SURREY, B.C. - Kwantlen Polytechnic University is receiving a $358,507 federal grant to expand a field school that trains First Nations archeologists and Land Guardians, the university announced November 2.
The three-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) will support the field school’s continuation after its successful launch this past spring, KPU said. The program aims to address a growing need for more First Nations professionals in archeology, strengthening Indigenous capacity to lead and inform work involving their own heritage.
“One of the things that First Nations need in order to have a greater role in directing archeology work and making recommendations themselves is a greater capacity to do archeology at a professional level,” said Brian Pegg, a KPU anthropology instructor and the field school lead. “There are not enough trained archeologists to meet the demand for projects happening across B.C.”
Pegg said one of the stipulations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is that Indigenous people can control their own heritage and history. “To be able to control their own history, they need to be able to undertake archeology projects. A lot of them have substantial experience doing archeology, but just less substantial formalized training, which can help them get into supervisory positions doing archeology.”
Archeological evidence provides a physical record of thousands of years of Indigenous history in B.C. Pegg said increasing the number of trained First Nations archeologists helps communities take a greater role in researching, interpreting and protecting that history. Before the colonial period, he noted, these communities documented their history through oral histories and the material remains left in the ground.
The six-credit, tuition-free field school is designed for First Nations students with field experience or an interest in land-based archeology. It develops skills in GPS data collection, landscape history and cultural materials identification, combining classroom instruction with online learning and community-based projects selected and supervised by KPU’s partner nations.
KPU’s Indigenous Admissions Committee helped create pathways for some students to enter the program, recognizing that academic potential and lived experience are not always reflected in traditional admission requirements. “There were students who maybe didn’t have some of the high school requirements. We were able to assess their existing knowledge and their suitability for studying at KPU, not just for the field school, but studying at KPU as a whole,” said Dr. Larissa Petrillo, special advisor for strategic initiatives at KPU. “This is a new initiative and it has a core social justice component whereby KPU wants to right the wrongs of just looking at one way of gaining access to a university.”
Petrillo added that many Land Guardians already hold extensive training from their own communities that is not yet credentialed, and aligning that experience with university credits can speed their path to a credential, professional standing and stronger wages and authority in the archeology field.
For Surrey, where KPU’s main campus sits on 72 Avenue in Newton, the program is a local training pathway into a growing B.C. field: archeological expertise is in demand on development and infrastructure projects across the province, and the field school gives First Nations students in Surrey, Langley and Richmond a tuition-free route into supervisory roles directing work on their own nations’ heritage.
(Source: Kwantlen Polytechnic University news release, November 2, 2026)
