About the Program
I offer two different kinds of activities.

1) An interactive tour through the history of the Columbia River:

In this activity I have an interactive model/map (laid out on the ground) of the Columbia River, East Shuswap Lake and the rivers around Revelstoke that run into them. I talk about the First Nations, including some known villages, and their seasonal rounds. I talk about the salmon that come up the river from the sea to spawn and how this nurtures the trees, plants and animals, in addition to First Nations. I show that the river was once windy and wild, cinched in at places that once were rapids and now host dams. I talk about the fur trade with French and Iroquois fur traders outnumbering the British. I show the arrival of settlers. Through the use of cut-outs and toy animals I show the clearing of the land and the establishment of farms, heavily affecting the riparian ecosystem. Then I show the damming of the river, how this blocks the salmon and tames the river, creating managed reservoirs that we have today. The students participate in this presentation. If it were conducted outside we could talk about the river and the changes we see around us.

2) Fieldtrip discussing the history of the land:

I like to do this field trip in the Big Eddy area - once the site of an Indigenous village - or the Jordan area where stumps bearing marks of early logging still exist. In this presentation, I talk about the history of the area and how humans interact with the environment and landscape. In some places there is evidence of culturally modified trees. We talk about practices and philosophies that respect all living things. In other places we see signs of early logging. We can talk about the size of the trees and how they became so large - bringing in relationships between fish and river systems and plants.

About the Community Educator
Laura is a writer, historian, and environmentalist with a strong interest in the history of the land around Revelstoke. Her latest book, Swift River: Stories of the First People and First Travellers on the Columbia River around Revelstoke, investigates not only social history, but also what the land, river, and natural environment were like before the arrival of settlers. Laura loves to share stories about how this land and the people who care for it have changed over time, and her presentation will get students to imagine different possibilities for the future by thinking about what existed in the past and how First Nations stewarded the land.