{"id":25423,"date":"2024-05-08T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25423"},"modified":"2024-05-13T14:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T21:04:39","slug":"students-get-opportunity-to-excavate-bear-bones-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/05\/08\/students-get-opportunity-to-excavate-bear-bones-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Students get opportunity to excavate bear bones on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun Anthropology students recently had the chance to participate in an archaeological excavation of a black bear on campus.<\/p>\n

After an Indigenous colleague gifted Anthropology professor Nicole Kilburn the carcass of a black bear in 2021, she took the first step to what would later become a hands-on learning opportunity for the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was offered this unusual gift, I didn\u2019t want to bury it in my backyard,\u201d says Kilburn.<\/p>\n

The bones needed some cleanup, and Kilburn thought that the Lansdowne campus would be the right place to let Mother Nature do her work. That situation turned out to be an opportunity for students down the road\u2014by the winter 2024 semester, the buried bear was ready to be the subject of hands-on learning through a full excavation to reveal, lift, clean, and label the bones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College Anthropology instructor Nicole Kilburn with some of the bear bones that students excavated (photo by Ray Nufer\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was a real adrenaline boost when we first uncovered those,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cIt was some of the rib bones coming up off the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Waterhouse\u2019s Forensic Anthropology class worked together with Kilburn\u2019s Archaeology class to evaluate the bones from a forensics perspective. From looking at the bones they could tell a variety of information, such as the fact that the bear was a juvenile, from the presence of many small, unfused pieces of bone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody\u2019s a really good tennis player, you will actually see that on their bones,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like our bodies are tattooed with parts of our lived experience. And I find that really interesting, that our bones can tell our stories.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The paws of the bear were kept for Indigenous ceremonial purposes, and the skull was beaded and turned into a gift for Camosun Indigenous Studies alumnus Eddy Charlie, a co-initiator of Orange Shirt Day Victoria. Current students and instructors from the Indigenous Studies program were integral to the excavation, celebrating the bear\u2019s life and death through drumming and song.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy colleagues in Indigenous Studies came and helped and we drummed for the bear,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201c[Indigenous Studies instructor] Sandee Mitchell decided, after talking to some of her mentors, that bringing out the Anishinaabe Bear Song a little bit early was appropriate because our bears are waking up earlier these days because of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kilburn says that seeing the bear through a different lens allowed her students to view it as more than just an object or a material piece of history, and says that that extends to the archaeological study of humans. It\u2019s very important to her that her students learn with their hearts, not just their heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the history of archaeology, we have had a very material focus where we think about things, and when you focus on the material culture, you can forget about the humans,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Overall, the students were excited, and the experience took learning outside of the textbook in a way that they had never done before. Kilburn\u2014who adds that the Anthropology department is actively working with the college on similar projects for the future\u2014says that many students stayed after class hours because they were so engaged with the project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we can get quite overwhelmed with how much work there is, and the pressures of just focusing on grades instead of remembering that we\u2019re getting all these skills,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd one of those skills is getting excited about learning something new.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun Anthropology students recently had the chance to participate in an archaeological excavation of a black bear on campus. After an Indigenous colleague gifted Anthropology professor Nicole Kilburn the carcass of a black bear in 2021, she took the first step to what would later become a hands-on learning opportunity for the students. \u201cWhen I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-may-8-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25425,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25423\/revisions\/25425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}