A piece of aboriginal history is at risk of being erased by vandalism and nature if it is not preserved soon.
An effort is underway to protect and exhibit the historic aboriginal pictographs in the Adams River Gorge, located in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park.
“For the pictographs it’s all about our history of our people and where our people come from and how long we’ve been here. So for us to save these pictographs, it means a lot not only to our band but to the Adams Lake and Neskonlith bands,” said Aaron Arnouse of the Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band. Arnouse said the pictographs are important for both historical and spiritual reasons to the local bands as they are near the boundary between the Little Shuswap Lake and Adams Lake bands.
Former Adams Lake band councillor Henry Anthony alerted the bands that the pictographs had been vandalized approximately two years ago.
“We went up there to have a look and we noticed that one of them had been chipped off the rock face and taken away by someone,” Arnouse said.
Arnouse said that pictographs such as the ones in the Adam’s River Gorge are common in the area, but these ones are in need of protection because they are in a high traffic area.
An application for help protecting the pictographs has not been presented to BC Parks yet, but Arnouse said that he will be meeting with them soon.
Ravenstone Masonry and Conservation Inc. performed a condition assessment of the pictographs. The assessment states the pictographs have not shown signs of deterioration yet but the images have been obscured by naturally occurring elements including moss, water staining and climbing plants.
Ravenstone’s onsite cleaning tests yielded good results.
“In all cases the ochre [pigment] remained sound and intact post testing, indicating that the biologicals can be cleaned/removed without damage to the images,” the test results read.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s board of directors voted to support the project at their meeting on April 14.
According to Ravenstone’s report, possible additions to the site include: a new sign at the trailhead telling visitors about the pictographs, a traditional replica pit-house, a viewing platform for the pictographs and interpretive panels along the trail at specific points of interest.