Indigenous Stories: Rudy Riemer/Yumk, SFU Department of First Nations Studies and Archaeology

History

I grew up in Squamish BC, learning from elders and knowledgeable community members about Squamish Nation culture.  Many of my fondest memories are walking to downtown with my grandpa, sitting at my grand uncles kitchen table and going up the river to fish. During these formative years I was always careful to listen to what they had to say. After a time, when I was in high school I began questioning the various topics in the classes I was in, especially history, geology and other topics. There was little to no consideration of Indigenous Knowledge. I found this odd.

Education

After graduating from high school in 1990, I took a year off to sort out what I wanted to do with the year of my life. I decided to go to Capilano College in North Vancouver to take geology, as the landscape I grew up in contains numerous and fascinating examples of volcanic activity- I wanted to know more about it. Unfortunately I did not do so well in geology, but luckily discovered archaeology, took a field school and I was hooked! I regularly had work with the numerous consulting archaeology companies across the province. This allowed me to gain much insight into how to apply knowledge and skills acquired at post secondary institutions and get a pay cheque to boot. 

It was during one such project I helped in the recording of many archaeological sites at high elevation areas of Squamish territory that my future in this filed began to truly take shape. The knowledge I gained from the elders in my community was laying on the ground in front of me, I decided to enquire the SFU Department of Archaeology about this as a Masters research topic. Over the two years of researching the role over the two years of researching the role I defended my thesis and really did not really know what to do next.

Career 


Eventually I struck out on my own and formed my own consulting archaeology company, First Heritage Archaeological Consulting. It was a fun time, but interspersed with periods of feast or famine when it came to work and contracts. 

Yet, over the five years I proved to be a quality consultant and got drawn into many of the endeavours that Squamish Nation chiefs and council were initiating. I became an important team member of the the Squamish Nation land use planning project, participated in the Ust'am/Witness project and many other jobs and contract that came my way. 

Through all of these experiences I decided that I needed and was wishing for more of an academic perspective and decided to go back to school once more. For years I had followed the work of Aubrey Cannon and contact him at McMaster university. He agreed to take me as a PhD student and there I did geochemical analysis and combined scientific knowledge with the cultural knowledge and experience of Squamish Nation territory. 

It was a great and valuable experience as it eventually lead me to apply for a job posting at SFU First Nations Studies and Archaeology. I got the job and now enjoying teaching, advising students, researching and publishing on the fascinating stories that my home landscape has to tell me. I now able to share those stories with others, in the classroom, in the field and my community.