May 11 - Anthropology students invited to study First Nation

Twelve Anthropology students from Douglas College have been invited to live on an Aboriginal reserve for one month to conduct research that will shed light on the history, culture and identity of the Splatsin First Nation.

The Splatsin's traditional territory is around Enderby, a community about 30 kilometres north of Vernon and 20 kilometres south of Salmon Arm.

The students and their instructor, Tad McIlwraith, leave May 16 and come back June 10.

McIlwraith and his students will spend the four weeks doing research into the Splatsin's history, culture and identity, and to record their stories and histories.

"It's bringing to light a people who has been kind of forgotten in the interior," says Hailey McWilliam, one of the attending students. "They're not very well known, even to the people in the community of Enderby."

McIlwraith says the field school offers a rare opportunity to students to study a First Nation at its own behest.

"The Splatsin First Nation asked us to come," says McIlwraith. "This is something that was motivated by them and would probably be pretty hard to do if they hadn't invited us."

McIlwraith says they will probably not come to any definitive answers in a mere four weeks, but no matter: the primary purpose is for the students to learn about anthropology and how it is done.

"This is a course that requires that students go out and actually do anthropology and anthropological research, rather than just talk about it. So we're learning the methods and techniques of doing anthropology as well as the history and culture of the Splatsin people."  

Follow the field school participants and their progress on the field school blog.