Cultural Learning Working Group
A family day weekend at Xetthecum
Despite difficulties associated with COVID (such as some of our Indigenous participants catching Omicron and not being able to participate in planned activities), Phase II of the Cultural Learning Working group featured a breakthrough event during the family day weekend, February 18-21, 2022.
By providing accommodations and support for travel, we were able to bring together an important mix of Indigenous family members connected with Galiano who have not had the chance to see each other much throughout the COVID pandemic, let alone for the purpose of searching out and sharing the locations, cultural significance and Hul’q’umi’num’ names of a variety of species found in the Xetthecum area.
These multigenerational extended family members had an enjoyable and rewarding time sharing and practicing their ancestral language, recording and filming each other sharing culturally significant content for the map, and getting the opportunity to meet non-Indigenous landholders to walk their ancestral land in friendship and common purpose with these community members.
Searching for camas
The Indigenous community members who participated in this program at Hunterston Farm included:
- Levi Wilson and his five year old daughter Gladys
- Richie Wilson and his teenagers, Jordie and Caleb
- Jeannine Georgeson, who brought her teenager, Austin
Non-Indigenous landholders were joined by the original authors of the Up Close report, Kate Emmings and Keith Erickson, along with their son Dylan.
The kids played together while hunting for speenhw (camas) to add an observation to the map. Guided by the landholders through a fairly athletic climb along the rocky shoreline, we were able to locate and identify a bed of camas, and dug up one of the bulbs to show the children. Everyone was invited to share an impromptu picnic lunch and tea with the Hunterston Farm families, while all shared their various understandings about camas.
Laughlin Lake and soundscapes
Jeannine and Austin then toured Laughlin Lake with Levi, learning from and teaching each other about a variety of other culturally significant species.
They were joined by Jack Garton, Indigenous teenager Roo Wilson’s music teacher, and co-created a plan to engage Roo in the project via his passion in music, through editing soundscapes for the map.
Other language-learning resources
Through the Cultural Learning Working Group, we explored the digital classroom of flipgrid as a means of teaching, sharing and generating additions to our video dictionary of Hul’q’umi’num’ names of plants and animals.
We also experimented with a glowforge at Emily Menzies’ school to have students research and co-create plant signs that feature their Hul’q’umi’num names by displaying QR codes that would link to the Xetthecum map, and the cultural information videos and pronunciations that Levi Wilson recorded for this project.
Table 13 summarizes the tasks completed by this working group.
Table 13. Phase II: Cultural Learning Tasks
| Task | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Explore the pragmatics and sensitivities of cross-cultural intergenerational learning to develop an effective language learning framework to complement this mapping project | January 2022 | February 2022 |
| Plan and deliver a place-based language learning program at Xetthecum (Hunterston Farms and Laughlin Lake) | February 2022 | February 2022 |
| Explore the potential for other language-learning and creative resources to complement project goals (e.g., Flipgrid videos, Glowforge signs) | January 2022 | December 2023 |
| Generate multimedia content, including audio and video recordings of language-learning activities, as well as field recordings of Xetthecum soundscapes | February 2022 | March 2022 |