Strength-based approaches emphasize recognizing strengths of individuals derived by their unique experiences and backgrounds. Approaching community projects with the flexibility to apply strength-based approaches can allow for collaboration beyond the scope of original research design. During the 3D digital documentation and preservation of Old Sun Community College in the summer of 2020, three Siksika students were hired to participate and be trained in terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and survey techniques. However, in working together the students’ art-based backgrounds and interests in more traditional audio-visual recording methods led to the development of a documentary-based project to capture the process of 3D preservation at the school. Driven by the students’ own interests, passions, and skillsets, this presentation discusses the experiences and benefits of the application of a strength-based model for this on-site collaboration.

A Métis-led project to determine the location of unmarked graves at the historic mission site of Nepowewin brought together archaeologists from the University of Saskatchewan, Stantec, and the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. Nepowewin (or the Budd Mission) was established by Henry Budd in 1852 and operated until at least 1875. Mission records indicate at least 26 individuals were in interned in the cemetery. The location of the cemetery and graves has since been lost. The Nepowewin Project leveraged the skills, knowledge, and technologies of academics, consultants, and community members in a novel approach that aimed to locate graves in a thorough, efficient, and culturally sensitive manner. This model may prove beneficial for the Indian Residential School Unmarked Graves project.

The Kuper Island Industrial School operated for 85 years (1890-1975) on Penelakut traditional territory. It is known as a place of significant abuse of Indigenous children—physical, emotional, cultural, and spiritual. The Truth and Reconciliation’s National Student Memorial Register records the names of 121 children who died while in the school’s care, but there are few records of where they were buried. Many in the community are concerned that ‘lost’ children lie in unmarked and clandestine graves on the former school grounds, which are at the heart of the present-day Penelakut village. Not knowing where these unmarked burials are located continues to be a matter of serious concern for those who are committed to fostering a healthy, safe, and independent community. We explore our role as researchers in the context of an emerging partnership with the Penelakut Tribe, one aim of which is to locate the burials of the missing children. This relationship is in the process of taking shape, so we focus on understanding conditions for developing trust, and the interactional expertise necessary to work well together, with a good heart. We suggest that, in some respects, this may usefully be understood as a practice of witnessing on several dimensions.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is becoming a trusted method for non-destructive mapping of near-surface buried features. Mapping of historic cemeteries and subsurface stone architecture is now routine. However, GPR tends to be used where it works and abandoned otherwise, and in all contexts the quantification of uncertainty in signal identification is unclear. This approach favours contexts where anomalies appear as high-contrast signals against a homogeneous background, usually with spatial characteristics that unambiguously match expectations. However, when background heterogeneity is high, the GPR signal patterning is noisy, and the spatial patterning of targets and arrangements is unclear, some evaluation of uncertainty is necessary. We identify two avenues to improve the quantification of confidence: an explicit assessment of the visual elements within GPR projections and the application of statistics to the 3D data cube represented by gridded traces. The first of these is a more systematic application of judgmental evaluations that can be compiled and combined with non-GPR data into an index of confidence. The second is an as-yet untested effort to define the difference in content, boundaries, and reflective effects of the propagated EM signal in numerical terms, thereby allowing for a computation of uncertainty between field data and hypothesized patterns.

Every day as I walk across the land I remember the generations of Anishnaabe children who were forced to attend residential school here. My footsteps follow the spirits of Anishnaabe youth who walked these hallways before me. Some of them never left, they are buried in the graveyard, in the quiet forest behind Shingwauk Hall, just past the crying rock. How do we honor their memory and Anishnaabe Elders and communities? How do we teach the next generation about this violent history of colonization? Education about the past and honoring in the present take many forms. Travelling in sacred circles of healing from the past to the present led by Anishnaabe elders and Survivors of Shingwauk Residential School.The history of the Shingwauk site is displayed through photographs and memories hung silently along pale blue walls. Truth telling lines the shelves of the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre archives. Memories, stories and history are shared with the world through digital archives, digitized archival materials, and virtual tours as a starting place for healing and honoring.