91ÅÝܽ

On Saturday October 18, the 2025 British Columbia Archaeology Forum was held at SFUs Burnaby Campus. The event was co-hosted by SFU Archaeology and the British Columbia Association of Professional Archaeologists (BCAPA). A strong program of 27 presentations delivered an inspiring and well-attended day of discussion under the theme of "Collaboration & Innovation."

A particular strength of this year’s forum was its emphasis on Indigenous leadership in heritage research and management practices. Presentations reflected this commitment with inspiring community-led cultural heritage protection initiatives, such as the Esk’etemc and Williams Lake First Nations’ response to the Chilcotin River landslide, the K’ómoks First Nation’s efforts to document and conserve a 550 year old wooden fish trap from the K’ómoks estuary, as well as their investigations into high elevation rock shelter sites in Strathcona Provincial Park, and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s multi-disciplinary investigations into the long history of tÉ™mtÉ™míxÊ·tÉ™n, a prominent sÉ™lÌ“ilwÉ™taɬ village.

Numerous presentations spoke to the value and importance of developing and sustaining strong community partnerships, perhaps most strongly personified by the more than 50 years of archaeological research conducted in Barkley Sound by Denis St. Claire in collaboration with the Tseshaht First Nation. The Xwe’etay/Lasqueti Archaeology Project, demonstrated respectful approaches to protecting Indigenous heritage through collaborative research, and public education. Research in partnership with the Musqueam, Gitga’at, Sts’ailes, and Lake Babine Nations was also featured. Several presentations focused on the importance of building capacity for community-led heritage stewardship through knowledge and skills sharing workshops.

Innovation was also central to the day’s conversations. The program featured presentations on cutting-edge techniques such as: Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) for refined faunal remains identification, the creation of ancient DNA barcoding assays for identifying bivalve shell remains, the strategic application of Lidar technology for re-locating sites buried by flooding or landslides, and several presenters advocated for re-imagining heritage management methods and mitigating impacts to archaeological resources through creative engineering.

A recurrent theme throughout the day was dissatisfaction with the state-of-affairs with respect to protection of heritage resources in British Columbia, particularly the lack of effective legal protections for heritage sites, but also the manipulation of the Archaeological Overview and Impact Assessment Process to facilitate development at the expense of heritage resources. The day's presentations concluded with a panel discussion featuring Dave Schaepe, Whitney Spearing, Camilla Speller, and Chris Verral titled "Shared Ground: Cultivating meaningful relationships between CRM & Academic Archaeology."

All in all, the 2025 BC Archaeology Forum provided an energizing convergence of ideas, people, and practices that reflected the evolving landscape of archaeology in British Columbia.

The organizing committee would like to extend their gratitude to everyone who made the event a success. To our keynotes, speakers, and panelists, thank you for sharing your expertise, insights, and passion for BC archaeology. To our attendees, thank you for joining us in our efforts to resurrect the forum – we are deeply appreciative of your engagement and enthusiasm. To our team of dedicated student volunteers (Scotty Assu, Diego Barrios-Stewart, Mela Blau, Ruben-Ogoun Frealle, Jennie Glennie, Katie McTavish, Triniti Morrison, Kara Ren, Kira Sokolovskaia, and Emily Yuan), thank you for keeping everything running smoothly in the background – we couldn’t have accomplished this without your time and effort. And most importantly, thank you to our sponsors. Without your generous support, the forum would not have been possible. Thank you for your contributions and for your shared commitment to creating space for meaningful dialogue in the BC archaeology community.

The full program can be found here.

2025 BC Archaeology Forum Sponsors