participated in a course co-instructed by Margot Hessing-Lewis and Iain
McKechnie. The theme of the course was the intersecting points of archaeology and ecology. Although it was very busy and
not structured like a typical university course, I really enjoyed it. The main highlights for me were to spend so much time
interacting with people from such diverse backgrounds. There were many moments when ideas and perspectives seemed to
clash but, in the end, I think it was pretty clear that there is a lot that archaeologists can learn from ecologists and vice
versa.
Sean Alward, Visual Artist One of the most striking things I encountered during my time at Hakai was a thin white crust on a large wet rock. It was
about 6:30 a.m. and our group was standing in the intertidal near West Beach, examining seaweed in a jungle like
profusion of form and colour. Our expert guide for the morning, Dr. Katherine Hind, pointed to the white coralline crust on
a half submerged boulder and mentioned that a paper had recently been published describing how to determine this crusty
algae's age. Using a technique called laser ablation, the annual growth rings could be counted in much the same way as
counting tree rings. The paper described a specimen from Alaska that was seven hundred years old and Katherine said that
the example we had in front of us was likely several hundred years old. Until very recently, nobody knew any of this.
This oddly inconsequential looking organism may turn out to be a kind of text cataloging conditions in the sea extending
back hundreds of years. At the very least, the specimen we observed that day has been alive much longer than any of us, and
provides a tangible living link to coastal history and may extend back many human generations before European contact. At
the risk of mixing metaphors, I would also say that coralline crust is a kind of metaphorical lens enabling an imagined
vision of past time. It extends perspective.
Extending perspective is perhaps one of the most satisfying things in our lives: exploring and experiencing new ways to see,
think, and feel. This applies to both the search for novel experiences and gaining a deeper experience of the familiar. It was
a kind of strange magic, activated by recent science, which allowed this to happen while looking at a thin white crust on a
rock.
Chelsey Armstrong, PhD Student in Archaeology, Simon Fraser University Squinty tufts of abalone
That magenta
An iridescence:
Bumpy, curvy, lonely
Squinty olive eyes
shielding a salty gaze
A nook, a rock is carved
From old glacier men far away
Telephone posts
Shaped like trees are barren
Water rolled
The water pulled them to shore
Bush wakin on Tricket
Crab dances and limpets
Calming scents from
Thimbleberry thickets
Squinty little butter clams
Burrowing in Heiltsuk gardens
Burrowing farther in
Seeds have been planted since
Harmonizing tides and warblers
Nature’s chaotic order
Jagged and smooth seaweeds,
The false Lily’s look real to me
High tide brings stacks of pride,
Peaceful minds and warming signs
Tide low the rocks begin to show
Urchin remains leave their purple steins
Hakai pass calls me closer
Just a tourist, an interloper
Ive shed my salty skin
And will come back once again
- C.G.D.A 05/14
Thank you. My two weeks at Hakai have made me a better scientist – the scientist I always strive to be: contemplative,
mindful and tired in a way that perfectly balances the high energy of an active and productive day. My two weeks at Hakai I
lived science. And not just the Western kind of science, the science that is embedded in all human cultures: the inherent
desire to make sense of, and organize the natural world. The kind of science that pulls your knees to the ground to observe
the capsule of a sporophyte. Or the kind of science that tilts your head back to spy on eagles surfing in wind-streams. The
pedagogy here is experience.
There’s no need to quantify my time spent on Hakai. I didn’t have a favourite day or a favourite moment. The days and
moments on Hakai were nested and woven into the larger significance of the course: a quick and meaningful succession of
thoughtful lessons on the ground and in the classroom. Trying to find a single defining moment seems to diminish the lines
that connected the experiences – the lines that are an equally important structure in the meshwork.
Yulia Egorova, MSc Student in Oceanography, University of British Columbia Having no archaeological background, the most eye-opening experience was visiting the actual archaeological site, EjTa-4,
that is in close proximity to the Hakai Beach Institute. Learning more about shell middens with Farid Rahemtulla and Elroy
White and getting hands on experience on screening changed my entire perception of archaeology.
Gwaliga Hart, Haida Artist and University of British Columbia Anthropology Graduate Our Ecology-Archaeology course has been cutting edge in its vision, experiential learning, discussions, and potential. I
look at this course as being like an intertidal zone, as a space that connects the multiple disciplines that have important
overlapping boundaries. This course has built numerous bridges in many ways; hearing and sharing songs, local histories,
learning from numerous specialized disciplines, and having the incredible opportunity to discuss these lessons in total
context. I cannot say enough how incredible of an experience I’ve had at Hakai! Haaw’a/Thank You to all who have made
this Ecology-Archaeology course possible! Haaw’a Haaw’a Haaw’a
Gabrielle Pang, Graduate Student in Resource & Environmental Management, SFU We were en route to visit the site of a salmon research and monitoring project up the Koeye River (pronounced “Kway”), a
unique endeavour which has been employing traditional Heiltsuk practices such as the construction of a traditional wooden
fish weir to conduct scientific research, promote stewardship, and provide educational opportunities for children from local
communities. This was our last major field trip marking the end of a two week-long short course and yet another incredible
opportunity to observe a project which had integrated ecological and historical knowledge, this time to collect data on
sockeye salmon returns.
It was a few minutes into my hike that I started to notice a perceptible shift in the way I used to view the world. I no longer
viewed the Central Coast as an ecosystem totally untouched by humans. In between bouts of birding and identification of
rock outcrops, I found myself looking for artifacts, structures, and tell-tale signs of specific vegetation that might indicate
past human habitation. We have been thinking, talking, reading, looking, and learning about more than 10,000 years of root
gardens, stone fish traps, clam gardens, and shell middens from a variety of experts in various fields at the Hakai Beach
Institute. Suddenly, what had felt remote a few weeks ago felt close and more intertwined with human interactions than I
had previously considered.
Chris Rhodes, PhD Student in Environmental Studies, University of Victoria For the past two weeks we have got to spend time in the field with experts. We spend real, meaningful time at clam gardens
with the archaeologist and ecologists who actually study them! Imagine that! We monitor the intertidal with marine
ecologists who are mapping the changes to the ecosystem that reintroduced sea otters bring. And we go to archaeological
sites and see first hand what looking down into 6,000+ years of continuous habitation looks like. Add to that the
integration of local Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv scholars into the fabric of this course, participating as both students and
teachers, and all these diverse sources of knowledge start to point in the same direction.
To be sure, “Learningful” is one of the sillier portmanteaus I’ve heard lately. Silly as it sounds this made-up word, a
cobbling together of learning and meaningful, nicely describes the past two weeks. It has been an incredible enriching
course, hugely relevant to my PhD, and I cannot over stress the gratitude I feel for the opportunity to spend time here at
Hakai. Thanks you!
Antonia Rodrigues, PhD Student in Archaeology, Simon Fraser University Archaeology and ecology-oriented speakers were selected and paired to complement each other's talks. This turned out to
be a treat for a variety of reasons. What I found most interesting was not only seeing how scholars from different disciplines
presented to the same (multi-disciplinary) audience, but how they interacted and engaged with each other. As a student, I
have rarely been exposed to the kind of exploratory back and forth banter that often occurred during class. It felt like a
sneak peek into the kind of open-minded, respectful curiosity that is required to make cross-disciplinary collaborations
work.
Christine Stevenson, Research Assistant and Biology Graduate, Simon Fraser University Clam gardens, fish traps, root gardens and ecology: Bringing it all together Ecology and archaeology have the ability to significantly compliment and impact each other to provide deeper
understanding of human-natural systems. The combination of the two fields was most apparent to me when we visited the
clam gardens with Anne Salomon, Dana Lepofsky and Ken Lertzman. It was interesting to then think about how long ago
these clam gardens, fish traps, and possible root gardens were constructed and used by families and communities. I enjoyed
this new perspective on landscapes and how they may have be used and altered by humans in the past. It made me reflect on
what we consider to be “natural” or “wild” and how this has a significant influence on resource management today and
implications for First Nations rights.
Mary Lynn Tobiasz, MA Student in Anthropology, McMaster University This course provided the opportunity to be submerged in archaeological and ecological content through a mixture of handson experiences and lectures by leading researchers and traditional knowledge holders. The involvement of First Nations
individuals, both as students and lecturers, added to the richness of the course and the multitude of perspectives for
approaching archaeology and ecology. In particular, it was a privilege to meet and spend time with Elroy White, who
shared with us a wealth of information about the area. I will be able to apply many things from this course directly to my
research project, including many things that I would never have exposed myself to as it falls outside the typical sector of
archaeological investigation.
On the final day of course content the class visited Namu, the location of the most significant site in Central Coast
archaeology. The land now holds the desolate remains of the Namu Cannery which are falling into the ocean and
overgrown vegetation hides many of the buildings. My own graduate research project is attempting to look at the
distribution of sites in the Heiltsuk territory to provide more context for the positioning of Namu within the region. Having
spent countless hours reading about the site, it was a phenomenal feeling to finally have the opportunity to see Namu.
Overall the course was fantastic. The mix of students from different training backgrounds meant that one could call upon
their peers for information. The array of backgrounds forced people to reconsider some of their jargon usage or provide
definitions. Our brains are full and our feet are muddy.
Jennifer Walkus, Wuikinuxv member & Graduate Student in Resource & Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University One of the interesting ones was one where the rock was rolled up to top of the beach not the bottom. The beach was pretty
flat already. The rocks were moved to the top of the beach which created a sort of walkway a couple of meters above the
beach. This site was also interesting to me because I found an artifact that wasn’t associated with a midden. The tide was
coming in and the boat was picking us up at the other end of the rock wall. We were all walking along the top of the wall. I
was looking down watching my footing and I saw a stone tool. It was a rough tool with some flakes taken out to make it
more useful as likely a scraper or something similar. We photographed it and GPS located it to be able to report. It shows
that the rock wall was likely built in the time when stone tools were being used because it was sitting on top of the wall.
Someone else in antiquity left that artifact on top of that wall.
It was very informative to visit the site with an archaeologist who could tell us the deep history of these artifacts, a marine
ecologist who could tell us the effect of that type of modification to a natural population and a forest ecologist who could
tell us the effect of all the shell on the forest ecology. It really brought to the forefront the possible benefits to each
discipline that the other disciplines can bring. Since the three are so accustomed to working together there wasn’t any sign
of inter-disciplinary friction.
I truly enjoyed the experience and would wholeheartedly recommend it to any future students who are interested in
pursuing any of these disciplines. It allows for discussions with others who are knowledgeable in aspects of disciplines that
have a significant overlap. This interaction could bring depth and new directions to any research.
Andrea Walkus, Wuikinuxv and Heiltsuk member and Hakai Archaeologist The experience throughout the course was eye opening to the environments of Calvert island and how they are connected to
each other. It's interesting to see how humans have benefited from their environment and how in the past they modified the
landscape leaving behind structures debunking the theory of the NWC foragers. The highlights of the course was the handson learning in the field with the Hakai scholars.