In 1997, Gary Coupland organized a session on Households at the CAAs in Saskatoon. He opened his presentation with one of the best one-liners I've ever heard. At the time I had no idea how much his quip would come to define much of my research in future years. Gary’s interest in the evolution of Northwest Coast households has made a significant contribution to our understanding of social inequality and resource intensification among complex hunter-gatherers. Many of these processes played out within immense communal houses constructed from timbers and planks. Historic illustrations by artists such as John Webber (1778) allow us to visualize how the interiors of these houses appeared to European settlers. A more objective understanding of what they “actually” looked like might enable archaeologists to better understand the elusive relationship between house-form and culture. Much of my work has focused on using digital technology to visualize dwellings that no longer exist. The resulting models have served as laboratories for exploring how architecture both constrains and enables the operation of households. In this presentation, I use examples from my work in the Canadian Arctic to illustrate these ideas, as well as pay tribute to Gary’s many scholarly contributions.

This paper examines the role of landscape construction in shaping the long term history of peoples of the Salish Sea in coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada. I argue that major construction investments evident at several long-standing village sites following 1000 BP reflect a period of broad buy-in to collective projects by diverse segments of Coast Salish society. These landscape-focused efforts contrast with prior constructions, particularly burial cairns and mounds, which derived from the pursuit of social differentiation by elite in the preceding Marpole period. The key conclusion is that the period between 1000 and 500 cal BP involved a renewed effort in landscape investment focused primarily on the construction of places and the remaking of communities, realizing forms of collective action not evident (or perhaps possible) in prior times.

While examining the relationship between people and the sea through archaeological remains has been at the centre of my research career since its beginning, shell-bearing sites became a particular focus of mine during my doctoral studies with Gary Coupland. Under Gary’s supervision in Prince Rupert Harbour, BC, part of the Ts’msyen homeland, I learned how to sample these sites, quantify their constituents, and think about them in terms of building and architecture; I also came to appreciate how stratigraphically variable and complex they can be. These days, I work more often in the Wabanaki homeland (Maine-Maritimes region) also on shell-bearing sites, or shell heaps. In this paper, I consider what it is that I learned from Gary and observe some key differences between west and east coast shell-bearing sites. I also reflect on why I can’t stop reading and writing about these amazing archaeological sites.

Searching for the roots of and defining “cultural complexity” has been the raison d’être of Northwest Archaeology since the 1980s and after decades of debate and critique, are these still worthwhile pursuits? This paper looks at archaeological examples of how and when social and economic processes blend to create something archaeologists would recognize as complexity. Can agency and historical contingency be witnessed in the archaeological record? And can they add meaningfully to the debate?

Despite a prolific and influential career, Gary Coupland is not particularly known for his contributions to landscape archaeology and archaeological survey. However, one summer 15 years ago when I was just about to start a Master’s program under his supervision, Gary entrusted me with a leaky boat and instructed me to survey the inlets of the Sunshine Coast. With that first encouragement I found myself pursuing investigations of how and why ancient Indigenous coastal inhabitants of BC settled where they did, along with how they invested in and modified their landscapes; reconstructing how coastlines have changed through time; and chasing the elusive evidence of “First Peopling” of the Northwest Coast. In this presentation I present results of several recent survey projects that elucidate elements of the long-term, deep-time engagements of Northwest Coast peoples with their landscapes. While doing so, I reflect on how – even though he is best known as ‘the Northwest Coast household archaeology dude’ – the wisdom and inspiration of Gary Coupland has shaped how we look at coastal landscapes.

This paper brings together collected shorter contributions or anecdotes on experiences, archaeological or otherwise, with Dr. Gary Coupland. Contributors to this collection of anecdotes include past students and colleagues.