As Is so often the case we see here the results of failure to connect beyond 
the legislative and political levels.

1. You cant rely on politicos.

2. Legislation can always be un funded or deleted.

3. Political elites (Historical societies in particular) are often in it for 
social reasons only most of which are destructive and discriminatory and 
divisive and more than not un professional techically-they are dangerous
    and if they are not vetted and certified as knowledgeable they are worse 
than nothing in the long run although they appear to be the only game in 
town. Are you dealing with possible criminals who just happen to give you 
some money and support. (the president of my local historical society is a 
pot hunter) IMHO is to leave them be just take them off the boards and 
decision making units and construct parallel vetted and certified 
organizaions.

Awareness of our cultural resources historical, material, archeological 
architectural is not something that is an option-. The only way to improve 
things is to make it an essential part of the lifeway.
It needs to look more like the environmental movement then the local 
exclusive elitist club which is at least my local historical society and a 
few others I have worked with. No thinking person would ever join such an 
organization let alone work with them.

Additionally- it can not be esoteric. We need to produce more explanations 
attached to our fieldwork. Pure CRM presence/absence research designs are 
insufficient.  We also need outside of the box products which relate people 
to artifacts in unusual ways.

We need to do something drastically different.

So if your program looks just like it did last year next year- fear the axe.

Our resources and our work need to be as important as the air we breathe to 
the people we serve. We need to get the politicos out of the system- no more 
gubernatorial appointments and reform the support societies.
It can be done- it must look totally different.

Remember - also - you are competing for funds with people who are out of 
work in huge numbers and hungry. Think of their justifiable priorities and 
when you explain what you do and why make sure it is coming across as more 
relevant and necessary than say.....life itself.

yes there are good people out there who happen to be politicos and in 
societies- trouble is not enough of them.

Conrad


-----Original Message----- 
From: Karlis Karklins
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 11:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Parks Canada Archaeology Decimated

Hello HistArchers!

I have some really sad news to report.

The results of Stephen Harper's Conservative government's recently
announced budget cuts are now clear and historical archaeology in Canada
has been dealt a mortal blow.

Effective in about four months, all the regional labs will be closed with
the artifacts being packed and shipped to Ottawa. Unfortunately, there is
really no place for them there nor the staff to deal with the huge amount
of material. It is also unclear who will do the packing as lab personnel
have been sacked. There will certainly be no staff to unpack the material
which will henceforth not be available to researchers.

Most regions will now have but one archaeologist to deal with all the sites
in their region.

The once productive Material Culture Research Section in Ottawa
that churned out hundreds of useful research reports has been completely
cut with all five remaining researchers being handed their walking papers.

What a loss of research skills and knowledge!

Fortunately, the Underwater Archaeology Section headquartered in
Ottawa remains untouched as they do much research in the Arctic and Arctic
Sovereignty is a priority with the Harper government.

The Society for Historical Archaeology and the Canadian Archaeological
Association are in the process of preparing an official statement
concerning the travesty outlined above and other organizations and
individuals have already done so but will this have any effect? Is there
anything that can be done to save the federal archaeology program in Canada?


Parks Canada archaeology may be likened to a person who has just undergone
major intrusive surgery and the vital signs are far from stable. Can
anything be done to save the patient???

Karlis

PS For an excellent synthesis of the Parks Canada archaeology cuts, see the
Elfshot blog's Summary of Archaeology Cuts at
http://elfshotgallery.blogspot.ca/