Five years of planning and work at the University of Victoria have been going into a Cordova Bay archeological site mapping research project.
Next up is taking its field study to the waters.
The collaborative project was formed by the WSANEC leadership council, Saanich and UVic anthropology Prof. Brian Thom.
“The essence of the work is to document anthropology sites of municipal parkland and the waterfront in the inter-tidal zone in front of those lands,” Thom said. “We know that there are numerous anthropological sites in the Cordova Bay area, but none of them have been documented very well. Most of them have been chance finds after property developments.”
There have been several archeology projects, but over the last 50 years Thom believes only two radio carbon dates have been documented in the whole Cordova Bay area.
Like archeologists, the students will be digging in excavation units, putting in multiple layers and digging in perfectly squared holes and seeking out radio carbon dates.
The study will take place at Agate Park, McMorran Park, Cordova Bay Park, and property on Waters Edge Road. Specifically at Cordova Bay, the 23 students, professors and graduate students are digging around the horseshoe-shaped rock feature in hopes of answering questions like, “How old is this site, when was it occupied, what happened here,” said Thom.
They believe the alignments of rocks people have made in the system are for fishing.
“Over 1,000 years ago, when the sedimentation was a little bit less than what we have here today,” Thom said. “It would have been part of a pool that fish that would have been trapped in and as the tide ran out you would be left with a nice little tidal pool with resources in it.”
UVic Indigenous studies PhD student Mavis Underwood, who is also a WSANEC grandmother, said the research project is an important act of truth and reconciliation.
“The thing that people don’t understand is that relationship we have with water. Whether it’s fresh water or salt water systems, it’s a sacred relationship,” said Underwood. “With their relationship with their ancestors, they were taught to take care of the land and the water and they will take care of you. It’s a fundamental relationship. People all around the world have forgotten that.”
Recently, neighbouring First Nation Tsawout declared approximately 155 square kilometres of the ocean on the eastern coast of the Saanich Peninsula, including Cordova Bay, as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA). This means the Tsawout and surrounding Indigenous governments have the primary role in protecting and conserving the ecosystems in the area through Indigenous laws, governance and knowledge.
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“I hope they try to understand history and why we have had to declare and protect the conservation area,” said Underwood, who is thankful the land is an IPCA. She also notes that the ocean life in the waters was a vital food source, but she worries that much of the wildlife is endangered.
“With their relationship with their ancestors, they were taught to take care of the land and the water and they will take care of you. It’s a fundamental relationship. People all around the world have forgotten that. They have industrialized the streams, they have industrialized the ocean, the water is getting warm, and the species are dying off.”
Rachel Hooton, a masters of anthropology student at UVic, also acknowledges how the resources off the shore are valuable to the WSANEC community.
“Bringing this type of work into the forefront of a community that’s built up around important inter tidal features is so important to the south Saanich treaty in 1852 and the right to fisheries treaty,” said Hooton. “This area hasn’t been surveyed and protected in any way. There’s like a whole entire food garden here and it’s been used for centuries and is no longer usable because of all the development that has gone around.”
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