As I was driving up to Whistler Alan was giving a paper at the Canadian Archaeological Association Conference there. (I had heard it before, I promise!) He spoke on ‘Nuu-chah-nulth Whaling Chiefs in the Archaeological Record of Barkley Sound’ and I’m told it was very well received.

I joined him for a reception in the conference centre that evening and we stayed for interesting lectures on Fens Archaeology and the discovery of the remains of Richard III in Leicester.

On the Saturday while Al attended more papers and meetings I was a Whistler tourist (one day is quite enough!) and drove a little way down the highway to find the Massey pottery studio. Unfortunately for me Vincent was giving workshops in Wells and Williams Lake and the gallery was closed.

The evening was a really special occasion for Alan. The conference banquet was held in the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre     http://slcc.ca  , a remarkable building housing a large cultural display hall, galleries, a gift shop and a banquet room.

After a splendid meal and before an after-dinner talk on Archaeological recovery work on the Red River forks, some awards were announced. Alan’s colleague and friend for forty years, Denis St. Claire was presented with the Pendergast Award for major achievement by an avocational archaeologist. Several members of the Pendergast family had travelled a long way to be there for the event.

Denis has been a full-time High School teacher for his main career but has devoted all of the rest of his time to working with the Nuu-chah-nulth of Barkley Sound, doing archaeology and working for the Tseshaht specifically in their Band office. He and Alan have spent many summers working on digs in Barkley Sound.

Alan was then called forward to receive the CAA’s Smith-Wintemberg Award, and I’ll quote from his notification letter to explain its importance.

The Smith-Wintemberg Award is presented to honour members of the Canadian archaeological community who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the discipline of archaeology, or to our knowledge of the archaeological past of Canada. This award is presented in any year, as merited, to recognize outstanding achievement or service.

CAA President Bill Ross read from several letters of recommendation and Alan was so honoured and gratified that so many of his colleagues from across Canada seem to hold him in high regard!

This is a link to the CAA website where Al’s letter of recommendation is posted:

http://canadianarchaeology.com/caa/about/awards/recipients/smith-wintemberg-award/alan-d-mcmillan

Long before he knew he was to receive this honour Al had written to recommend his long-time friend and colleague Knut Fladmark for the same award and it is was a great pleasure to find that both archaeologists did in fact receive the award the same year. So three West Coast archaeologists were honoured here, in a year when the meetings were held in the West. Sadly Knut and Sharon were unable to attend the conference and award ceremony due to Knut’s state of health. Alan has promised to personally hand over the award to his old friend very soon, and take a photo for CAA records.

Another old friend Bjorn Simonsen who has been a CAA organizer and major supporter of these other archaeologists for his whole career, was surprised and delighted to receive a special extra Pendergast Award from the family.