The art of the Heiltsuk of the central coast of British Columbia is not well known to non-aboriginal people and has been frequently misrepresented in the literature on the Northwest Coast. Because the majority of historical art from Bella Bella and other Heiltsuk communities is now in museums, ideas about Heiltsuk art and culture have been shaped largely by the museum collections from this region. While it is recognized that museums impose new organizations and narratives on the objects they display and store, how this happens is often less clear. To elucidate the process, the current methodological study analyses in detail the Heiltsuk collections of four major museums: the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), the American Museum of Natural History, the Royal British Columbia Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and makes reference to Heiltsuk art and artifacts in other collections. Close examination of the composition and documentation of, and motivations for, these collections reveals both the diverse inventories used to create the museum-structured representation of Heiltsuk culture and the processes of their accumulation. The dissimilar agendas, knowledge, and opportunities of the artifact collectors influence museums' portrayals of Heiltsuk culture. The study deals only with Heiltsuk collections but its findings and methodologies are applicable to other Northwest Coast collections. / Graduate

This thesis consists of an exhibit, Cannery Days - A Chapter In The Life Of The Heiltsuk which opened at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology (MOA) in May 1993, and a written paper which discusses the processes and political issues involved in doing an exhibit on a subject that is not only complex, but poorly understood by the general public. The context of the exhibit and this paper is the failure of non-Native society to understand that fish were and continue to be the economic wealth of B.C. First Nations. Within this context, the related issue of the invisibility of First Nations women and men in the fish-processing industry is addressed through the exhibit using quotes, photographs, and text. The exhibit and this subsequent paper grew out of concern and unease about how First Nations and their relationship with fish have traditionally been presented in academic literature. The purpose of this thesis is to tell how my knowledge of the traditional fisheries, and my experience in the fishing and fish-processing industries, in combination with my training in the discipline of anthropology has been put to use in preparing an exhibit to tell about Heiltsuk people and fish. It will discuss the exhibit as a medium or bridge which allowed me to illustrate this relationship without diminishing the lives and experiences of Heiltsuk people. Interviews with seventeen Heiltsuk women, four Heiltsuk men and one long-time employee of B.C. Packers open a window on a period of history which has not been well documented. To read conventional accounts of Native involvement in the fish-processing industry, their lives were grey and dreary. The exhibit reveals that for the people who lived and worked in Namu, it was not just a place to work, it had many meanings and warm memories. Stages of the exhibit development from concept through mounting are described. Although the entire project took longer than I had anticipated, the exhibit was more rewarding for me than a conventional written thesis. In following a strict ethical review process to ensure that the people had more control over the way their story is told, I was able to see the value of collaboration between myself, MOA and most importantly, Heiltsuk people. This is seen in the quality of the results and because it allows First Nations to work with non-Native professionals in ways which maintain dignity and respect on both sides. Through a museum exhibit, I found a way to present a First Nations perspective that provides balance to written accounts. By putting a human face on the relationship between First Nations and fish, my exhibit was able to reach a wider audience. The exhibit had two major themes; the continuing importance of fish to First Nations culture and economy and the pivotal role of Heiltsuk people in the development of the fish processing industry. I find that this paper also has two themes. The first is an examination of the value of exhibits like Cannery Days in allowing First Nations to tell their own story. The second is an examination of my ability to function as an anthropologist without losing my identity as a First Nations woman. The exhibit was well received by academics, First Nations and the museum public. This leads me to believe in the value of continuing fruitful collaboration between Native and non-Native researchers.

This thesis consists of an exhibit, Cannery Days - A Chapter In The Life Of The Heiltsuk which opened at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology (MOA) in May 1993, and a written paper which discusses the processes and political issues involved in doing an exhibit on a subject that is not only complex, but poorly understood by the general public. The context of the exhibit and this paper is the failure of non-Native society to understand that fish were and continue to be the economic wealth of B.C. First Nations. Within this context, the related issue of the invisibility of First Nations women and men in the fish-processing industry is addressed through the exhibit using quotes, photographs, and text. The exhibit and this subsequent paper grew out of concern and unease about how First Nations and their relationship with fish have traditionally been presented in academic literature. The purpose of this thesis is to tell how my knowledge of the traditional fisheries, and my experience in the fishing and fish-processing industries, in combination with my training in the discipline of anthropology has been put to use in preparing an exhibit to tell about Heiltsuk people and fish. It will discuss the exhibit as a medium or bridge which allowed me to illustrate this relationship without diminishing the lives and experiences of Heiltsuk people. Interviews with seventeen Heiltsuk women, four Heiltsuk men and one long-time employee of B.C. Packers open a window on a period of history which has not been well documented. To read conventional accounts of Native involvement in the fish-processing industry, their lives were grey and dreary. The exhibit reveals that for the people who lived and worked in Namu, it was not just a place to work, it had many meanings and warm memories. Stages of the exhibit development from concept through mounting are described. Although the entire project took longer than I had anticipated, the exhibit was more rewarding for me than a conventional written thesis. In following a strict ethical review process to ensure that the people had more control over the way their story is told, I was able to see the value of collaboration between myself, MOA and most importantly, Heiltsuk people. This is seen in the quality of the results and because it allows First Nations to work with non-Native professionals in ways which maintain dignity and respect on both sides. Through a museum exhibit, I found a way to present a First Nations perspective that provides balance to written accounts. By putting a human face on the relationship between First Nations and fish, my exhibit was able to reach a wider audience. The exhibit had two major themes; the continuing importance of fish to First Nations culture and economy and the pivotal role of Heiltsuk people in the development of the fish processing industry. I find that this paper also has two themes. The first is an examination of the value of exhibits like Cannery Days in allowing First Nations to tell their own story. The second is an examination of my ability to function as an anthropologist without losing my identity as a First Nations woman. The exhibit was well received by academics, First Nations and the museum public. This leads me to believe in the value of continuing fruitful collaboration between Native and non-Native researchers. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This archaeological community-engaged research focuses on locating, recording, photographing, and classifying, rock art (pictographs and petroglyphs) designs within Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv Nations’ territories. The two areas are on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada: River’s Inlet/Owikeno Lake (Wuikinuxv Territory, near Oweekeno village), and Roscoe Inlet (Heiltsuk Territory, near Bella Bella). By listening to stories and visiting rock art locations its deep history and significance can begin to be comprehended. Throughout this research 58 rock art sites were visited and over 900 designs were categorized into nine types. Within this context I consider the feasibility and benefits of digital contrast adjustment of photographs using DStretch, a plugin created for ImageJ, that renders visible faint traces of pigment which can not be seen with the naked eye. Additionally, the potential of underwater archaeology (scuba diving) for the discovery and recording of rock art sites is explored. / Graduate / 0324

The reason for this story was to investigate a narrative that is important to the identity of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast – a narrative that revolves around wild salmon, a narrative that always seemed too simple to me, a narrative that gives salmon a mythical status, and yet what does the average person know about this fish other than it floods grocery stores in fall and tastes good. How do we know this fish that supposedly defines the natural world of this place? I began my research as a science writer, inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, in which he writes that the best way to achieve reality is by combining narrative with scientific data. So I went looking for a different story from the one most people read about in popular media, a story that’s overwhelmingly about conflict: I searched for a narrative that combines the science of what we know about salmon and a story of the scientists who study the fish, either directly or indirectly. I tried to follow Steinbeck’s example and include the narrative journeys we take in understanding the world around us, the journeys that rarely make it into scientific journals. I went on about eight field trips with biology, ecology, and archaeology lab teams from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans onboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship the W.E. Ricker, and an archaeological crew from the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society in Campbell River, B.C. At the same time, I was reading a number of things, including a 1938 dissertation by anthropologist Homer Barnett from the University of Oregon titled The Nature and Function of the Potlatch, a 2011 book by economist Ronald Trosper at the University of Arizona, Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological Economics, and works by psychologist Douglas Medin at Northwestern University and anthropologist Scott Atran at the University of Michigan, written over the past two decades, particular paying attention to their writings on taxonomy and folkbiology. My conclusions surprised me, a little. / Graduate / 0329 / 0324 / 0391

The reason for this story was to investigate a narrative that is important to the identity of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast – a narrative that revolves around wild salmon, a narrative that always seemed too simple to me, a narrative that gives salmon a mythical status, and yet what does the average person know about this fish other than it floods grocery stores in fall and tastes good. How do we know this fish that supposedly defines the natural world of this place? I began my research as a science writer, inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, in which he writes that the best way to achieve reality is by combining narrative with scientific data. So I went looking for a different story from the one most people read about in popular media, a story that’s overwhelmingly about conflict: I searched for a narrative that combines the science of what we know about salmon and a story of the scientists who study the fish, either directly or indirectly. I tried to follow Steinbeck’s example and include the narrative journeys we take in understanding the world around us, the journeys that rarely make it into scientific journals. I went on about eight field trips with biology, ecology, and archaeology lab teams from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans onboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship the W.E. Ricker, and an archaeological crew from the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society in Campbell River, B.C. At the same time, I was reading a number of things, including a 1938 dissertation by anthropologist Homer Barnett from the University of Oregon titled The Nature and Function of the Potlatch, a 2011 book by economist Ronald Trosper at the University of Arizona, Resilience, Reciprocity and Ecological Economics, and works by psychologist Douglas Medin at Northwestern University and anthropologist Scott Atran at the University of Michigan, written over the past two decades, particular paying attention to their writings on taxonomy and folkbiology. My conclusions surprised me, a little. / Graduate / 0329 / 0324 / 0391

With discussion of Indigenous laws on the rise in Canada, this thesis explores the question of law’s power: jurisdiction. In this project, I ask whether Indigenous jurisdiction is active in conflicts between Indigenous and state actors over the environment, in the context of the Heiltsuk Nation on the central coast of British Columbia. This project looks to critical legal theory for an understanding of jurisdiction. It identifies three aspects of jurisdiction that are discussed in critical legal theory and related fields: that it is technical, it is authoritative, and it is spatial. Adopting these qualities as provisional indicators of jurisdiction, it applies thefzm to three case studies of Heiltsuk (or “Haíɫzaqv”) conflicts with the state, which engage colonial law in different ways. The three case studies concern (1) herring harvest and management, which was litigated in R v Gladstone; (2) land use and forestry, which is the subject of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements; and (3) trophy hunting for bears, which is the subject of a grassroots campaign based on Indigenous law. Adopting a qualitative approach adapted from institutional ethnography, this project applies a critical jurisdictional lens to each case study, using documentary review and interviews to explore the technical, authoritative, and spatial aspects of each conflict. Ultimately, I find that expressions of Heiltsuk jurisdiction – as understood from a colonial, critical perspective – are already at play in each conflict, although this is not immediately visible from the point of view of colonial law. In the conclusion, I explore the different manifestations and strategies of Heiltsuk jurisdictional expressions, and the ways that colonial jurisdiction interacts with them. / Graduate / 2021-12-19

The cedar dugout canoe is iconically associated with First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, but the vital contribution it made to the economic and social development of British Columbia is historically unrecognized. This beautifully designed and crafted oceangoing vessel, besides being a prized necessity to the maritime First Nations peoples, was an essential transportation link for European colonists. In speed, maneuverability, and carrying capacity it vied with any other seagoing technology of the time. The dugout canoe became an important site of engagement between First Nations peoples and settlers. European produced textual and visual records of the colonial period are examined to analyze the dugout canoe as a site of intercultural interaction with a focus upon the European representation. This research asks: Was the First Nations' dugout canoe essential to colonial development in British Columbia and, if so, were the First Nations acknowledged for this vital contribution? Analysis of primary archival resources (letters and journals), images (photographs, sketches and paintings) and colonial publications, such as the colonial dispatches, memoirs and newspaper accounts, demonstrate that indeed the dugout canoe and First Nations canoeists were essential to the development of the colony of British Columbia. However, these contributions were differentially acknowledged as the colony shifted from a fur trade-oriented operation to a settler-centric development that emphasized the alienation of First Nations’ land for settler use. By focusing research on the dugout canoe and its use and depiction by Europeans, connections between European colonists and First Nations canoeists, navigators and manufacturers are foregrounded. This focus brings together these two key historical players demonstrating their “entangled” nature (Thomas 1991:139) and breaking down “silences” and “trivializations” in history (Trouillot 1995:96), working to build an inclusive and connected history of colonial British Columbia. / Graduate