FPCC’s Heritage Program is supporting exploring, documenting, protecting and connecting with the rock art of Kanaka Bar, ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx, T’eqt’aqtn.
The ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx Braided Knowledge project is connecting community members with the opportunity to visit and connect with sacred rock art sites. The research gathered and knowledge shared will help protect these important spaces and gives insight to the skiʔsíyeʔ– ancestors – who left their mark on this land.
From groves of old growth Ponderosa Pine to Douglas Fir meadows, the land of ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx, also known as the lands surrounding Kanaka Bar, is an area of unique ecosystems not seen anywhere else. In April 2024, a group of community members and researchers spent a week hiking to each of the pictographs and petroglyphs in the area which, as cíycetqʷúʔ Mary-Jo Michell, the Lands and Culture Coordinator, explains “are often really special places.”
nlaka’pamux rock art and pictographs
A number of pictograph and petroglyph sites are immediately visible around ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx or T’eqt’aqtn (“the crossing place” also known as Kanaka Bar). However, there are many more rock art sites that most community members had not previously known about or were not accessible. Often involving hiking steep or varied terrain, some can be a full day trip to reach.
One of the mountains in the area is covered in seven pictograph panels in a unique rock formation, explains nxʷesitnew’t, Sean O’Rourke, Director for Lands and Culture with Kanaka Bar First Nation. He says that it would have “certainly been attached to a transformer story.” The riverbanks and forest hold culturally modified rocks and trees, all painting the picture of the activities of the ancestors of this land.
FPCC’s Heritage Program funded this project, through the Braided Knowledge grant, which began with the wish for community members to have the opportunity to visit these sites on a week-long excursion.
qʷléweʔ “nodding onion”
The project group included archaeologist Chris Arnett, whose PhD from UBC was on nłeʔepmxcin pictographs, to share his knowledge about the sites. nƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn territory is rich in memories of the past as it has the largest remaining village site in the Fraser Canyon. “We even found four new petroglyphs that we hadn’t been aware of before,” nxʷesitnew’t says. Along with visiting incredible rock art sites, they saw numerous culturally modified trees and visited several of the dozens of pit house sites.
cíycetqʷúʔ explains that while visiting pit houses, witnessing shards and other items, moments of powerful connection were created. Conversations circled around how to bring land-based practices back and having youth present brought another layer of intention and purpose. She describes the group sitting at the river’s edge, “eating some of the nodding onion” and seeds of the land. Taking time to notice and identify plants and medicines as they travelled between the rock art sites, learning the landmarks of their relatives and ancestors.
“Where you sit in that mindfulness, if you realize my ancestors stood here in this exact spot and now, here I am, it’s almost life shifting,” says cíycetqʷúʔ. “It’s all I think about. This is where I’m from, these trails we’re walking, my ancestors have done this for forever, and now here I am and now I have two children and I can’t wait to bring them, and when I have grandchildren– it’s just an enriching connection… We were here, we’re still here and we’re going to stay here.”
skiʔsíyeʔ “ancestors”
Ethnographers have documented Elders’ stories of past activities in these places, “about how young men would go down to the river at night, with jade adzes, carving cupules”– which are concave, circular hollows in rock. The Elders spoke of the young men “praying to the stone to make their forearms strong and to gain its strength,” says nxʷesitnew’t. Sitting together as a group in the village sites of their relatives and being able to quickly “see evidence of us being there” made deep impressions on participants. “It was moving– as we’re sitting down at the petroglyphs, we were sharing stories or traditions that Elders have taught us,” says cíycetqʷúʔ
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The immersive week also included learning and observing patterns. “We’ve noted all of the cupule sites, for example, are at fishing spots, which are near larger populations,” nxʷesitnew’t says. “The fact that we kept finding more petroglyphs near this old village site on the other side of the river as well– so many of them, all over, speaks to just how many people were in this place and how significant it was.”
zuminstm e tmíx kt ƛ̓eq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn “We care for the lands of ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓
Although the nation’s Land and Culture Department does a lot of field work, having a wider range of community members forming the project group emphasizes the importance of preserving and sharing their collective history. Being out on the land, carrying the stories gifted from Knowledge Keepers and also receiving information from Arnett’s decades of archaeological study expanded participants’ understanding of their territory’s historical significance.
A filmmaker also travelled with the group, gathering high quality documentation of the artwork and locations, along with drone footage and mapping for the community’s private use, to make the sites accessible for everyone. “We were learning what these pictographs and petroglyphs mean, we were documenting all of this,” says cíycetqʷúʔ. “We took a video, we took pictures, we recorded…and we’re going to work to have that transcribed and available for our older generation who weren’t able to be there, and just share with them the importance and the significance of each site.”
Information travels both ways, including from Elders who have passed. “By getting our Elders back out onto the land, and our Knowledge Keepers who have heard from the Elders, you see it when we have brought them out, it just clicks,” explains cíycetqʷúʔ. Remembering being in those places when they were children, for specific times and purposes, once those memories resurface, the entire community learns.
It has been most meaningful to involve the Elders and to document their knowledge. There is an urgency to this work, cíycetqʷúʔ explains: “Most of our Elders have been called back home to the other side. It’s never been more critical to preserve, record and document anything and everything. For me, that was really humbling, to take a moment and just think 100, 300, 400, 500 years ago, my ancestors were here, and they did this [art] for a reason, and it is still here today. And now it is a part of my job to help protect this, so that all the generations to come can stand here and see what our ancestors did.”
x̣əkpstés “learn”
Visiting these sites, learning more about them, recording their locations and sharing the knowledge and teachings with the community has had a deep impact on everyone involved in this project. “It really helped me appreciate where we are, T’eqt’ aqtn’mux, in a more holistic sense,” says nxʷesitnew’t, “Understanding that this was such a huge center of activities, hundreds if not thousands of people lived right here. And just seeing everything of the land really helps you appreciate that, and just how special this place is.”
We thank Indigenous writer Odette Auger for developing this story with us.
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