Rock star

Humble, curious, engaging archeologist's painstaking work filled important gaps, reset clock in Manitoba's Indigenous history

By: Alexandra Paul

 

Some lives are defined by a moment in time; others have so many, it’s hard to keep up with them all.

Anthony Buchner — archeologist, rock art and archeoastronomy specialist, musician, philosopher, author and traveller — was one of them.

Born in Britain at Southend-On-Sea Essex in 1950, he was four years old when he crossed the Atlantic with his parents, Josef and Muriel Buchner, to resettle in Winnipeg.

Entranced by eastern religions from the time he laid eyes on his mother’s Tarot cards, Buchner would spend his life exploring mysteries, travelling to Nepal at one point.

His son Alex kept a deck of those cards among his father’s mementoes when the archeologist died June 2 at age 68 following complications from a stroke two years earlier.

Professionally, Buchner will be best remembered for his work with American archeologist Jack Steinbring. He was the first to make the common-sense observation that ancient Whiteshell-area petroforms were precisely aligned to the Earth’s solstices.

It may seem simple now but the concept that astronomy was an aspect of the mysterious petroforms — human-made boulder mosaics — seemed almost revolutionary in the late 1970s and early 1980s, opening doors to a new appreciation of the spiritual and material culture of Indigenous people.

Buchner and his mentor would work together at the University of Winnipeg, publishing new findings about their discoveries from the famous Tie Creek site, and lesser-known sites along the Manigotogan River and Winnipeg River for years.

Together, they would confirm burials that were 6,000 years old at the junction of the Whitemouth and Winnipeg rivers, resetting the clock on Indigenous history by thousands of years.

Steinbring said that period will probably be most remembered in the annals of Midwest archeology for a peer reviewed journal Cathedrals of Prehistory, Rock Art Sites of the Northern Plains, published by the American Indian Rock Art Research Association.

"I know Tony was very proud of this," Steinbring said.

Steinbring, now regarded as a grand old man of American Midwest archeology, remembered Buchner fondly.

"It was always a pleasure to meet on our annual visits to Winnipeg... always at the Olive Garden on Portage... And, he always beat us to it. He would be there when we arrived, holding down a table, greeting us with his friendly smile," Steinbring said in a moving email tribute.

The pair stayed in touch even after Buchner’s debilitating stroke.

"My best remembrance is that everlasting, friendly smile," wrote Steinbring, who remains active in the field as an adjunct professor at Ripon College, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Steinbring mused that Buchner could have gone anywhere, but chose to stay in Winnipeg. The man didn’t have an egotistical bone in his body, he said.

"His lifetime work for the province... (was) a commitment (that) redirected his energies away from the more prestigious academic sources which would have elevated his contributions to a more continental level," Steinbring said. "This never bothered him; his self-awareness was one of absolute humility."

Buchner’s longtime friend and fellow archeologist Gary Wowchuck credited Buchner for laying the groundwork on archeological discoveries that are just now being appreciated.

Wowchuck said he became custodian of some valuable records almost by chance this summer.

A late-life love had Buchner packing up to move to Ontario before the 2016 stroke threw him the curve he never really recovered from.

Back then, Wowchuck made a promise to his old friend to take "all this stuff," books, research that no one else wanted, something Buchner’s girlfriend would remind Wowchuck about recently.

"What came along with that were a number of files," he said, explaining that they are Buchner’s final professional mystery and of immense significance to the province’s history.

The records outline a 2,000-year history of pottery-making on the banks of the Red River north of Winnipeg, along with evidence going back 1,200 years of some pretty intensive agriculture in Manitoba, including corn cultivation.

"I would like to get it published in a journal," Wowchuck said. "It’s a major monograph on the Lockport site. It’s probably one of the best overviews on what had been done up to that point, work Tony conducted at the site."

Buchner worked for the province’s historical resources branch from 9 to 5.

He was a project officer for the Manitoba geographical place names program and prepared two volumes for publication. One was the Geographical Place Names of Manitoba, a catalogue of nearly 1,200 natural features and settlements and the origins of their names. The other was A Place of Honour, part of the commemorative project that named more than 4,200 lakes, rivers and landscapes after Manitobans who died in military service.

Bringing families closure with these projects gave Buchner a great sense of personal satisfaction, his son said.

"Growing up and spending time in his home provided an enormously rich upbringing, Alex said. "His library was filled with books on a huge range of topics — astronomy, history, eastern religion and philosophy."

Alex remembered his dad working with First Nations on land claims, sometimes with technical, groundbreaking arguments.

"One time he told me (about a First Nation) being denied mining rights in their traditional territory. He went through the historical record and found that they had been making tools out of a kind of iron ore. The argument failed to persuade the government, but he always delighted in engaging in these kinds of clever rhetorical arguments in support of the underdog," he said.

He also remembered his father reconstructing the steps of some long forgotten Celtic jig that a friend had discovered.

Away from work, Buchner stayed busy with field projects and music. An accomplished guitarist, he played gigs with John Hodgert in Winnipeg and with the Three Amigos in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he spent winters after taking early retirement.

It was his "happy place," where he maintained a strong network of friends who rallied around him after the stroke.

"I tell you his humour never went away, his sharp wit never went away," Wowchuck said. "He’d make me laugh like he did 25 to 30 years ago.

"He was really easygoing, he worked well with people. You get these academics, you know, with people not in the know? He was never that way. He’d bring you along. That was one of his strengths. He was always wanting to work with people.

"The biggest thing most people will remember of Tony is his quick wit and his intelligence. And his broad knowledge of a lot of things. You could discuss so many things with him.

"I do miss the guy."

 

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca