By Dylana Milobar

Flint knapping workshop highlights TRU Aboriginal Awareness week

Feb 27, 2019 | 4:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — Thompson Rivers University students got a taste of Secwépemc culture today, learning and trying their hand at flint knapping.

The course led by instructor Ed Jensen, showed participants how to carve arrowheads out of stone such as obsidian — a practice dating back hundreds of years.

“Before there was cave painting or any of those things, people had to make tools to survive,” Jensen explains, “That’s something that I’m bringing back into the territory. Something that I’ve been doing since a very young age, and something I’m getting known for.”

Jensen says learning more about traditional practices is beneficial for people to feel more in touch with their roots.

“I’m really trying hard to put a name and a face to Secwepemc style art. This is where our art form lies. Its in our tools, our equipment, our clothing, our baskets. The things that we needed to survive was our art,” He says, “We didn’t have the luxury of having a lot of time to carve and paint and those sorts of things. This art form is all based on utility.”

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Today’s workshop held at the Brown House of Learning is all part of Indigenous Awareness week at TRU.

For more information about flint knapping, and more about other courses taught by Jensen, his Facebook page can be accessed here.