Services

Once we’re in contact with community partners, we’ll start with a discovery meeting where we learn about the site you’re looking into researching, the history of it, and how large the area is. From there, we can recommend the technologies needed to conduct the work and how the project might look. We travel to you for field work and stay either onsite or nearby. After our field season comes to an end, we focus on interpreting and processing all of the data collected. You’ll have a full report in time to decide where you want to go with the work and project in the next year’s field season.

We work to national standards and ensure your project is worked through thoroughly and completely with the care it deserves. This means the process is extensive and time consuming and often takes close to 9 months from start to finish (i.e., from first field work to final report).

Our methods are broad and encompassing when it comes to the searches for unmarked graves at former Residential Schools and associated sites.

GPR – Ground Penetrating Radar

GPR has been used in archaeological and forensic contexts for decades. The machine sends an impulse into the ground, the data from which visualizes what lies beneath the surface. We follow the national standards, as set out by the Canadian Archaeological Association, in conducting GPR surveys. While GPR does not explicitly find bones and artifacts beneath the surface, it images the layers of the ground. When interpreted, the images can be used to identify areas where disturbance has occurred.

Shallow Subsurface Soil Spectroscopy

We use one of two S4 systems in Canada to provide another line of evidence in investigations of unmarked graves. The S4 is considered a minimally invasive technology. A probe 1cm in diameter is inserted into the ground and takes readings of the soil composition, but no soil is removed and no obvious trace is left behind. The S4 analyzed the soil content, scanning for fatty acid content which is produced in the decomposition in some burials.

GPS – Global Positioning System

We ensure that we use the most up-to-date positioning systems. Using real-time kinematic (RTK) systems, we are able to have sub-centimeter accuracy.

There are many other technologies that we are working to incorporate into our process in the near future. We seek to not only be doing this work, but doing it with excellence.