Blog & News

Global maritime and naval historian Barry Gough speaks with British Columbia History magazine editor Aimee Greenaway about his most recent book The Curious Passage of Richard Blanshard: First Governor of Vancouver Island. Barry provides insight into his research methods into the province's early colonial history, provides tips for approaching and writing histories, and delves into the subject matter of his book. The Curious Passage of Richard Blanshard received an honourable mention from this year's BC Historical Federation Historical Writing Awards.

An inspiring evening on hockey from a Chinese Canadian perspective. Highlights from Hockey Night in Chinatown features author/teacher Chad Soon recounting Larry Kwong’s historic debut on NHL ice and Jenny Lee-Gilmore introducing her hockey-playing Mom, Kelly, on film and in person. Recorded on April 6 at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre in Vancouver.

The Roberts Creek Community Association marked the 90th anniversary of the Roberts Creek Community Hall with a celebratory photograph taken by Nancy Shields.

This milestone celebration was particularly special to the Association because, as part of its reconciliation efforts, it also unveiled the new name of the hall. It is now proudly known as the Xwesam-Roberts Creek Community Hall.

Click this link to see a gallery of photos from our Chilliwack conference, including our keynote address, bus tour, and gala awards dinner!

History prof Madison Heslop delivers an entertaining lecture to the Vancouver Historical Society on the murder of a policeman on Vancouver's waterfront in 1913, showing how the toxic concentration of rootless male labourers, rooming houses and liquor outlets prompted a kind of moral panic in the wider community.

Heritage BC recognized the Kootenay Lake Historical Society for its outer deck and weather envelope rehabilitation project on the SS Moyie at Kaslo.

Heritage BC recently announced the recipients of its annual awards, recognizing incredible achievements across the province in the categories of Conservation; Small But Mighty; Education, Communication, and Awareness; Indigenous and Diverse Cultures; Planning and Management; and Volunteers as well as the Ruby Nobbs Distinguished Service award.

The full list of winners can be found here.

The BCHF board of directors welcomed four new members to the team last Saturday at its Annual General Meeting. Directors are elected to a one-year term and take on various portfolios within the organization. 

Rizwaan Abbas, Surrey 

Rizwaan was born and raised in Sparwood on the ancestral land of the Ktunaxa Nation. He has an associate degree from Douglas College, a BA in Archaeology from SFU, an MSc. in Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology from University College London (UK) and a PSc. in Collections Management from UVic. He is a Director of the Indo-Fijian Cultural Society of Canada and has been working in culture resource management for over two decades. Rizwaan is an archaeologist for the Semiahmoo First Nation and a member of the Historical Discrimination against People of South Asian Descent Advisory Committee, in Vancouver, and the South Asian Canadian Museum Engagement Committee. Rizwaan was a guest editor of BC History Magazine and has curated an exhibit titled, “Surrey’s Pocket of Paradise” at the Museum of Surrey and authored a Chapter in the book, “The Social History of South Asians in British Columbia,” published by the University of the Fraser Valley, all where he showcases the heritage and history of British Columbia’s Indo-Fijian communities. 

Chelsea Brown, Abbotsford 

Chelsea Brown is a recent graduate of Oxford University where she received her Master of Studies in Global and Imperial History (2020). She has been involved in data management and collections projects at various institutions in the UK and Canada, including Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO), the Ashmolean, the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE) at Simon Fraser University, and at several Provincial Heritage Properties here in BC. Chelsea has been working at the Kilby Historic Site since 2017 in various capacities between schooling, becoming curator in 2022. Recent projects at the Kilby Historic Site have included the repatriation of over 30 Indigenous baskets to the Sts'ailes and Sq'éwlets First Nations, collection digitization, and emergency planning. 

Sarah Ling, Vancouver 

Sarah oversees the development and implementation of the Chinese Canadian Museum’s public programming and exhibitions. She is the co-curator of Odysseys and Migration exhibition and curator of the historic period rooms at the Wing Sang Building. She holds a BA in English Literature with a minor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies, and a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, with a community-centered research background in Chinese and Indigenous relations on Musqueam territory. Born and raised in Prince Rupert, northern BC, she is passionate about establishing relationships and connections with individuals and communities across the province. As a filmmaker she has produced a number of documentaries featuring Chinese Canadian stories. She is an active volunteer in Vancouver Chinatown and is Past-President of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC. She enjoys creative projects, nature walks, and opportunities to spend time with her niece, nephews, and goddaughters. 

Laura VanZant, Revelstoke 

Laura VanZant is the Assistant Curator at the Revelstoke Museum & Archives. She received her B.A. in History & Archaeology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2017 and an Advanced Diploma in Museum Studies from Algonquin College in 2019. She is the former Curator of the Revelstoke Railway Museum and has also worked for Parks Canada and the Museum of Dufferin. Her passion is for community stories and sharing unheard voices and making the museum experience more accessible for all visitors. In her spare time, you can find her kayaking with her husband, curled up with a book and her cat, or cross stitching in her favourite chair. 

A story looking at how coal fields in Port Rupert and Nanaimo were first cared for and worked by Indigenous miners has won the BC Historical Federation’s Anne and Philip Yandle Best Article Award.

“The Indigenous Miners of British Columbia’s First Coal Fields,” by John Sutton Lutz (pictured), appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of British Columbia History magazine. It was chosen by a panel of judges from among two dozen eligible articles published in the magazine last year.

One judge called the article “thought-provoking, intriguing, original, and innovative. It presents newly discovered, never-before-published ethnographic and archival material that shines a new light on Indigenous-colonial relations … Lutz portrays Indigenous peoples as having been powerful players in BC’s settler economy, who successfully exercised their rights and asserted their title to their traditional land/territory and resources.”

Another judge said the article “provides a fresh, well-researched and timely look at long-standing historical storylines and injects a new dose of reality and cultural recognition into the mix” while leaving the reader “questioning the lens through which we typically view early resource extraction narratives.”

The award was announced Saturday during the federation’s awards gala in Chilliwack and comes with $250 and a certificate.

“British Columbia History is a remarkable publication that brings the most interesting stories from our past to a wide audience,” Lutz said. “The diversity and quality of the stories and the care in editing is truly impressive. I really appreciate the honour of this award.”

Lutz is a professor of history at the University of Victoria. He is the author of Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations, co-editor of the collection Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community Engaged Scholarship Among the People of the River, and co-editor of To Share Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Visions of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. His current research focuses on the impact of smallpox on the Indigenous People of the Pacific Northwest.

Philip Yandle was the founder, editor, publisher, printer, binder, and distributor of the BC Historical News from 1968 to 1977. His wife Anne Yandle was also very active in BC Historical News for almost 40 years and served as the book reviews editor until the year in which she died. In 2007, the British Columbia Historical Federation renamed its Best Article Award Award in honour of Anne and Philip Yandle.

The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) has announced four recipients of the 2023 Centennial Legacy Fund grants.

They are: the West Coast Ringette Historical Society ($2,500), Indo-Fijian Cultural Society of Canada ($3,700), Spencer Legebokoff ($700), and Letitia Johnson ($3,100).  

Successful projects commemorate or preserve historical sites, cultural landscapes, or objects, and encourage new research, interpretation, or publication of British Columbia history.   

The West Coast Ringette Historical Society's 50th Anniversary Documentation Project captures and documents the oral histories of former ringette athletes, coaches and builders in British Columbia. Ringette is a Canadian sport invented for female athletes in 1963, which was brought to BC in 1974.  This is the first time ringette history in BC has been collected and documented. 

The Indo-Fijian Cultural Society of Canada’s project will capture oral histories of the first Indo-Fijian Immigrants to British Columbia and the elders of BC's Indo-Fijian Community. The Indo-Fijian community is one of the four largest Diasporas in the world, yet there has been no previous research conducted on the heritage and history of the Indo-Fijian people in British Columbia and their contributions to BC’s society.   

Spencer Legebokoff’s Doukhobor History Poetry Project will see him researching niche aspects of village life and politics and writing inspired poetry. As a result, the body of Doukhobor literature as well as literature that represents the history of the West Kootenay region will be expanded. 

Letitia Johnson’s project called “Lasting Local Effect: Japanese Canadian Healthcare Professionals and Changes to Medicine in Remote Interior British Columbia (c.1940s-1990s)” will see her research how the labour of Japanese Canadians, as racialized healthcare professionals, changed remote medicine in BC in the 1940s. This project will be the first to consider how the presence of Japanese Canadian healthcare practitioners changed the healthcare provided in rural and remote areas of BC from the 1940s onwards. 

The Centennial Legacy Fund was initiated in 2017 to acknowledge, in turn and collectively, Canada 150, British Columbia’s Union with Canada 1871 Sesquicentennial 2021, and the centennial of the founding of what is now called British Columbia Historical Federation, in 1922. 

CLF Chair Quentin Wright congratulates Spencer Legebokoff at the BCHF Awards Gala on May 4. 

The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2023-24 W. Kaye Lamb Award for Best Student Works.  

The $1000 first prize in the third-and fourth-year category was awarded to Megan Yaskow for her submission “Wilderness to Wonderland: Prince George’s Anxious Ambition and the 1958 British Columbian Centennial.” 

Megan is a third-year history major at the University of Northern British Columbia. Born and raised in Prince George, her work has been focused on British Columbian history with specific interest in social history, heritage studies, and energy history. Experience working at both the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum and the Northern BC Archives has sparked specific research interest in museums and public history. Megan plans to continue her research of museums and memory through a Master’s Degree in History. Megan is currently working at the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum.   

For the 2023-24 year a $750 runner-up prize for the third- and fourth-year category was awarded to Amanda Payne for her submission “No Place for a Walk: Sex Work, Crime, and Community in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood during the 1980s-1990s.”

Amanda is a fourth-year student at the University of British Columbia, completing her BA in Anthropology with a minor in History. She also works part time at the UBC Lab of Archaeology Archives where she helps process historical records related to archaeology in BC. She is currently preparing her application to the Master of Arts in History program at UBC. 

The W. Kaye Lamb Award is presented annually to outstanding post-secondary student essays and projects relating to the history of British Columbia. The award has been presented since 1988, initially known as the BCHF Scholarship. It was renamed the W. Kaye Lamb Award in 2001. In 2004, the BCHF introduced two award categories: one for students in their first or second year of study, the other for students in their third or fourth year of study.  

The awards were presented on May 4, 2024 at the BCHF’s annual general meeting and award gala dinner in Chilliwack, BC, on the unceded traditional territory of the Stó:lō people.

Amanda Payne accepts her award in Chilliwack on May 4.