Blackfoot culture now online

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An opportunity to share Blackfoot culture online with students across the province has representatives at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre and Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park excited.

"We have many students who can't come to our site because of distances and finances," says Jim Martin, education specialist at Head-Smashed-In, located near Fort Macleod in southwestern Alberta. "This will give them the opportunity to talk to a native guide and to learn about the culture."

The new initiative involves a partnership between the two Aboriginal centres and the provincial government. Parks and Protected Areas has come up with affordable software that will allow schools to use a webcam and high speed Internet to teleconference live with the two facilities.

"There's tremendous potential for the use of this sort of technology," says Bonnie Moffet, supervisor of interpretive services at Writing-On-Stone park. She notes that this past year, two or three school groups had to cancel their trip to the park, near Milk River in southeastern Alberta, because of financial difficulties.

"We'll be able to go out and show the rock images. It'll allow more of a hands-on learning instead of a session in a room, even if the students can't be here," she says.

The technology will not replace a trip to the interpretive centre and grounds, says Martin, but it will serve in a complimentary role. "It would supplement a field trip, act as an introduction or follow-up to a field trip," he says.

The contents of the online education component has yet to be determined. Martin anticipates the session will continue with the work the interpretive centre is already doing in showing children how the Blackfoot people lived off the land 500 to 1,000 years ago.

The partnership between Writing-On-Stone and Head-Smashed-In is a natural one, says Moffet. "The biggest connector is the Blackfoot culture. We're both significant religious sites for the Blackfoot people."

"We're unique cultural and natural sites that interpret the landscape and journey of the people through time," adds Martin.

Head-Smashed-In is in the process of updating its website, while Writing-On-Stone is working on its displays for its newly built visitors' centre.