Blog & News

The BC Black History Awareness Society is marking its 30th anniversary with Black History Month events in Greater Victoria. Among other things, the Royal BC Museum is celebrating Black History and Heritage Day on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

Read more in the Victoria News.

Passengers from the Komagata Maru, 1914. (City of Vancouver Archives CVA 7-127)

The Komagata Maru Lesson Plans Project was initiated in 2023. With six lesson plans, the project encourages students to examine key facts and events behind the Komagata Maru tragedy. Furthermore, it challenges students to engage in discussions and think critically about the event while learning about the biographies of key people such as Gurdit Singh, the man who chartered the ship to come to Canada.

Read more here.

Throughout February, which is Black History Month, tours are being organized to teach people about Hogan's Alley, a vibrant community in southwest Vancouver that was home to many Black families until they were displaced in 1972 by a viaduct.

Read (and watch) more at CityNews.

The BC government has formally apologized to Sons of Freedom Doukhobors who were removed from their parents and sent to residential school between 1953-59. The apology, delivered in Castlegar and Grand Forks, comes with a $10 million commitment and will be repeated later this month in the BC legislature. The apology fulfills a recommendation first issued by the BC Ombudsperson's office in 1999.

Read more at castlegarnews.com.

The BCHF has learned of the death of Fred Braches of Maple Ridge.

Fred served as the editor of BC Historical News from Spring 1999 to Summer 2003 before the B.C. Historical Federation changed the magazine's name to British Columbia History. Later he won the BCHF Best Article Award for 2009 and the BCHF Website Award in 2008 for his Slumach website.

Obituary: https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/30608924/friedrich-braches

Come join us on May 4, 2024 for the BCHF annual conference being held in Ts'elxwéyeqw (Chilliwack). 

This year, the conference will be a one-day event featuring the BCHF Annual General Meeting (AGM), a keynote presentation, a guided bus tour of S'ólh Téméxw, and the BCHF awards dinner. 

The keynote presentation features Keith Thor Carlson, Professor of History at the University of the Fraser Valley and Tier One Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History, and Si:yémia Albert "Sonny" Mchalsie, Cultural Advisor / Sxweyxwiyam at Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre. 

The AGM and keynote presentation will be held at the University of the Fraser Valley's (UFV) Gathering Place, Chilliwack campus. 

The bus tour runs from 12:30 to 4:30pm, leaving from the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre. You will enjoy visiting places of cultural and historical interest and importance around S'ólh Téméxw "Our Land, Our World." Discover the land as narrated by Si:yémiya, learn Hal'qemélem place names, and hear the sxwōwiyám (ancient stories) and sqwélqwel (personal and family histories) that give shape to Stó:lō culture, history and people. 

End the day with the BCHF gala awards dinner and awards presentation. Held at the Coast Hotel, Chilliwack, you can bid on local books in the silent auction, connect with colleagues, and celebrate the year's accomplishments in BC history preservation and storytelling. 

Visit the BCHF website to learn more and to register online. 

In this presentation to the BC Historical Federation conference in Princeton last year, Lydia Kinasewich presented on her prize winning essay entitled: "Nature's Health Giving Waters: Promoting Health and Pleasure Tourism at Harrison HotSprings, 1920-1930."

The initial bathhouses and hotel built on the shore of Harrison lake in 1886 were designed for elite health-seekers, and early promotions focused on how the mineral waters could cure various ailments. However, after this first hotel was lost to a fire in 1920, Harrison Hot Springs was recast in the tourist gaze.

The new Harrison Hot Springs Hotel was completed in 1926 and this talk demonstrates how the owners of the resort attempted to retain the appeal of the healing environment while also promoting the modern luxuries that tourists increasingly expected in British Columbia during the interwar years.

Kinasewich recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in history from UNBC.

Mary Davidson, who died Dec. 19, moved to Salt Spring Island in the early 1980s, where she joined the historical society and guided the establishment of the island's archives in 1989. The collection includes photos and stories from her family homestead.

Read the full obituary here.

K'ilisët Violet Gellenbeck at the Walk to Witset feast, September 2018. BVM visual record collection P984

The board and staff of the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers are deeply saddened by the passing of Witsuwit'en matriarch Ts'ake ze' K'ilisët Violet Gellenbeck on Jan. 4.

"Our condolences to all of her family, house, and clan, and to all those deeply feeling this loss," they said.

As was said in her eulogy, "she will be remembered for her dedication to the cause of Indigenous peoples. Over her life, she made countless contributions to advancing Indigenous concerns, including education and employment services, Witsuwit'en language and cultural revitalizations, protection of Indigenous women and girls, and defence of Witsuwit'en yintah."

"We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from K'ilisët," the museum said. "She was an instrumental voice in guiding the development of the Shared Histories research project and book, and the Alhk’ikh Ts’ëdilh (Walking Together) exhibition.

"We are honoured that one small part of her vast legacy will live on through our walls in the exhibition. Her words were always thoughtful, and thought-provoking, and we will continue to be guided by the values she espoused in our work."

She discusses the Shared Histories project, including the book (which won the BCHF historical writing prize) in this article.

Has an organization or person you know made a difference in the history and heritage field? Are you starting a project relating to the history of British Columbia? Do you know of a project undertaken by a heritage organization that has had major impact in the community? The deadline for many of our funds, awards and scholarships is March 1. Click here to learn more.