Rock art – etched in blood-red lines into granite cliffs, boulders, and caves – appears as beguiling, graffiti-like abstraction. What are these signs? The petroglyphs and red-ochre pictographs found across Nłeʔkepmx territory in present-day British Columbia and Washington State are far more than ancient motifs.

Signs of the Time explores the historical and cultural reasons for making rock art. Chris Arnett draws on extensive research and decades of work with Nłeʔkepmx people to document the variability and similarity of practices. Through a blend of Western records and Indigenous oral histories and tradition, rock art is revealed as communication between the spirit and physical worlds, information for later generations, and powerful protection against challenges to a people, land, and culture.

Nłeʔkepmx have used such cultural means to forestall threats to their lifeways from the sixteenth century through the twentieth. As this important work attests, rock art remains a signature of resilience.

Drawing on a unique blend of Indigenous and Western sources, Signs of the Time explores Nłeʔkepmx rock art making to reveal the historical and cultural meaning beneath its beguiling imagery.

Preface

Introduction

1 A Theory of Everything

2 Red Paint and Markings

3 The Ethnography of Nłeʔkepmx Rock Art

4 Similkameen Sagas

5 Archaeologies of Nłeʔkepmx Rock Art

6 Dreaming the Future

7 Archaeology and the War in the Woods

Glossary of Nłeʔkepmxcín

Notes; References; Index

"This book is for those who enjoy an ontological mystery. This book is for those who live their lives through story."

Rock art – etched in blood-red lines into granite cliffs, boulders, and caves – appears as beguiling, graffiti-like abstraction. What are these signs? The petroglyphs and red-ochre pictographs found across Nłeʔkepmx territory in present-day British Columbia and Washington State are far more than a collection of ancient motifs.

Signs of the Time explores the historical and cultural reasons for making rock art. Chris Arnett draws on extensive archival research and decades of work with Elders and other Nłeʔkepmx community members, their oral histories and oral tradition, to document the variability and similarity of practices. Rock art was and is a form of communication between the spirit and physical worlds, a way to pass information to later generations, and a powerful protection against challenges to a people, land, and culture.

Nłeʔkepmx have used such culturally prescribed means to forestall external threats to their lifeways from as early as the sixteenth century – when they were aware of incipient European encroachment – until well into the twentieth. As this important work attests, rock art remains a signature of resilience and resistance to colonization among Nłeʔkepmx today.

Chris Arnett is an archaeologist, researcher, and writer who lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. He has lectured in anthropology and archaeology at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and Malaspina University-College (now Vancouver Island University). Among his publications are They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley, British Columbia (co-authored with Annie York and Richard Daly) and The Terror of the Coast: Land Alienation and Colonial War on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, 1849–1863. Arnett is a registered member of Ngāi Tahu Whānui of Murihiku, Te Wai Pounamu, and a descendant of British and Scandinavian ancestors.

A major compendium of Nłeʔkepmx ethnohistorical and ethnographic accounts. Chris Arnett has undertaken a commendable enterprise in this book.

As well as providing essential reading for scholars and students of archaeology, cultural and applied anthropology, Indigenous studies, and art history, Signs of the Time will also fascinate rock art specialists and amateur enthusiasts.

Innovative and provocative, Signs of the Time adds dramatically to the discussion of how Western science interacts with and accommodates Indigenous knowledge, concerns, and heritage.

In this beautiful book, Chris Arnett illuminates the artistry of Nłeʔkepmx rock painting with passion and precision. In doing so, he draws the reader into British Columbia’s forests and lakes, river canyons and mountain cliffs to paint a stunning tapestry of Indigenous creativity and power. A magnificent achievement!

Signs of the Time is informative and accessible, giving equal voice to Indigenous knowledge keepers and academics in presenting the ideas in petroglyphs and pictographs. It is an excellent example of how Eurowestern academics can work alongside Indigenous knowledge experts to understand the Indigenous world. I highly recommend it.