Throughout the BC First Peoples course, we’ve had a very diverse curriculum, covering from open ended research projects to anthropological ways of thinking. The last few months have been spent putting that all together, as we did a case study on one of the most high-profile topics in reconciliation: Haida Gwaii.
But not only did we study it, we experienced it for ourselves.
In order understand the history of logging, and land rights on Haida Gwaii, we first read two books:
Athlii Gwaii – Upholding Haida Law at Lyell Island
Athlii Gwaii is a collection of stories from the perspective of protesters during the Lyell Island logging road protests in 1985. The Golden Spruce is a book that explores the multitude of perspectives on old-growth forests in Haida Gwaii, and focuses on the story of Grant Hadwin, when he cut down the golden spruce tree.
We also researched the local present events on the Island, to get a better sense of what would be going on when we took a field study there in May.
Our trip to Haida Gwaii
For this project, I was fortunate to be able to take a 9-day trip to Haida Gwaii. The purpose of this trip was to learn about Haida culture, witness impacts of logging and colonialism, and to observe reconciliation efforts in the present.
One moment that I definitely wont forget is when we visited the site of the Golden Spruce. It genuinely felt so exciting to be standing 20m away from the exact tree that we had been studying in class, and made my experience feel so much more real and present compared to online research
Our learning in Haida Gwaii was focused into the idea of claim, evidence and reasoning. Every day, we’d use evidence from what we saw, and the conversations we had to make claims about pieces of culture, and impacts of historical events. We then collected this evidence in a “scrapbook”. If you’re curios about some of the observations I made, here is the link to my Scrapbook.
Learning through exposure:
The thing that really stuck out to me when writing my scrapbook, is “what is it that we’re actually learning”. I realized that the value of this activity in this setting exceeded the learning of content. Analyzing evidence around you builds the thinking skills that makes making connections easier, which is a process that’s used in learning pretty much any concept academically.
This is something that can be done in a classroom setting, but being in Haida Gwaii made it much more impactful. The constant exposure to information, evidence, and wisdom made every claim we made feel real-world.
Conversations at the PLP exhibition
After we returned, we turned our focus into showcasing what we learned at the PLP Exhibition. My group was highlighting positive changes that are happening in the present on Haida Gwaii, with the goal of helping people feel more hopeful about the future.
This is actually where I felt the most impact of having been on the field study,
When trying to convey my message, I never once failed to produce examples to support my ideas. Every conversation I had with people felt a bit different, and I drew from different experiences each time. Having had the opportunity to surround myself with the information made it recallable at a conversational level.
All I had to do was decide what I wanted the guests to take away from our exhibit, and I’d be able to support it without any problems.
This was truly an amazing field study, and for me it point the hidden benefits of participating in them. The level of emersion leaves you with much more of an applicable understanding of what’s being studied, and from my experience has left me with significantly more recollection of information than regular research.
Thanks for reading!
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