BC Heritage week is Feb. 15 to 21 and the theme is where do you find heritage?
The answer for Bowen Island Community School students is: all around us!
BICS students are in the midst of a year-long inquiry-based project called CurioStories: learning about connections to ourselves, others, and the world. This includes classroom learning about local heritage as well as going on a series of educational walking field trips to visit local heritage sites.
Students are learning about local Indigenous cultural heritage, including language, song, the importance of canoes and the traditional ecology of the Salish Sea. Students are also learning about local agricultural heritage such as the Crippen Meadows heritage farm site and Davies heritage orchard and the importance of heritage apple tree varieties.
There is a wide array of heritage sites and historic uses of Bowen Island for students to learn about: from the old foundations of the brick making factories at the base of Bridal Veil Falls of the late 1800s, to the historic uses of the Old General Store which was built in 1924.
Students in many BICS classes are consulting historical and contemporary maps as a way to look at Bowen Island through multiple heritage lenses. Special thanks for the support and resources provided by the Bowen Island Heritage Preservation Association, the Bowen Museum & Archives and the Bowen Trails Heritage Map bowentrails.ca/
