Blog & News

You are invited to join the Archives Association of BC in Kelowna on Tuesday, May 12th for an in-person preventative conservation workshop!

The Okanagan Heritage Museum Conservation team will lead this 1-day hands-on workshop that will enhance your preventative conservation skills. Participants will learn about pests and preventative measures, and how to create custom boxes, 4-flap folders, and safely encapsulate items. The workshop will also include a discussion forum where participants can share conservation concerns and questions related to the storage and care of archival materials in their holdings. This learning opportunity is perfect for those working in archives, libraries, and museums with archival materials. Participants will bring home enclosure samples.

Note: workshop participants are responsible for their own lunch and any travel fees related to the workshop. Light refreshments will be provided throughout the day.
 
Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Time: 9:30am – 4:00pm PST
Location: Okanagan Heritage Museum, 470 Queensway Avenue, Kelowna, BC, V1Y 6S7

Cost: AABC members: $180.00 CAD; Non-members: $270.00 CAD
Registration deadline: May 6, 2026 (5:00pm)
Max registration: 24 participants  

To learn more and register, please visit: https://aaobc.wildapricot.org/Workshops

On April 15, 1942, over one-third of the students at the elementary and high school in Cumberland were suddenly absent from class. They would never return to their desks, as almost 600 Japanese Canadians from the Comox Valley were forcibly removed and incarcerated.

Stolen Bases is a new exhibition opening at Cumberland Museum & Archives that shares Japanese Canadian stories of building and nurturing home bases in the Comox Valley, and the intergenerational echoes of being treated as an enemy at home.

From the early 1890s, Japanese Canadian families built communities in Cumberland, Royston, and surrounding townsites, establishing businesses, operating the Japanese Canadian owned Royston Lumber Company, founding language schools, and forming baseball teams that dominated local play.

“Baseball was a great social pastime for Japanese Canadians and non-Japanese Canadians as youth and adults,” says Janet (Ogaki) Sakauye, whose family was from Cumberland. Baseball diamonds became lively hubs for community gatherings and competition.

In 1942, these communities were dismantled. Under the War Measures Act, Japanese Canadians living within 160 kilometres of the Pacific coast were dispossessed, forcibly relocated, and incarcerated. More than 75 percent of those incarcerated were Canadian-born or naturalized citizens.

Even in the face of legislated racism and incarceration, baseball remained an important source of connection. “It kept children busy in the internment camps when there were no schools for a while,” Sakauye explains. “After relocation to the east, it also helped ease Japanese Canadians’ acceptance into cities like Toronto, which originally did not allow them to settle after the Second World War.”

Despite prejudice, dispossession, and forced displacement, Japanese Canadian families carefully nurtured community. Stolen Bases shares these stories through film, letters, objects, photographs and contemporary art, featuring the works of artists Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Megan Kiyoko Wray, Kellen Hatanaka and SD Holman.

As Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa reflects, “a story shared plants seeds of healing connection.”

Cumberland Museum & Archives invites the community to the opening of Stolen Bases from 6 to 8 p.m. on March 23, 2026. The exhibition will be open until February 1, 2027.

Please join us on Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm for the AGM of the BC Historical Federation. The AGM will be held virtually to ensure the meeting is accessible to our members across the province. We value your input and would love representation at this meeting from as many communities and organizations as possible.

BCHF Organization and Affiliate members have voting privileges. Member Organizations receive one vote per 10 members, and Affiliate Members receive one vote.

Individual members and non-voting members of the public are invited to attend. A presentation highlighting recent work and initiatives by the BCHF team will be shared. 

IMPORTANT: Organizations are asked to confirm their voting delegates using our delegate form in advance of the AGM. This helps us to ensure we have the required quorum. To do this:

1. Have an official complete the form online, or
2. Download the PDF, sign, and email the form to secretary@bchistory.ca.

Please contact Kira Westby, Secretary, if you have any questions: secretary@bchistory.ca

The National Archival Appraisal Board (NAAB) & the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) are pleased to offer HYBRID training in the monetary appraisal of archives.

Registration page: https://naab.ca/event-6574033

Registration deadline: 13 April 2026

This session, hosted at Simon Fraser University Library, Special Collections and Rare Books (Burnaby Campus), will be taught in English by Simon Rogers, Chair of the NAAB Board of Directors, and Curtis Sassur, Practising NAAB Appraiser. The session will be hybrid; registrants can choose to participate in person or remotely. The session will consist of three full days of courses followed by one day dedicated to consulting archival materials and preparing for the final assessment: the appraisal report. On the final day, participants will have the choice of working on site to consult archival material in preparation for their final assessment, or to work remotely on a digitized collection. The instructors will be available to answer questions both in person and remotely.

The Masterclass puts in place the critical pieces of the archival monetary appraisal puzzle and, in a straightforward way, enhances your skills, increases your understanding about monetary appraisal processes and improves your ability to undertake effective archival monetary appraisals. Case studies will be used to illustrate and deepen the lessons learned. On the final day of the Masterclass, participants will inspect archival material for their summative assignment – a full archival monetary appraisal and a written monetary appraisal report – due on 7 May 2026. Upon successful completion of the summative assignment, participants will become eligible to be designated as a Practising NAAB Appraiser.

Applicants with experience and expertise in archives, libraries, museums, galleries, and  other heritage professions and meet the following minimum requirements are invited to apply. If you have any questions or concerns about whether the Masterclass is right for you, please contact us at NAAB@archivescanada.ca

The Vancouver session will be delivered in English only.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:  https://naab.ca/Masterclass

Vancouver, like most urban centres, has had its share of unrealised designs, many of which only leave evidence of their proposed existence in the archives. But how do you go about searching for such records? Drawing on her graduate research, Bronwyn will introduce some insights regarding the challenges and approaches to researching unbuilt designs in archives and will journey through examples of some of Vancouver’s civic-related development proposals from the early 20th century.

Watch the full video here.

The BC Labour Heritage Centre is looking for volunteers to help them transcribe their oral history interviews. If you are passionate about the history of BC's labour movement, this might be the project for you!

Volunteers can:

- work online at their own pace

- make a difference saving the stories that fuel their movement

- and work with supportive staff and volunteers

Interested? Email Natasha Fairweather, Project Manager: projects@labourheritagecentre.ca

The Museum of Vancouver is hosting the Repatriation Monologues at the MOV on March 21 and we hope you can make it!

Presented in conjunction with The Work of Repair: Redress & Repatriation at the Museum of Vancouver, this panel brings together voices reflecting on the complex, often deeply personal work of repatriation. 

Moderated by Aaron LaMaskin, the conversation will focus on the Museum of Vancouver’s collaboration with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government to return over 60 ancestral belongings—the Nation’s first repatriation from the Museum, completed in 2024. 

Through individual reflections and shared dialogue, the panel will explore the emotional and cultural impact of repatriation, the challenges of institutional change, and the ongoing responsibilities museums face in redressing colonial harm. 

“Repatriation Monologues” invites attendees to consider what meaningful repair looks like—and how museums can support Indigenous sovereignty, cultural resurgence, and the return of stories to where they belong. 

Please arrive early with your event ticket to view the exhibition. 

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026 

Time: 1:00pm-2:30pm

Location: Museum of Vancouver

Tickets: 

• $24 General Admission (plus, fees and taxes) 

• Free for people who self-identify as Indigenous 

Details and link to tickets here: Work of Repair: Repatriation Monologues Panel Discussion — MOV | Museum of Vancouver

The Bulkley Valley Museum is hosting a BC Heritage Emergency Response Network (BC HERN) emergency response and collections salvage training workshop in Smithers, April 8-9 2026. There are 9 spots still available! 

This in-person intensive 2-day workshop is for keepers of cultural heritage who have little to no training in emergency response related to collections as well as for those who wish to build on existing experience and knowledge. 

Instruction and practice on key salvage techniques will build the confidence needed to help in emergency situations. The workshop will include hands-on salvage of objects impacted by water and fire.

Thanks to funding from the Bulkley Valley Community Foundation the registration fee is just $45/person (lunch inclusive). Indigenous organizations are able to register free of charge, contact heidi@bchern.ca for details. 

Registration information: https://bchern.ca/hands-on-workshop/

We have secured a preferred hotel rate at the Prestige Hudson Bay Lodge. Use code “BCHERN” to receive a 25% discount for accommodations if you book directly (by phone) with the hotel before March 27th, 2026. Other hotel options and community information can be found on the Tourism Smithers website: https://tourismsmithers.com/

If there are specific questions about the workshop, or if cost is a barrier please email heidi@bchern.ca.  

Trade screen time for STEAM time at Britannia Mine Museum, where curiosities will be sparked and a sense of adventure brought to life through a lineup of hands-on, family-friendly discoveries and fascinating stories for explorers of all ages to enjoy. 

From Saturday, March 14th to Sunday, March 29th 2026, the museum will present its Spring Break programs, featuring its “Live in the Lab: Secret Identities” interpreter-led STEAM learning sessions, along with its popular “Step Back in Time” social history programs: “Whatever Happened to Mt. Sheer” and “Before Roads and Rail”.

For the Easter long weekend from Friday, April 3 to Monday, April 6, the museum will be hosting Easter themed activities where visitors can take part in a festive scavenger hunt with a unique mining twist as they explore the site in search of hidden surprises. Hop aboard the museum’s special Easter underground train tour and discover how every day felt like an Easter egg hunt for the hardworking miners of Britannia Mine. Learn about the challenges and discoveries that shaped life mining underground in an engaging, family-friendly experience. Visitors can also drop in at the Terra Lab for the “Live in the Lab: Secret Identities” interpreter-led hands-on learning sessions. 

Located 45 minutes north of Vancouver on the picturesque Sea-to-Sky highway, the Britannia Mine Museum provides unique and memorable experiences that engage visitors of all ages. Visitors can enjoy fun exhibits and crowd favourites like the underground mine train, gold panning, the award-winning special effects BOOM! show inside the historic 20-storey concentrator Mill building, the minerals and gem gallery, the gift shop and the Beaty Lundin Visitor Centre. 

General admission tickets and annual memberships are available online at www.britanniaminemuseum.ca. 

For full programming details, visit their website.

The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) is excited to announce that its annual conference will be held in Vancouver on May 30, 2026 on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

As the nature of our collective work in historical and heritage-based contexts rapidly shifts and becomes increasingly challenging, we are holding dialogue on Layered Histories: Hard Conversations.

This one-day gathering will feature a keynote presentation by award-winning community historian, author, and exhibition curator Catherine Clement, along with two historical panels exploring the diverse histories of British Columbia.

Attendees can also take part in a guided bus tour of Vancouver’s historic Strathcona neighbourhood and learn about the city’s labour history with civic historian John Atkin, as well as enjoy opportunities for social networking.

The event will conclude with our annual awards dinner, where individuals working in the public history sector will be recognized and the winner of the Historical Writing Competition will be announced.

All conference activities are based at the Creekside Community Recreation Centre, 1 Athletes Way.

Everyone is welcome to attend! Participants are not required to have a professional affiliation or membership with BCHF to join. 

Registration* is now open: bchistory.ca/conference 

*Early bird discounts are available and bus tour seats are limited so we encourage you to register early.