After drunken room next door antics at 3am and a continental breakfast of bagels and coloured hoola hoops we set off for a day in the capital of British Columbia ie Victoria. First chance in a month for kids to scooter so they were off ànd loving it. My former enthusiasm was back to normal too.
Passing an old motel set for rezoning we got to the gardens of the Royal museum of British Columbia to find totem poles
Went inside and found out about "first nation" dwellers who were here before european white settlers
Used in ceremonies involving contact with spirits
Within ten minutes the kids were bored as there were no buttons to push
Very moving and thought provoking were the bits about the impact on first nation communities of smallpox brought across by 19thC immigration.
Pictured in 1913/4
The decline happened in less than 2 years as first nation dwellers had no immunity to smallpox
For 8000 years the first nation dwellers survived by catching and preserving enough fish in 2 months to last them all 
On another floor kids got a bit more interested
.....when they found some interactive computer predator prey games
Xxx
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