2009 BC Elders Gathering in Terrace

To talk about our recent trip to the BC Elders Gathering in Terrace, I thought I would do something a little different this time.

I thought I would give our liaisons a chance to say how the experience was for them, after all they were all there working hard at our booth and meeting many new people. But first, I'll set the context a little.

By now I hope you've seen our RRN Flickr account (mentioned in the previous post), and have seen all of our wonderful photos from the trip. As you may have seen, we set up an RRN information booth at the conference, where visitors and elders could walk around and get a taste of the site, talk to our researchers and take a brochure or two.

The Elders Gathering (hosted by the Nisga'a Nation in Terrace BC) this year was an absolutely huge event, which took up an entire arena (in fact, there were two arenas). Not only this, the conference organizers fed everyone! I couldn't believe it. With nearly 4,000 people in attendance, I didn't believe it was possible.

I left Sunday night from Vancouver with Charlene, Herb Joe, Jody and June. We arrived in Prince Rupert late that night, and arose the next morning to make the drive to Terrace. Dave and Lawrence had started their journey much earlier - coming from Alert Bay on the Ferry a few days before. All in all it was a long journey, but well worth the trip.

But enough from me, I will let our CLR's (community liaison researchers) speak for themselves.

The Elders that couldn’t make it around to the displays really appreciated me going to them. I also went around to the volunteers of the gathering, as they too couldn’t make it around. I went to all the vendors and gave them the spiel as well. Over all everyone is excited and eager to see the site, that was really positive and enlightening to go around and witness their reactions in person. On the negative side, some of the Elder’s said they went to the table and couldn't understand what the presenters were talking about, they talk too fast or use big words that they don’t understand, they were also thrown by the title, "Reciprocal Research Network” !!! they didn’t like that term and think we should call it something that they can understand better. So, that was the feedback that I got. Over all the interest and excitement far outweighed the confusion, and the gathering was well worth the trip.
- Wendy Ritchie, Coqualeetza

The conference was a truly great event. It was a pleasure to be able to participate in such a gathering. To watch, observe and interact with so many people was an experience not to be missed. People from all walks of life were catching up on old acquaintances and shooting the breeze with new found friends...People were genuinely interested with the work and development of the RRN. There will be a lot of follow up work with the communities in the near future.
- David Houghton, Alert Bay

There were a lot more participants at this event. It is always great to be around Elders...Was amazing experience to see a culture that is much like my own but was unique in its own way.
- Jody Felix, Musqueam

The trip to the Elder’s Gathering in Terrace was long and the plane ride was a little scary. We did some hotel hopping and it took at least an hour to get to each town, but it was a nice drive. The gathering was bigger than I had expected. A lot of contact was made and a lot of people of all ages were interested and wanted demonstrations done in their communities.
My favourite part of this trip even though it far away was being able to go to a different part of BC, it is very pretty in Northern BC and I am glad I got the opportunity and to be apart of the RRN.
- Charlene Point, Sto:lo Tribal Council

Some of the questions were, "can I find my grandparents things on the site?", and I wanted to help them keep an open mind that if it was not on there it could very well be in the near future with the other partner museums coming on board. There was a lot of excitement from whoever took the time to look at the site and also said that what we are doing is a very good idea and look forward to what would also be available.I think that what we have done is injected a lot of relief into people because now people have an opportunity to look at items they thought they would never see again and that in itself is fulfilling enough.
- Lawrence Isaac, Alert Bay

I enjoyed the trip to Terrace and Whistler immensely. Both were educational and it was exciting to see so many nations interacting and having fun...these trips helped me very much to know what to add to our booth and how to approach people.
- June Sparrow, Musqueam

I can't say it enough - this is the best job. I have never had so many opportunities, and this gathering is another example of that. It's also another example of how people can work together to accomplish something - and getting the RRN out to distanced communities is a big job. I know that I am always learning, and this experience definitely tops the list.


A wonderful way to start a day.

Photos from the RRN

So again, (not an unfamiliar post)

I'm back!

In fact, all of the liaisons are back happily working away in their offices after the 2009 BC Elders Conference in Terrace. However, I am not going to blog about that this time. Wait for that update - from our liaisons themselves - on Friday. I will say it was an amazing experience.

One thing that I will talk about is all the pictures we took. Lots! And we have been taking photos on many of our RRN trips over this summer and the past couple years. So, here you have it, for the very first time - an RRN Flickr account.

So - check out our most recent venture in Terrace online through Flikr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrncommunity.

You can see our journey from Prince Rupert to Terrace and back, as well our fantastic booth and posters at the Gathering.

I will be updating the Flickr with more and more pictures as the weeks go on, so stay tuned!

And wait for the next post from our liaisons about the BC Elders Gathering.

Cheers,
Hannah

Coast Salish Gathering

Some of our Musqueam and Chilliwack Community Liaisons (Jody, June, Herb Joe Jr, Charlene, Terry and Darwin) and I just got back from the Coast Salish Gathering yesterday, which took place in Whistler this year. Aside from the fact that it was pouring rain the entire time - being on a mountain was a great start to the week.

The Coast Salish Gathering was a small conference dedicated to discussions about the Salish Sea - which makes up most of the Georgia straight as well as over 60 rivers and streams and much more. This sea is an extremely sensitive environment, and the conference included many Coast Salish chiefs and government officials all working together to create a sustainable plan for the future - for the well being of the economy and the ecosystem.

The conference was housed by the Squamish Li'lwat Cultural Centre, in the heart of Whistler's upper village. This cultural centre boasts a large collection of Squamish and Lil'wat objects, as well as an amazing meeting venue. First walking in, you are greeted by two large spindle whorls on stands, slowly spinning above your head. Behind, are two images of important weavers, followed by an example of weaving hanging behind them. This sets the tone for ambitious displays and interactive connections between the land, the people, and their material culture throughout the centre.

I love walking into a museum or centre and not only learning about specific objects, or goggling at the magnificence of weavings and carvings, but also learning something about the environment in which this museum is set. It's a humbling thing to be able to look out at mountain scenery while reading about what kind of food is collected at this particular time of year, how it was used, and the importance of sustaining practices like these. This was the perfect setting for an important environmental conference.

As for the RRN - we set up a small booth in the conference area, and previewed the site to visitors and conference members. Sue Rowley and Terry Point also gave a short presentation over dinner about the RRN, introducing the site and all of our liaisons. Attendants of the conference were very excited to see this new kind of collaboration taking place, viewing the connection between their families and communities with museums.

On Tuesday afternoon, Terry, Jordan (a student working for MOA this summer) and I took a short trip up to Mount Currie, which is just past Pemberton. There, tucked away in a room in a small community school, is a Lil'wat cultural centre. This centre is much smaller than it's Whistler counter part, but is the definition of a community-run cultural centre.

Like I said, it's located in a small community school, and what could be a better location to teach students things like basket weaving, drum making, and language. This small building held an extensive library of language tools, as well as a small collection, and they are involved in the First Voices program - an online First Nations language resource.

It was definitely worth the drive.

Next week, we're off to Terrace for the 2009 BC Elders Gathering. This conference is slightly larger than the Coast Salish Gathering, one number I heard was around 3,500 people expected to attend. That's a lot of brochures.

So back to getting travel itineraries ready and figuring out ways to bubble wrap our poster boards.

RRN Blogger Extraordinaire,

Hannah

An introduction from the Native Youth Program and the RRN - 2009

The NYP students have arrived, and to introduce them is a word from Taylor LaVallee, one of our researchers and the person who is working with the RRN and NYP connection this summer:

This year's Native Youth Program is officially under way.
The Native Youth Program is designed to not only encourage aboriginal youth participation in the workings of the museum but also to provide an avenue to allow them to research items in the museum that are in relation to their culture as well as research their own background.

As of last year the NYP has also been directly involved with the RRN. They have been using the RRN in a research capacity but they have also been providing important feedback for the implementation team.
This year is special for the NYP as they are celebrating their 30th anniversary and to celebrate the team is being documented on film all summer as to have an official NYP short documentary. This has added many activities to the NYP agenda. So now along with researching, giving museum tours, demonstrating the RRN to museum visitors, field trips, they are now learning how to be on camera.
The summer will be very busy for these students and they are very excited to be involved with the museum, the RRN anything else that can provide and opportunity to learn.


Taylor LaVallee

Taylor will be working with the students this summer, and organising the set up of an RRN Kiosk in the main hall of the Gallery where the NYP students will lead demonstrations and help visitors learn more about objects in the museum.

Mission Accomplished: Usability Series 1

After a long month of no updates to the RRN pilot site, we have finally finished the first round of our usability tests. Astrid, Tristan and I asked anyone we could to complete our Usability task list with the RRN, and we've found a ton of interesting data.

For example, most users do not read a majority of the text that is on the site, especially when it is on the middle, or the right hand side of the page. They also look for buttons, or links that look "clickable" and don't pay attention to words that don't have this quality.

Most users have trouble finding and using the storage box - this is a huge problem for us. The storage box leads you to make a collection and collaborate with other users. This is a main focus for the RRN - and if our users can't do it then we have a serious problem.

Another issue we're dealing with, and which came up in our usability studies, is that some of the text on the site is unclear and not inclusive. This basically means the words we're using are inaccessible and need to be changed. It's not about simplification, it's about presenting information in a perspicuous - uhh....I mean clear - way. One professor of mine always said that the best writers, be they academic, popular or otherwise, are ones that say what they mean. I think many writers/researchers can be guilty of unclear and inaccessible language use, and I do this constantly. User studies have taught us better - and we'll do our best to keep the RRN as accessible as possible.

These tests would mean nothing if we didn't have our dedicated software developers who work 24/7 on developing the RRN. They've taken our suggestions and data and turned it into a new version of the RRN that is even better than the last. Keep a lookout because next week we launch the new version, which will hopefully be more usable than ever. We also have a fabulous new help guide designed by yours truly and Jamie Cooper, our technical writer. And it has some pretty new colours - just saying.

We'll be launching a new user testing series soon after the new version is up to test our changes to the site and see if any of our modifications actually worked.

Well that's pretty much all the news for now, except on Sunday night some of our community liaisons and I head up to the Coast Salish Gathering in Whistler, BC.

I'll post next week from a mountain. No big deal.

-Hannah