String records from the Nicola Valley, known variously as string record, Indian calendar, time ball, ititamat and counting the days ball, photographed around 1920 and preserved by the BC Archives at the Royal BC Museum. Women of the plateau knotted a length of string, adding beads and tokens, to keep a personal record of days and life events, a form of memory keeping in fibre. The Nicola Valley is shared country of the Nlaka'pamux and Syilx peoples, Interior Salish neighbours of the Secwepemc.
Provenance & attribution
Attribution
John Douglas Leechman photograph, Public domain, BC Archives I-61965, via Wikimedia Commons
License
Public domain
Rights holder
Royal BC Museum and Archives (BC Archives item I-61965)
Sourced for demonstration, pending community review. This openly licensed material stands in for community content until an Elder or community authority reviews it. It is not presented as authoritative culture and can be removed or revised on request.