(Photo of 2021 Archaeological report finds 4800 year old W̱SÁNEĆ artifacts at Interurban Road)
The cultural monitors in W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council’s (WLC) Archaeology Program play an essential role in protecting W̱SÁNEĆ’s ancestors by ensuring projects that disturb or have the potential to disturb cultural materials on lands and foreshore areas in W̱SÁNEĆ territory are handled with care and cultural sensitivity.
With guidance from Senior Gravediggers and WLC’s Community Engagement Coordinator Eric Pelkey and other staff, the WLC Board and Referrals Manager Laurie Whitehead established WLC’s Archaeology Program in 2022 to help create policies and procedures to guide cultural heritage-related activities proposed for W̱SÁNEĆ territory. Activities include coordinating monitors for the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve excavations and interacting with their Cultural Heritage program staff, and implementing key agreements – such as the Land Altering Works Protocol Agreement between WLC and the Capital Regional District (CRD) and the ÁTOL,NEUEL (“Respecting One Another”) Memorandum of Understanding between WLC and the District of Saanich. We have also developed service contracts with consulting archaeologists and been coordinating monitors for their permitted projects, and engaging the provincial Archaeology Branch in an initiative to amend the Heritage Conservation Act.
The Program draws on experienced and newer cultural workers. Archaeology Program representatives that were appointed by the WLC Board following recommendations of Senior Gravediggers carry out important work, such as the recent establishment of a set of W̱SÁNEĆ Archeological Procedures, which Program staff hope will become universal standards that unite all of W̱SÁNEĆ and address some of the inadequacies in the Heritage Conservation Act.
The role of cultural monitors within the Archaeology Program is to try to ensure that ancestors are not disturbed when a government agency or business or private property owner engages in construction or development on W̱SÁNEĆ territory. When ancestors or their belongings are disturbed, the monitor ensures that teachings are applied to minimize disturbance, treat materials with respect and rebury on site where possible. While the role of the cultural monitor is adaptive to meet the needs of the situation and phase of the project, a goal of a cultural monitor is to ensure that construction and development projects do not harm the ancestors.
Cultural monitors’ work in the early planning phases of a referral project generally, and involves providing the necessary cultural knowledge to inform decisions, support land management, or guide and participate in archaeological impact and other assessments. For example, WLC’s cultural monitors could help local governments plan parks by identifying which areas are suitable for recreation and which require extra care and protection. Similarly, cultural monitors collaborate with Parks Canada to conduct assessments and offer guidance on how to mitigate the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels and erosion on culturally sensitive areas.
Cultural monitors provide boots-on-the-ground support during construction and development projects to identify and address anticipated and unanticipated disturbances as quickly as possible and mitigate the resulting damage. If the cultural monitor identifies an impact to potential remains during construction monitoring, they will halt all operations and contact the appropriate authority to conduct a further investigation and try to ensure that no further disturbance occurs. If a reburial is necessary, the cultural monitor will get WLC staff to coordinate bringing in a well-respected spiritual worker to lead the process.
One example of cultural monitoring support in a development project is the recent collaboration on a project with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. There, the Agency planned to install a line to a new building that was being planned at its location on East Saanich Road, a sensitive location at the base of ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱, a mountain that is sacred to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. To prevent disturbances, the cultural monitors worked with the agency to reroute a pipe to avoid an existing documented site, and staff developed a service agreement to ensure monitors were present for all excavations. Cultural monitors have also been present at Goldstream for archaeological assessments and are regularly assigned to monitor CRD projects.
The work of cultural monitors creates greater safety for all involved in projects that disturb the ancestors and their possessions. The monitors collect important information and data that will eventually be incorporated into a traditional use database.
Simon Smith Jr. – who supports the Program as a Co-Chair of the Archaeology Committee and as a cultural monitor – spoke to the importance of this work when sharing his own experience as both a grave digger and a cultural monitor. He shared:
We have to make sure our ancestors are treated with respect all of the time. We are the ones they look at right away once they are disturbed. We have to let them know we are not here to harm them.
He added:
I was taught how to do grave digging and then I ended up going into archaeology field work and my dad was always reminding me to remember I’m doing this out of respect for the ancestors. That’s what I always live by and that’s what I go by.
While cultural monitors generally learn from family and Elders, WLC’s Archaeology Program also provides training and capacity building to support cultural monitors’ and stewardship staff’s important work with external consultants and project proponents. For example, in July 2024, the Program provided training for grave diggers, cultural monitors, and member First Nation staff members. Participants in the training visited several archaeological sites in the Southern Gulf Islands and the Saanich Peninsula, and worked with an archaeologist to learn how to evaluate and document impacts on archaeological sites, and what to do when damage to an archaeological site is observed.
W̱SÁNEĆ staff and cultural workers aren’t the only ones learning as a result of the cultural monitor program. As cultural monitors become more present throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory, settlers are beginning to understand the importance of this work. For example, Smith shared the following story:
There were some workers working in Poet’s Cove who were seeing our ancestors as they worked. They started asking us what we were doing when we were getting brushed off. We shared what we were doing, and they asked us to join. The Elder who was doing the brushing off allowed this. The workers were thankful because they started to feel less afraid when they saw our ancestors during their work. We explained to them that they shouldn’t be scared. It just goes back to making sure everything is treated with respect, because it’s us who will pay for it if it’s not done the proper way.
As a Program grounded in cultural and community care, WLC’s Archaeology Program is here for the W̱SÁNEĆ community and we welcome input. To provide feedback, please contact Whitehead at laurie.whitehead@wsanec.com. The Program looks forward to continuing to ensure cultural monitors are present for as many land-altering projects in W̱SÁNEĆ territory as possible.
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