Tag Archives: Wild Archaeology

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Comments and queries for the week of September 30

Wild Archaeology in the U.S.?

Do you know if this is available online for U.S. watchers? —Courtney

We’re not sure if it’s geo-blocked or not, but try streaming Wild Archaeology on APTN’s website.

Tickets to The Goods?

Would I be able to get tickets to The Goods next Thursday? —Nicki

Follow the link to The Goods website and order your free tickets.

CraveTV continues to grow, Shomi shuts down

I think that both Crave TV and Shomi had to expect it would take a few years to grow. Netflix has had six years. It’s an expensive game to get into but it’s a necessary one. People are cord-cutting because they are finding stuff for free online and getting free TV streaming devices. I’ve said it before, but the only thing keeping me from cord-cutting is that I’m only allowed 20GB a month of data thanks to my only option of satellite Internet and my desire to watch Winnipeg Jets and the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Olympics. I’m actually thinking of moving to a nearby town that has unlimited Internet access, so I’m seriously considering it. If TSN releases an app of their own, I’d go with that for sure. Maybe TSN could somehow integrate with CraveTV? That would be an attractive feature, the ability to stream games. People would for sure go with it. I have Netflix Canada (I got tired of trying to keep switching it to Netflix U.S.) but truthfully, after having it for a while, you eventually watch most of what you want to watch on it, you need supplementary stuff so that’s why I had Shomi too. I actually subscribed to Shomi to watch specific shows, but stayed because I saw other shows I like. CraveTV has more shows I like, though. I’m still waiting for it to be made available on Xbox Live. —Alicia

Hulu have locked themselves out since they sold most of the shows to CTV/Global/City. In the States, CBS and The CW are doing their own streamers which somewhat have the same problem. You can sense Amazon is circling here. In addition to the links, they already do things with Prime that Netflix never will and smaller U.S. channels like Starz with Outlander and USA Network with Mr. Robot don’t have the resources to launch here directly themselves, they already sent their shows to Amazon UK. It’s only a matter of time. They just upped the minimum free shipping to $35. You know they know Canadians consider Amazon Canada overpriced and inferior and Prime Video would only help them. The thing is, can/would Rogers/Shaw just sell over the shows to Amazon? They’d recover some of the loss but they aren’t always known for doing things like that.

HBO and Showtime are much longer, depending on how long the recent deals with Bell are but eventually I don’t think they’d renew it rather than just stream directly to Canada themselves. The only funny bit is Bosch being an Amazon show on CraveTV somehow; though I believe Netflix officially launched in Australia while a local channel had Orange is the New Black and they just waited out the contract before putting it on Netflix Australia, so something like that could happen perhaps. —DanAmazing

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Wild Archaeology: Innuvialuit—A Race Against Climate Change

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This week on Wild Archaeology, Jenifer and Jacob are off on their own to experience salvage archaeology, without the supervision of Dr. Rudy. On this adventure, we are travelling to the far north where climate change is creating a desperate situation for archaeologists. Shorelines are facing accelerated erosion due to rising seas and rising temperatures resulting in a loss of artifacts to the sea.

Our duo travels to the Kuukpak dig site on Richards Island, north of Inuvik, on the Beaufort Sea where the Innuvialuit people would traditionally summer while hunting for beluga whale and store the meat, returning throughout the year. We learn the island was at one time covered in a series of camps and was a thriving summer community centuries ago.

The Innuvialuit people had no written history, and this is truly an example of traditional knowledge being rooted to the land. The land, because of climate change, has been forced to reveal the knowledge it held for centuries. If archaeologists fail in their mission to gather all of the artifacts, that knowledge will be lost forever.

In the initial site tour by Dr. Max Friesen, archaeologist at the University of Toronto, Jenifer spotted an ancient snow knife exposed by erosion. Continuing along the shore, ancient beluga bones were seen exposed and came across an old dog sled runner fashioned from bone and a number of ulu blades. Dr. Friesen estimates many of these finds are up to 500 years old.

I spoke briefly with Jacob on Tuesday, and he had this to share about his experiences on the show:

“I really loved the opportunity to work on this show and I learned a great deal throughout our travels. I have a new understanding of our natural history and discovered how scientists are in fact starting to tell stories that are parallel to those First Nation and Inuit people have been telling for a long time. The show is educational, but it was also an amazing adventure that I hope we can continue in the future.”

Jacob, I really hope your adventure does continue. This show is an absolute delight and I am so happy I decided to cover it.

Artifact tally tonight? Jacob: a rare, intact Innuvialuit arrowhead and a dog sled runner made from bone. Jenifer: a bi-face end scraper. Seems like Jacob is now in the lead.

Wild Archaeology airs Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Wild Archaeology visits “Little John” (Part 2 of Beringia)

Last week  on Wild Archaeology, we left off at the Little John site and Jacob had just broken his freshly-found artifact: an 11,000-year-old piece of bone. OOPS!

We begin this week’s adventure learning Dr. Norm Easton and his team have found artifacts at this sub-arctic dig site estimated to be between 11 and 12,000 years old—more than twice as old as the pyramids of Egypt. What is singularly unique with this particular dig site is Dr. Easton’s approach. Not only is he an archaeologist, but he is an ethnographer. As a result of his loyalty to White River First Nation, he has gained the people’s trust and been formally adopted into the family for whom the dig site is named. The community has his back.

A significant chunk of Tuesday’s instalment focuses on culture: regaining, establishing and maintaining connections to traditional culture. We also get a glimpse into Jenifer and Jacob’s connections to their own cultures through song and stories as we begin to get acquainted with our hosts.

Dr. Rudy and Dr. Easton discuss how they believe ancestors of White River First Nation experienced the land and utilized the resources available to them. Trails still exist that were used millennia ago, the ground still hard-packed beneath overgrown vegetation. Jenifer and Jacob demonstrate the use of atlatls. Acting essentially as arm extenders, these tools serve to amplify the force of a spear throw. Using their ingenuity, these ancient people created technology from the materials they had available in order to hunt the mega fauna.

On the artifact discovery side of things, Jacob finds the remains of an 11,000-year-old bison bone that was subjected to an impact fracture, indicative of human interaction with the local fauna. I think that makes these two tied for interesting finds.

I cannot help it, I know I am a broken record but I have to repeat myself. I LOVE THIS SHOW. One of the perks of reviewing is that networks supply us with advanced screeners. So what did I do? I binge-watched the whole season last week despite having other work to do (a thesis thing I have looming). That same day, I also  shared a brief conversation with co-host Jenifer Brousseau and we chatted about her own experience as she tunes in to watch.

“I’m glad they’re capturing our authentic journey, of what really was a powerful journey of reclamation,” she said. “There was something spiritual that took place, to touch these artifacts and be a part of history. Seeing the beauty of my ancestry and the strength and resilience of my ancestors.”

Wild Archaeology airs Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

 

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