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The series contains records created during a number of visits and projects completed with the Kwakwaka'wakw of Alert Bay.

After meeting David Grubb at the Salish Conferences in the early 1970s, Jensen was invited by Grubb to attend a potlatch on Gilford Island, just off Alert Bay. It was the first potlatch that she attended, and Jensen photographed it in black and white without flash.

Around the same time, Gloria Cranmer Webster began involving her UBC colleague Powell in discussions on the development of a Kwak’wala orthography. The two worked on this project during their breaks at work, with the main end goal to create accurate labels for artefacts at the museum, then located in the basement of the library on campus.

In 1975, after she moved back to Alert Bay, Webster contacted Powell and asked him to assist her in the creation of a language and culture book for Kwak’wala speaking people. Powell travelled to Alert Bay, the first of many trips to do such work. Over the next few years, Powell and Jensen were invited to Alert Bay on a number of occasions to attend potlatches, pole raisings, and other community events. Jensen photographed the events, as well as other aspects of the community such as the day care and band school.

In 1980 Webster, on behalf of the U’Mista Cultural Centre, secured salaries for both Jensen and Powell for one full year. They were hired to produce language and culture books, but in reality helped with many other aspects leading to the opening of the Centre. They rented a house in the village and lived there full time for the year, immersing themselves in the community, and creating a body of records that integrates both work and community life. Jensen had permission to photograph extensively, and these are all included in this series. Powell did linguistic research and worked with teachers from both the band school and the provincial school that were located in the village. Jensen also photographed language and culture lessons to be used in the books being produced. During the year they lived in Alert Bay, they produced 12 language books and a teacher’s manual for U’mista.

In 1982 Powell and Jensen purchased a house in Alert Bay, further cementing their intentions to maintain connections to the community. They continued to attend and photograph events and potlatches between projects.

In 1983 the Kwak’wala Teacher Training Program (KTTP) was developed by Powell and Jensen. The program was a college credit course for local area teachers to train them to lead language and culture lessons in their classes. Jensen and Powell divided their teaching duties, involving another teacher named Joy Wild. The program was successful for two years.

Over the next 20 years many of their visits were social in nature, although they continued to keep a detailed record of the events they attended. In 2001 they completed a CD-ROM for the Learning Kwak’wala series. This project had been ongoing for some time.

The series also contains photographic records of two events that took place outside the realm of the language projects. The Canadian Museum of Civilisation hired Doug Cranmer to carve a new Wakas Pole to replace the decaying version in Stanley Park and contacted Jensen to document the event. The second set of photographs records a trip organised by U’Mista Cultural Centre for scholars and experts to visit Mimkwamlis (Village Island) and T’sadzis’nukwakme’ (New Vancouver).

The records kept in this series consist of recordings, photographs, research notes, draft teaching aids, and copies of completed resources for both children’s education and the KTTP.

The series consists of eleven sub-series:
A. U’Mista research/background
B. Research materials
C. Field notes
D. Publications
E. Kwak’wala teacher training program
F. Kwak’wala CD-ROM project
G. Kwak’wala photographs
H. Potlatch photographs.
I. Wakas pole raising in Stanley Park 1987 photographs
J. Trip to Village Island and Tzatsisnukomi (New Vancouver) photographs 2005.
K. Audio recordings

Series consists of photographs documenting events in various communities throughout British Columbia and Washington State. These include community photographs in Mt. Currie; the Salish Linguistic Conference in Oman, Washington State; a Robert Davidson Pole Raising; coverage of NWC artifacts at the National Museum of Copenhagen in Denmark; coverage of 1992 Nuxalk Potlatch at Bella Coola for Canadian Museum of Civilization; and photographs of a Haida bentwood box.

Between working on language and education projects, Jensen was often hired by communities to document important events, such as pole-raisings, conferences and potlatches. This series consists of the photographs taken at those events.

Series is made up of records related to the creation of a Nuu-chah-nulth (otherwise referred to as T’aat’aaqsapa, West Coast language, or Nootka) dictionary.

Powell was first contacted to do a Nuu-chah-nulth language project in 1989 by Andrew Callicum, a Nuu-chah-nulth Elder and acquaintance. Originally they planned to create curriculum materials, but after John Thomas, a main informant, left the project, it was decided that they would create a dictionary instead.

Series comprises five sub-series:
A. Field notes
B. Dictionary/publications
C. Research materials
D. Morphological lexicon
E. Audio recordings

Powell first went to La Push, the Quileute village in Washington State, in 1969 to complete research for his PhD dissertation Proto-Chimakuan: A Reconstruction. While he documented the language he also developed relationships with the local families. During Jensen’s initial visit to La Push, the couple began their first collaborative work with the Quileute, as Jensen photographed the community for eventual use in a language book.

Powell completed his dissertation in 1974, but the language revival projects had only just begun for Jensen and Powell. Over the next 36 years, they spent time in La Push every year, sometimes travelling down for a weekend, and sometimes staying for a month or two. The results of these regular visits are a number of general linguistic books for adults and children; Big Books on culture specific themes to be used in schools; teaching materials to be used by Quileute language and culture teachers; cultural resource studies; dictionaries; and translated stories and resources for smaller language revitalization projects. The records in this series consist of Powell’s research notes; drafts and outlines for the language books; photographs documenting the community; Jensen’s photographs taken of particular subjects for use in language and culture books; audio and visual records of events, stories, and cultural activities.

Jensen and Powell have a continuing relationship with the Quileute and are currently involved in an ongoing language revitalization project. Another dictionary is due to be published in 2009.

The series consists of eleven sub-series:
A. Research
B. Field notes
C. Administrative records
D. Publications
E. Village life photographs
F. Modern basket weavers’ photographs
G. Counting book photographs
H. Historical photographs and artefacts
I. Photographs of La Push folks
J. Audio recordings
K. Quinault materials

Series contains records relating to Jensen and Powell’s work with the Salishan language groups in Musqueam and Shalalth territories, and events related to those communities. Although the records were created in a number of villages at different periods of time, Jensen and Powell arranged them together due to the linguistic connection they share.

In 1975 Powell received an Urgent Ethnology grant from the National Museum of Man (Now the Canadian Museum of Civilization) to do linguistic work in Kitamaat. However, this work fell through, and Powell contacted Arnold Guerin of the Musqueam band to discuss using the grant to prepare materials for Guerin’s Hunqum’i’num classes. Together they planned to produce three books: one of phonetics, one on grammar, and one on maths, with Jensen’s assistance in the layout and photography. From reel-to-reel recordings Powell and Paul Thiele of the UBC Library for the Blind produced cassettes to accompany the books. Only the first book was completed as planned, but Powell adapted the notes they had already taken to create two books for younger children. All of this resulted in Musqueam Language: Book 1 and Hunq’um’i’num for Kids: Books 1 & 2. Three years later in 1978 Leona Sparrow hired Jensen on grant money to teach a black and white photography course.

In 1989 the principal of the Shalalth School asked Powell to work with the band on language books. With Harold Oldman and Bev Frank he compiled materials for two books, which were not published. He also completed an alphabet sheet for the community to use.

Series also includes photographs taken by Jensen in 2003 of a ceremony returning city land to the Musequeam near Vanier Park.

Series comprises four sub-series:
A. Field notes and research
B. Publications
C. Musqueam photographs
D. Salishan audio recordings
E. Squamish photographs

Series consists of records pertaining to the development of Shushwap Language books and a teacher’s manual.

In the summer of 1979 Jensen and Powell moved to Alkali Lake for the summer to begin the Shuswap project. The work later expanded to include the communities of Soda Creek, Dog Creek, Canim Lake and Sugar Cane. Their primary language resources were Phyllis Chelsea and Celina Harry for the younger students’ books, and Phyllis Chelsea, Celina Harry, Cecelia DeRose, May Dixon, Elizabeth Pete, Minnie Phillips, Margaret Gilbert, Lucy Archie, Sharon Paul, and Cecile Harry for the older students’ book. In the latter part of the project Powell and Jensen also developed a curriculum with Joy Wild, and produced a teacher’s manual.

The series consists of seven sub-series:
A. Project records phase I
B. Project records phase II
C. Research
D. Original manuscripts for publications
E. Shuswap Teacher Training
F. Photographs and slides
G. Recordings.

Consists of materials produced for teaching training and development during Phase 2 of the Shuswap project. Includes a Teacher’s Manual developed with the assistance of Joy Wild, teaching units, Chilcotin readers by Maria Myers (produced during this period by Jensen) and a Chilcotin alphabet sheet.