The series contains records created during a number of visits and projects completed with the Kwakwaka'wakw of Alert Bay.

After meeting David Grubb at the Salish Conferences in the early 1970s, Jensen was invited by Grubb to attend a potlatch on Gilford Island, just off Alert Bay. It was the first potlatch that she attended, and Jensen photographed it in black and white without flash.

Around the same time, Gloria Cranmer Webster began involving her UBC colleague Powell in discussions on the development of a Kwak’wala orthography. The two worked on this project during their breaks at work, with the main end goal to create accurate labels for artefacts at the museum, then located in the basement of the library on campus.

In 1975, after she moved back to Alert Bay, Webster contacted Powell and asked him to assist her in the creation of a language and culture book for Kwak’wala speaking people. Powell travelled to Alert Bay, the first of many trips to do such work. Over the next few years, Powell and Jensen were invited to Alert Bay on a number of occasions to attend potlatches, pole raisings, and other community events. Jensen photographed the events, as well as other aspects of the community such as the day care and band school.

In 1980 Webster, on behalf of the U’Mista Cultural Centre, secured salaries for both Jensen and Powell for one full year. They were hired to produce language and culture books, but in reality helped with many other aspects leading to the opening of the Centre. They rented a house in the village and lived there full time for the year, immersing themselves in the community, and creating a body of records that integrates both work and community life. Jensen had permission to photograph extensively, and these are all included in this series. Powell did linguistic research and worked with teachers from both the band school and the provincial school that were located in the village. Jensen also photographed language and culture lessons to be used in the books being produced. During the year they lived in Alert Bay, they produced 12 language books and a teacher’s manual for U’mista.

In 1982 Powell and Jensen purchased a house in Alert Bay, further cementing their intentions to maintain connections to the community. They continued to attend and photograph events and potlatches between projects.

In 1983 the Kwak’wala Teacher Training Program (KTTP) was developed by Powell and Jensen. The program was a college credit course for local area teachers to train them to lead language and culture lessons in their classes. Jensen and Powell divided their teaching duties, involving another teacher named Joy Wild. The program was successful for two years.

Over the next 20 years many of their visits were social in nature, although they continued to keep a detailed record of the events they attended. In 2001 they completed a CD-ROM for the Learning Kwak’wala series. This project had been ongoing for some time.

The series also contains photographic records of two events that took place outside the realm of the language projects. The Canadian Museum of Civilisation hired Doug Cranmer to carve a new Wakas Pole to replace the decaying version in Stanley Park and contacted Jensen to document the event. The second set of photographs records a trip organised by U’Mista Cultural Centre for scholars and experts to visit Mimkwamlis (Village Island) and T’sadzis’nukwakme’ (New Vancouver).

The records kept in this series consist of recordings, photographs, research notes, draft teaching aids, and copies of completed resources for both children’s education and the KTTP.

The series consists of eleven sub-series:
A. U’Mista research/background
B. Research materials
C. Field notes
D. Publications
E. Kwak’wala teacher training program
F. Kwak’wala CD-ROM project
G. Kwak’wala photographs
H. Potlatch photographs.
I. Wakas pole raising in Stanley Park 1987 photographs
J. Trip to Village Island and Tzatsisnukomi (New Vancouver) photographs 2005.
K. Audio recordings

File consists of photographs of people, places, and events in the Western Gitxsan villages of Kitwancool (Gitanyow), Kitwanga (Gitwangak) and Gitsegukla (formerly Kitsegukla) during the time that Jensen and Powell lived there.

Item consists of a recording of Learning Kwak'wala: Book 2 My Family My Friends, and it features Agnes Cranmer, Margaret Cook, and Jay Powell engaging in vocabulary and grammar exercises in the workbook, Jay Powell asks the questions in English and Agnes Cranmer and Margaret Cook give the response in Kwak'wala; Side A: pages 31, 4-19 , starts with the alphabet sheet at the end of the workbook, and then covers the vocabulary for family members, grammar to express someone's family relationships, words to distinguish people by age, if someone knows someone else, words to describe people and the distinction when they are or are not present; Side B: pages 19-31, and continues how to describe people, and the distinction when they are or are not present, vocabulary for someone's job, counting how many family members someone has, vocabulary on asking is someone is Nimpkish and where they are from and the distinction between asking a man or a woman, vocabulary for where someone live, if someone knows how to speak Kwak'wala, and a review of the alphabet and suffixes used for pronouns and subjects, when describing someone who performs dances the English translation uses "Indian Dancer." Recorded on both sides.

Item consists of part 1 a recording of Learning Kwak'wala: Book 8 Here & There and it features Agnes Cranmer, Margaret Cook, and Jay Powell engaging in vocabulary and grammar exercises in the workbook, Jay Powell asks the questions in English and Agnes Cranmer and Margaret Cook give the response in Kwak’wala; Side A: pages 4-13, and covers singular and plural endings, where someone is going, and where someone went; Side B: pages 14-24, continues how to express where some one is and what they are doing, and covers when someone is going somewhere, and how to tell the time. Recorded on both sides.

Item consists of a recording of the Learning Kwak’wala book 6: Saying Everyday Things, and it features Agnes Cranmer, Margaret Cook, and Jay Powell engaging in vocabulary and grammar exercises in the workbook, Jay Powell asks the questions in English and Agnes Cranmer and Margaret Cook give the response in Kwak’wala; Side A: pages 6-15, covers how someone is and what they are doing,; Side B: pages 16-26, covers how someone is and what they are doing, the future tense, and the past tense. Recorded on both sides.

Item consists of a recording of the Learning Kwak’wala book 11: Workbook, and accompanies Book 8: Here and There, and it features Margaret Cook, Agnes Cranmer, and Jay Powell engaging in vocabulary and grammar exercises in the workbook, Jay Powell asks the questions in English and Agnes Cranmer and Margaret Cook give the response in Kwak’wala; Side A: pages 4-22, the audio for page 13 includes examples not listed in the workbook, skips from page 15 to page 20, stop midway through the exercises on page 22; Side B: page 22-35, continues from the exercises on page 22, in the exercise for page 35 the last question uses "Indian Dancer" for the English translation of the sentence. Recorded on both sides.

Item consists of a CD-ROM copy of a recording of Learning Gitksan: books 3 & 4, read by various Gitxsan speakers from Kitwancool and Kitsegukla.

Consists of photographs documenting Jensen and Powell’s trip to Village Island and New Vancouver in 2005. People included are: Bill Holm, Marty Holm, Bill Cranmer, Emma Tamilin, William “Wah” Wasden Jr., Jay Stewart, Guy Buchholtzer, Dr Pat Shaw, Dr Marie Mauze, Bruce White, Jack Knox, Debra Brasser, Judy (surname unknown), and skipper Bill McKay.

File consists of photographs of a memorial potlatch hosted by hereditary chief Laurence and Amelia Poutlas at Bella Coola. Jensen was asked to photograph the event by Andrea Laforet for the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, as the museum had been involved in research for the potlatch, which was the first to be held in the area in a long time.

File consists of photographs of the annual Mt. Currie rodeo.

Includes copy of the publication Learning Gitksan, by Vickie Jensen and J.V. Powell.
Kitwancool, Kitsegukla, and Kitwanga Indian Bands, 1980
Learning Gitksan : book 3, Western dialect