[Bcma-l] CMA Clipping Service: Virtual History Entrances Students
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:50:14 -0700
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<b>Virtual history entrances students</b></span></font>
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<b>Museum offers website that reveals the life and times of
Snuneymuxw First Nation</b></span></font>
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Robert Barron, Nanaimo Daily News, Saturday, April 25, 2009</span></font>
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Learning about the history of the Snuneymuxw First Nation is now
fun and interactive, thanks to a new website the Nanaimo District
Museum is encouraging students to visit.</span></font>
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Bobbi Williamson, the museum's program co-ordinator, said the
"Voices of the Snuneymuxw First Nation" website, created by the
Virtual Museum of Canada, brings together a number of
Snuneymuxw cultural objects that are in museums around the world
and features them in colourful, interactive ways.</span></font>
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Each object (such as fish hooks, looms and spindle whorls uncovered
in archeological digs) form the centre of a class discussion, including
their history and stories from elders of the Snuneymuxw First Nation,
whose traditional territory surrounds the Nanaimo River estuary.</span></font>
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The site also includes information about the First Nation's language
(Hul'q'umin'um'), the environment they lived in and the band today.</span></font>
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Judging from the reactions of a group of Grade 4 students from Chase
River Elementary who were shown the site at the museum Friday
morning, the new way of studying the history of the people who
populated the area for thousands of years before the Europeans came
is a hit.</span></font>
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"It's really cool," said student Griffin Hughes while visiting the site.</span></font>
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"We've studied the Snuneymuxw in school, but this is a lot more fun
and interesting and I think I can learn a lot from it."</span></font>
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Williamson said using the Internet as a means to present the history of
the Snuneymuxw, and other subjects, is becoming increasingly
popular and useful to educators.</span></font>
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"Computers and the Internet are the tools kids use these days to learn,
and the museum is now beginning to tap into the technology to
present things in a new way," she said. "We've introduced the website
at Bayview Elementary School, due to its proximity to the
Snuneymuxw's downtown reserve, and we've been sending
information brochures to the schools in Nanaimo-Ladysmith</span></font>
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encouraging them to visit the site.</span></font>
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Chase River student Tia Jantzen said she found the website a more
interesting way to study the Snuneymuxw than instruction in a
classroom. "Maybe I'll visit the site again when I get home today,"
she said.</span></font>
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The site can be found at
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<a href="http://www.snuneymuxwvoices.ca">
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<u>www.snuneymuxwvoices.ca</u>
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