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An excerpt from the spring edition of British Columbia History
These thrifted artifacts have prompted many questions. (Photo: Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, SFU)
Simon Fraser University archaeology students will flex their detective muscles in a new course this fall designed to determine whether a collection of rings and medallions is real — or fake.
The story begins with a donation to Thrifty Boutique in Chilliwack by a customer who said the items were potentially ancient. The thrift store contacted SFU’s Department of Archaeology to determine whether 11 decorated rings and two ornate medallions are historically significant. Archaeology faculty and the university’s Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology conducted a visual survey and decided the artifacts appear to be dated from the late antiquity period (3rd–6th century) and/or the medieval period.
The collection has been donated to SFU. However, with no known provenance, ethical questions have emerged: If the artifacts are forgeries, should the museum acquire them? If looted from a real hoard, should they be returned? This fall, instructors from the archaeology department will guide students through the more meticulous process of determining whether the collection is authentic. The students and instructors will probe the ethics related to the ways museums acquire collections and where this collection should end up — if it’s the real deal.
Restored Cataline burial monument at Gitanmaax Cemetery, Old Hazelton. (Photo courtesy Thomas Roper)
When Thomas Roper located a burial monument for the legendary packer Cataline at the Gitanmaax Cemetery, the stone was disintegrating and its plaque and horseshoe had been stolen. Thomas decided BC’s most famous packer deserved more respect and after consulting the Gitanmaax Band at Old Hazelton he began restoration with the help of Floyd Kennedy (who redesigned the plaque) and a stone mason, Trevor Doerksen. A heavy-duty mechanic by trade, Thomas is a self-described history buff “who tends to wander graveyards checking for stories of our pioneers.”
Cataline (Jean Caux) arrived in BC from Southern France during the 1858 gold rush, and he quickly learned there was more money to be made by transporting supplies to miners. He worked with mules from Yale to Barkerville, along the Telegraph Trail near Hazelton, and in the Omineca region. Cataline was noted for his reliability, an uncanny memory (illiterate, he remembered every item delivered), and an odd habit of rubbing whisky into his fulsome hair.
With restoration now complete, Thomas says there are plans to further honour Cataline on horseback this summer. “Hopefully close to Pioneer Days in Hazelton we will ride from the paddlewheeler on the Skeena up to his gravesite and celebrate one historical character from Hazelton. … It is quite beautiful as Cataline looks out over the confluence of the Bulkley and Skeena rivers.
Illustrator Ally Adachi and author Jeff Chiba Stearns. (Photo courtesy Jeff Chiba Stearns)
A panel from Tomey, the graphic novel. (Courtesy Jeff Chiba Stearns)
A new graphic novel tracing the story of a Japanese Canadian social justice pioneer is being offered free to Canadian schools and libraries. Tomekichi (Tomey) Homma fought for equal pay for Japanese fishermen in the late 1800s and, later, for the right to vote. As a naturalized citizen he took his argument all the way to the Privy Council in London, but lost. Tomey died in a Slocan Valley internment camp before the vote became a reality in 1949 — his son Seiji was part of the successful campaign.
BC author and filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns took on the challenge to create a book for younger readers after being approached by the Asia Pacific Foundation and National Coalition of Canadians Against Anti Asian Racism. “Back in the spring of 2023, I was asked to visit Tomekichi Homma Elementary [in Richmond] for a round of author talks. I actually had no idea who Tomekichi Homma was. While there, I learned about his contribution to Canadian civil rights. I was pretty blown away that I hadn’t heard about him before as I’m very well connected with the Japanese Canadian community.”
The graphic novel is dialogue driven, and Jeff worked with Tomekichi’s granddaughter to bring an authentic voice to her remarkable ancestor. “I wanted young readers to be inspired by Tomekichi’s story especially when there is so much happening in the world that requires people to stand up and have their voices heard!”
Download a PDF version of Tomey, The Unyielding Spirit of Tomekichi Homma at https://tinyurl.com/4j2w47zw
Historian Dr. Barry Gough from Confederation series. (Courtesy Canada History Society)
Erudite historian and former BC Historical Federation president Barry Gough, and Greg Scott, a fellow member of the Canada History Society, have launched a video series tracing British Columbia’s wild and rocky road to Confederation. A team of college and university students also contributed to the 20-part series that, Barry says, “explores the many reasons and aspects, pro and con, as to how and why BC elected to join Canada in 1871.”
The series marches swiftly through first contact with Indigenous peoples, the gold rush, colonial development and its implications, and the eventual promise of financial support and a railway. This forged the permanent relationship with Canada on July 20, 1871. Margaret Ormsby once described this date as “a moment suspended between empire and nationhood.”
The British Columbia Confederation series can be seen on the Canada History Society website, which also features The Cauldron, an 11-part podcast series hosted by Barry that considers “volatile aspects” of the province’s history between 1871 and 1914, including Indigenous land title, the Komagata Maru episode, and the US pursuit of Manifest Destiny. Greg Scott says the series is designed for historians, enthusiasts, and the curious: "Please take a listen as he [Barry] turns up the heat on the past — and listen to how British Columbia was shaped, heated, and poured into something new.”
Watch and listen on the Canada History Society website: https://canadahistorysociety.ca/video-series-bc-confederation
Ken MacKinnon (Photo: Mark Forsythe)
Pull off the Trans-Canada Highway at Alexandra Lodge in the Fraser Canyon, and without much prompting, Ken MacKinnon will show you his latest restoration work on this Cariboo Wagon Road classic. One of the oldest structures in BC is being restored from top to bottom, and when I visited he pointed to square-headed nails believed to be from the original construction, circa 1863. (There have been three or four layers of additions and alterations over 150 years.)
When Ken and his wife, Shirley, took on this labour of love four years ago, the structure was almost ready to return to the soil, but Ken’s carpentry skills are impressive. New beams and supports, electrical wiring, and a water system that includes a sprinkler system for the roof are bringing back this historic stopping house located 14 miles from Yale — it was the first stop for horses and wagons heading north to the goldfields. The couple are now leaving their RV and moving into a fully renovated upper floor; plans for an art studio, small museum and public access to follow. Watch their progress on Facebook @TheHistoricAlexandraLodge.
Meanwhile, rehabilitation work continues on the nearby Alexandra Bridge (built in 1926), led by the Spuzzum First Nation and New Pathways to Gold Society. A new interpretive kiosk constructed like a pit house sits beside the Alexandra Bridge Park parking lot, highlighting the Spuzzum people’s deep history and cultural traditions at this spectacular site.
Pit house–inspired kiosk at Alexandra Bridge Park. (Photo: Mark Forsythe)
Mark Forsythe travels through BC and back in time, exploring the unique work of British Columbia Historical Federation members.
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:
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.
British Columbia Historical FederationPO Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, Canada, V1M 2R7Information: info@bchistory.ca
With gratitude, the BCHF acknowledges that it carries out its work on the traditional territories of Indigenous nations throughout British Columbia.
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