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An excerpt from the summer edition of British Columbia History.
MSC130-06634-01 courtesy of the British Columbia Postcards Collection, a digital initiative of Simon Fraser University Library
The steamship slices through the water on its approach to Fintry Estate on Okanagan Lake. Passengers are seen walking near the bow, and the camera soon cuts to a huge piston and flywheel that power a massive paddlewheel. Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp would be right at home in the gears, à la Modern Times. These images are among two minutes of rare 16-millimetre footage of the SS Sicamous during the winter of 1932.
Restored, scanned, and digitized by the Okanagan Archive Trust Society, the original film was donated by a man whose family collection included more than 300 films created by Louis and Rudolph Pop. The Vancouver brothers travelled the province as taxidermists and furriers, always with a camera in tow. They also created dioramas for the Royal BC Museum.
The CPR’s SS Sicamous delivered mail, passengers, and cargo on Okanagan Lake between 1914 and 1936. She now rests on the beach at a marine heritage park in Penticton. The interior has been beautifully restored by the SS Sicamous Marine Heritage Society, which also operates a museum. See the 1932 footage and read more here: https://tinyurl.com/y8nwcnht.
Two BC historic sites are in the money following the National Trust for Canada’s Next Great Save competition. Duncan Train Station (1912), operated by the Cowichan Valley Museum, got the vote out to earn the first prize of $50,000. The money will be used to make the station more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 74 per cent. Plans include storm windows, extra insulation, a heat pump, repairs to siding, and a rebuilt chimney.
There was so much interest in the competition that second and third-prize dollars were later added. Hope Station House (1916), recently destined for demolition and now owned and operated by the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum, earned $5,000 for placing third. This will help kickstart restoration work. Some 8,000 Japanese Canadians disembarked at Hope Station on their way to Second World War internment camps—including 2,644 Japanese Canadians forced into the nearby Tashme internment camp. The second-place prize of $10,000 was awarded to a small Acadian museum, La Vieille Maison at Meteghan, Nova Scotia.
The totem pole carved by Louis Snow is revealed. Photo: Michael Wigle
An act of healing, a totem pole has been returned to the Nuxalk community at Bella Coola by the Royal BC Museum and is now standing in the foyer of Acwsalcta School. The Nuxalk people say the totem/entrance post was taken without permission in 1913; the museum’s position is that it was purchased. Negotiations and a lawsuit resulted in the totem being lifted by crane through the roof of the Royal BC Museum, boxed up, and transported 1,000 kilometres by truck to Nuxalk territory.
A convoy of cars and pickups ushered the pole back home, to be greeted by 300 people in the school gymnasium and a repatriation ceremony. After a cloth was lifted from the totem, Nuxalk chiefs and then the entire community reached out to touch its surface. Hereditary Chief Yulm Snuxyaltwa, great- grandson of carver Louis Snow, says, “The totem tells us who we are and where we came from.” Next year it will be moved to a village site abandoned during the devastating 1862 smallpox epidemic. It will eventually crumble and return to the rainforest, part of its natural cycle.
Rendering of the Royal BC Museum Collections and Research Building. Image: Government of BC
The contract has been awarded for construction of the Royal BC Museum Collections and Research Building at Maple Bay, in Colwood. Work on the 15,200–square metre facility is expected to begin this summer, with an opening planned for 2026. The project cost is expected to reach $270 million, up substantially from a 2021 estimate of $170 million.
Last year the BC Historical Federation and Friends of the BC Archives collaborated to consult their members about the proposed facility and services it would provide. Numerous concerns and questions were documented and shared with the museum—transportation issues, improvements in access to digital records/images, and reduced licensing fees for BC Archives materials. Communication has subsequently opened up between BC Archives’ staff and the province’s historical community. BC Archives announced in April that licensing fees have been dropped; reduced processing fees remain.
Grace Dove stars in Bones of Crows. Photo: Farah Nosh, courtesy Ayasew Ooskana Productions
It has screened at Canada’s most prestigious film festivals, won audience awards, and travelled to Indigenous communities across BC and beyond. Bones of Crows, written and directed by Métis/Dene director and playwright Marie Clements, is a period drama starring Prince George–raised Grace Dove (Alaska Daily, The Revenant), who portrays Aline Spears, a Cree residential school survivor who becomes a code talker for the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. (BC child actor Summer Testawich plays Aline as a youngster, and Carla Rae portrays an older Aline).
The multi-generational story was filmed in part at Kamloops Indian Residential School and traces a century of emotional, sexual, and physical abuse and starvation that was experienced by children torn away from families. It explores the triggers that still ripple through generations, but it is also a powerful story of Indigenous resilience.
As the film heads to theatrical release, Marie Clements says, “It’s been amazing to feel the audience reaction to Bones of Crows as almost having its own life force. As a filmmaker you hope that your story will have a life of its own once it is complete but with Bones of Crows I feel it has ignited a dialogue with audiences, and they are not only ready to receive it but need and want to engage in a way that is bigger than we could have imagined.” A five-part series will also air later this fall on CBC and APTN.
Olympic gold medal (left) and Percy Williams (right). Image: olympic.ca
Two of Percy Williams’s gold medals that were stolen from the BC Sports Hall of Fame 43 years ago are back on display in the hall. In a rare move, the Canadian Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee worked together to recast the 1928 medals from their original moulds; Brian and Tracey Mead, who are members of his extended family, then donated them to the museum.
Williams was told by doctors when he was 15 to avoid sports because of acute rheumatic fever. Seven years later he stunned the sprinting world with two upset wins at the Amsterdam Olympics: the 100 and 200-metre races. It caught Games officials off guard—they rushed to find a Canadian flag for the award ceremony.
When Williams returned home to Vancouver, a school holiday had been declared, and there were 25,000 people on hand to greet him. The following year he set a world record of 10.3 seconds in the 100-metre race, and won gold at the 1930 British Empire Games.
“We are very happy to have played a small part in renewing Percy’s story,” said Tracey Mead. “He was a great Canadian athlete, and now his accomplishments will be back on display.” Williams took his own life at age 74 while suffering from depression and arthritis. He remains one of Canada’s greatest Olympic athletes.
Mark Forsythe travels through BC and back in time, exploring the unique work of British Columbia Historical Federation members.
We are grateful for the generous donations that make this award possible. Because it was the decision of the judges not to award the BCHF Centennial Legacy Fund in 2022, funds gathered last year were disbursed along with donations made to the fund this year.
We would like to introduce the winners of this year’s round of awards:
Barriere and District Heritage Society team, 2023. (Courtesy of the Barriere and District Heritage Society)
Twenty years after the 2003 McLure wildifre, the Barriere & District Heritage Society will be conducting interviews and gathering photos to create a small travelling exhibit illustrating the fire’s force, its destruction, and its legacies.
Upper Phoenix cemetery gates. (Courtesy of Boundary Historical Society)
Phoenix Cemetery, near Greenwood, dates from the time the City of Phoenix was a major producer of copper, between the 1890s and 1920. The Boundary Historical Society took over the care of the Phoenix Cemetery in the 1990s. Although the records for the cemetery are lost, research has determined there are approximately 160 graves, most unmarked. This project will enable the society to determine next steps in the care of this place.
Victor Menzies diary detailing daily life, April 1923. (Courtesy of the Pender Island Historical Society)
The Pender Islands Museum holds the Victor Menzies collection that spans over 90 years and includes 33 diaries and related records that detail island life and the interconnectedness of the island community. The digitization and transcription of this valuable and vulnerable resource will ensure its survival and accessibility.
A new BCHF board was elected today by acclamation at the annual general meeting. The new directors are as follows:
Jon is a UBC History (honours) graduate, trained under Keith Ralston. In his time, he has been a legal executive, a teacher, an editor, a professional singer, and a historical researcher. Now retired, Jon is the Secretary of the Princeton & District Museum and Archives and the current chair of the BCHF Conference Committee. With his wife, Rika Ruebsaat, Jon has written a couple of books of local history: Dead Horse on the Tulameen and Soviet Princeton, and they have been guest editors of British Columbia History. Jon and Rika have made seven CDs of traditional Canadian song and are the founders and principal organizers of the Princeton Traditional Music Festival.
Teresa is a graduate of the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria and has worked in the heritage sector for over twenty-five years in both BC and Saskatchewan. She has held a variety of positions in museums, and has also served on various boards, most recently as President of the Museums Association of Saskatchewan. Teresa moved home to BC with her husband, Keith, in 2019. She currently works as Curator at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she is collaborating with Stó:lō community members on several projects, including two websites. Teresa is looking forward to reconnecting with the people, history, and heritage of BC through the BCHF.
Since becoming Acting Associate Registrar of the Royal BC Museum in 2022 and the Acting Senior Registrar in 2023, Chelsea has worked to advance her passion for collections management and conservation. Chelsea completed her PSC in Collections Management from the University of Victoria. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Victoria with a Major in European History and a Minor in Medieval Studies. As acting secretary for the RBCM Collections Committee she is familiar with Board and executive deliverables. She is passionate about representing and advancing the heritage sector in BC and looks forward to connecting and learning together with the vast network of individuals and organizations associated with the BCHF.
Monica Miller (she/her) is a communications and publishing professional with a Master of Publishing from SFU. She has worked in various roles as a writer, editor, digital marketer, project manager, and designer, and is currently the Marketing and Publicity Coordinator for Heritage House. Monica is also passionate about local history, community building, literary diversity, arts for social change, creative space making, and book arts. Born and raised in Vancouver, she now lives in Maple Ridge, the traditional territory of the Katzie First Nation and Kwantlen First Nation.
Also returning are president Rosa Flinton-Brown (Langley), vice-president Anna Irwin (Victoria), honorary president K. Jane Watt (Fort Langley), past president Shannon Bettles (Williams Lake), treasurer Barbara Kearney-Copan (Burnaby), secretary Kira Westby (Smithers), director Mark Forsythe (Fort Langley), director Aman Johal (Surrey), director Greg Nesteroff (Trail), director Emma Quan (Burnaby), director Ron Verzuh (Victoria), and director Elwin Xie (Vancouver).
A big thanks to outgoing directors Kennedy Neumann (Terrace), Janet Ou (Vancouver), and especially Maurice Guibord (Vancouver), who is stepping down after 12 years on the board. Maurice was also the longtime convenor of the BCHF Historical Writing Awards.
An excerpt from the Spring 2023 issue of British Columbia History.
Councillor George Chaffee of kʷʷikʷəƛ ̓əʷəƛ ̓əm First Nation points out the site of the kʷʷikʷəƛ ̓əʷəƛ ̓əm Historical Cemetery to Heritage Planner Lucas Roque of FPCC. (Courtesy First Nations Peoples’ Cultural Council)
Karen Aird, in conversation with K. Jane Watt
Karen Aird is Manager of Culture and Heritage at First Peoples’ Cultural Council, and we are delighted that she was able to spend time with us to talk about how climate change is impacting, or will impact, Indigenous cultural heritage in BC. The council is a First Nations-governed Crown corporation with a mandate to support the revitalization of First Nations languages, arts, cultures, and heritage in British Columbia. The organization provides funding, resources, and skills development, monitors the status of First Nations languages, develops policy recommendations for First Nations leadership and government, and collaborates with organizations on numerous special projects that raise the profile of arts, languages, cultures, and heritage in BC, Canada, and internationally.
“Indigenous cultural heritage is holistic, meaning it includes physical, emotional, mental, kinship, and spiritual components. It includes both tangible (physical) objects and places, as well as intangible aspects. Each of these concepts is inextricably linked, holding intrinsic value to the well-being of Indigenous people and affecting all generations. All are the belongings of Indigenous Peoples.”
— From the introduction to the FPCC’s Indigenous Heritage Stewardship Toolkit, July 2022. Find it at https://fpcc.ca/resource/heritage-toolkit-introduction.
Jane: Indigenous Cultural Heritage is a fabric of knowledge and identity deeply connected to lands and waters. As this context of place is disturbed under climate change, so too are all these connections. The challenges are immense, both short term and long term. Karen, what is your top priority in terms of action to address what is already being experienced as well as what is expected in the future? Karen: The top priority is addressing the lack of direct provincial or heritage funding and support for Indigenous people who are dealing with devastating impacts to their cultural heritage places. Funding has been announced by the provincial government—as you’re aware—of almost half a billion dollars to support climate change mitigation. But none of that is to deal with immediate impacts to an Indigenous site or a place, and Indigenous Peoples have nowhere to go to access such funding.
The First Peoples Cultural Council has stepped in. We’ve completed seven pilot projects looking at the impacts on cultural heritage from climate change, and we’ve had one scenario where we had to quickly find funds to support a community whose petrogylphs were being destroyed by flooding due to climate change. Climate change is going to be part of our future, and we have to have the resources and the ability to respond quickly to emergency situations. To me, the number one priority is supporting communities to deal with emergency situations, and then it’s developing long-term, sustainable support and funding for adapting and managing climate change within communities.
Beyond the emergency situation is the other priority of documenting the knowledge of the places and Knowledge Keepers and caretakers that are going to be lost. We need to support Indigenous Peoples as they gather this information, because these landscapes, places, and people are associated with both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
As we know, Indigenous landscapes are being deeply impacted by climate change, and an integral part of landscape is the memory of that landscape. When a landscape is lost or altered, so does the memory associated with it.
Places are changing. They’re changing because of climate change, because of urbanization, and all sorts of development. So those memories are going to change, and if we don’t capture them now, there will be a major loss. These oral histories, knowledge—all of that is part of Indigenous identity and culture—when you remove it, you’re removing a piece of the Indigenous culture and identity from that society.
This work of meeting the challenges of climate change has to be Indigenous-led, and it has to be rooted in health and wellness and connection to land. How you nourish the land is how you nourish the people. Indigenous stewardship, and supporting Indigenous stewardship, is central to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The national, non-profit Indigenous Heritage Circle has been a leader in outlining and explaining this work, and the Indigenous Leadership Initiative is working hard to support community stewardship, especially through its national Guardians program.
The FPCC funded seven climate change pilot projects, and they are all outstanding. They are about understanding climate change differently—understanding how climate change informed the cultural practice
of Elders and ancestors as well as looking at the present and future effects of climate change in different places. These communities had very short time frames to do their work—just four months—and they were working through Covid-19 and had to pivot because of weather and access and infrastructure. I am really proud of their work.
The recommendations that came out of those seven pilot projects, which really need to be our focus now, are understanding, documenting, and protecting Indigenous places and knowledge that are being impacted by climate change.
In November of 2022, we were able to begin some of that work through funding under our Indigenous Stewardship Program and Indigenous Heritage Infrastructure Program. BC First Nation communities can apply for HSP funds for projects specific to understanding and mitigating climate change. HIP funding supports First Nations communities in their work to safeguard and celebrate their heritage. Projects receive funding for two years to conserve structures, cultural and heritage sites, landscapes, and buildings. The project proposals reveal the ways that heritage and culture are intertwined in every part of Indigenous life and speak to the significance of how these spaces are used and shared. This fiscal year, we are excited to share that we are funding 16 HSP and 16 HIP projects across BC.
The kkʷʷikikʷəƛ ̓əʷəƛ ̓əmm Historical Cemetery Revitalization Project is about healing and putting those who are buried there properly to rest. It is very disrespectful that so many of the gravesites and markers have been lost due to repeated and consistent flooding in the area for decades. The funding provided by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and First Nation Land Management Resources Centre is crucial in our long-term work to create a safer, sacred historical cemetery that allows us to protect, honour, and show respect to those who are buried there. I am very proud to be leading this project and to be giving a voice to our Elders and Ancestors so that their lives are remembered not only for today, but for generations to come.
We are both relieved and excited to build a heritage facility at our ancestral settlement of Poxwia on the Harrison River. The structure will protect the incredible archaeological history in this place and enable us to continue learning more about it. The space will also allow us to share this history and knowledge with others, creating greater understanding and appreciation for our heritage.
The IHC is an Indigenous-designed and Indigenous-led organization founded in 2016. We are dedicated to the advancement of cultural heritage priorities that are of importance to Métis, Inuit, and First Nations Peoples in Canada. Working with partners from across the country, we have developed the following definition of Indigenous heritage: Indigenous Heritage is complex and dynamic. Indigenous Heritage encompasses ideas, experiences, belongings, artistic expressions, practices, knowledge, and places that are valued because they are culturally meaningful and connected to shared memory. Indigenous Heritage cannot be separated from either Indigenous identity or Indigenous life. It can be inherited from ancestors or created by people today as a legacy for future generations. Its vision statement: “Healthy and vibrant Indigenous communities in which Indigenous Peoples are supported and recognized in their role as the caretakers of Indigenous heritage in all forms.” This information is from https://indigenousheritage.ca/.
The British Columbia Historical Federation is honoured to announce the finalists for the 2022 Lieutenant Governor’s Historical Writing Awards. They appear below in alphabetical order by author. The specific awards will be announced during the awards gala at the BCHF conference taking place this year in Princeton on July 22.
John Adams – Chinese Victoria: A Long and Difficult Journey (self-published)
Sean Carleton – Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism and the Rise of State Schooling in BC (UBC Press)
Robin Fisher – Wilson Duff: Coming back, a life (Harbour Publishing)
Derek Hayes – Incredible Crossings: The History and Art of the Bridges, Tunnels and Inland Ferries that Connect BC (Harbour Publishing)
Satwinder Kaur Bains and Balbir Gurm, eds, – A Social History of South Asians in BC (South Asian Studies Institute, University of the Fraser Valley)
Gaadgas Nora Bellis & Jenny Nelson – So You Girls Remember That: Memories of a Haida Elder (Harbour Publishing)
David Rossiter & Patricia Burke Wood – Unstable Properties: Aboriginal Title and the Claim of BC, (UBC Press)
We recognize and thank the authors and publishers who submitted the 27 candidate publications for this year’s awards for adding to the compendium of historical writing in British Columbia.
Hälle and Linda Flygare in Banff National Park.
The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) is pleased to announce that Hälle and Linda Flygare of Canmore are recipients of a BC provincial Award of Recognition.
Awards of recognition are given by the BCHF to individuals who have given exceptional service for a specific project in the preservation of British Columbia’s history.
The Flygares received this Award of Recognition for preserving, documenting and marking the Alexander Mackenzie (Nuxalk-Dakelh Grease) Trail.
Hälle was the original instigator for the preservation of the 350-km long trail from Bella Coola to Quesnel. Between 1975 and 1986, Flygare retraced and photographed the 347 km stretch from the Fraser River to the Friendly Village by the Bella Coola River, while working for Parks Canada, BC Parks and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Flygare has walked the entire 347 km six times with his wife Linda and others, gathering information and photographs about this ancient trail which he compiled into six self-published books in 2021 and 2022.
The award was presented at the Federation’s annual conference awards gala on July 22 in Princeton.
Hälle Flygare tells us he is still active in pursuit and protection of the trail: “The most interesting was my last year rediscovery of the 25-km trail Mackenzie used coming down from the Rainbows guided by Ulkatcho or Nuxalk people. The key was Mackenzie’s ‘Huge Rock’ located by Leslie Kopas in 1985 but missed in 1926 by the famous land surveyor Frank Swannell by not reading Mackenzie’s journals correctly about the ‘Huge Rock.’ This section of the thousand years old grease trail was last used in 1862 with the outbreak of smallpox epidemic but kept open by grizzly and black bears. Dr. Harvey Thommasen from Hagensborg followed last year my mapped route on the Google Earth maps and found Mackenzie’s last trek coming down from the Rainbows and this year located rest of the trail up to Mackenzie’s ‘Huge Rock.’ This is one of the biggest trail finds in BC but no acknowledgement has been made from BC Parks and Trails about my trail discovery.” Flygare says he would also like to have a 30-km connector trail from Blackwater Road to the Fraser River protected. He flagged it out in 1975. While Mackenzie did not use the trail, he mentioned it in his journals, naming it the “Great Road” and the Blackwater River “West-Road River.” The Caledonia Ramblers have relocated the trail and cleared it, but it has no formal protections. “This connector trail should be included with the Heritage Trail, and we would have a complete 347-km hiking trail from the Fraser to Bella Coola Rivers,” Flygare says. “I suggest this area should be protected as a West Road Canyon Provincial Park, as it has a very beautiful deep canyon.”
Hälle and Linda Flygare in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, hiking the Mackenzie Trail.
It has been one hundred years since Canada introduced the Chinese Exclusion Act. The legislation locked the doors on immigration, based solely on country of origin. It was a dark chapter that isolated men from their wives and children who were living in China.
The Paper Trail to the Chinese Exclusion Act is a compelling and deeply personal exhibition at the new Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Curated by Catherine Clement, it took four years to gather identity cards and family stories from across the country. The BC Historical Federation’s Mark Forsythe joined Catherine to learn more about the genesis of the project and what it reveals about our shared history. Produced by our video wizard Elwin Xie.
Image: Point Ellice House seen in a painting by Edward Goodall. (Image msc130-12698_01 courtesy of the British Columbia Postcards Collection, a digital initiative of Simon Fraser University Library)
The Directors of the BC Historical Federation are sad to hear that Point Ellice House in Victoria is closing. Our hearts go out to the staff and volunteers of the Vancouver Island Local History Society, a member of the BCHF. We know they have worked hard through difficult times to find new ways to share stories that challenge and inspire us.
Our members are wearing down. Museums, archives, and cultural institutions across British Columbia continue to be affected by financial and capacity shortfalls stemming from the pandemic and chronic underfunding in the sector. In addition, high costs are stretching budgets precariously thin for many of our member organizations.
We urge governments at all levels – local, provincial, and federal – to support organizations operating cultural and historical institutions to provide sustainable funding for all aspects of operations, from staff wages, to repair and maintenance costs, to supplies for school programming.
The BCHF will continue its advocacy to support the work of our members. Generous support of the dedicated people who continue to collaborate, research, and share the stories of this place is essential to the well-being of communities.
An excerpt from the Spring 2023 issue of British Columbia History magazine.
The Hope station in its original location in the 1970s. (Courtesy of Tashme Museum)
Just over two years ago, the 1916 Hope Canadian National Railway Station was destined for the wrecker’s ball, until an army of citizens launched a grassroots campaign that resulted in a rescue plan. A stop work order was issued, a Statement of Significance created, and ultimately, the station house was saved.
Japanese Canadians carrying their belongings are loaded into the back of trucks at Hope station house in 1942. (Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre NNMCC, L2021-2-1-002)
The Tashme Historical Society stepped up and negotiated with the District of Hope for almost a year, and now the society is the proud owner of this historic train station. The society operates the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum, southeast of Hope.
In 1942 more than 2,600 Japanese Canadians were interned at Tashme. Men, women, and children forcibly removed from the west coast were loaded into the back of trucks at Hope Station House for the two-hour journey to a rudimentary camp where there was no running water or electricity.
Museum manager Ryan Ellan draws a strong link between the station house and the story of Japanese internment. He told the Hope Standard: “There were nearly 9,000 Japanese-Canadians that got off trains at the Hope Station House…to be transferred to the other internment camps throughout BC. Or off the train, at Hope Station House, to the waiting trucks to make the 14-mile trek to Tashme.”
The Hope Station House will be relocated to 919 Water Avenue to become the town’s visitor information centre and community museum.
Image: Merchant Yip Sang and family members in front of the Wing Sang Company building, 51 East Pender Street. (City of Vancouver Archives AM1108-S4-: CVA 689-52)
The Chinese Canadian Museum is preparing to open this summer in the Wing Sang Building, in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown. Built by Yip Sang in 1889, the brick structure tripled in size as his import/export business grew. Yip Sang was the Chinese agent for the CPR who brought in 6,000–7,000 workers. To most people he was the unofficial mayor of Chinatown.
The building was more recently owned by real estate marketer Bob Rennie. A $27.5 million grant from the provincial government and a $7.8 million donation from Rennie allowed the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC to acquire the restored building. One hundred years after the Chinese Exclusion Act—which halted almost all migration from China—the new museum will honour Chinese Canadian history. Grace Wong, chair of the society, told CBC, “We want to reflect the stories of not only Vancouver but all of BC, and ultimately across the country.”
Image: Keyohwhudachun headdress (Mayoo Kehoh Society and Royal Ontario Museum)
A headdress belonging to a Susk’uz family has been repatriated from the Royal Ontario Museum. Made from female human hair, baleen, and seashells, the headdress is physical evidence of governance over territory by the Maiyoo Keyoh, a family grouping on the north shore of Beaver Lake near Fort St James. Following a repatriation ceremony, the headdress is now the focal point of a new exhibit at The Exploration Place, in Prince George.
Keyohwudachun (chief) Petra A’Huille, great-great-granddaughter of George A’Huille, who once wore the headdress, described seeing it for the first time: “I never thought that I would see something like that in my life. Just to touch it … my great-great-grandmothers’ hair—it’s still there after maybe 200 years.”
Murray Sinclair, chair of the Indian and Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission, spoke via a virtual link. “That’s the beginning of reconciliation—stop hiding us from ourselves, hiding away our sense of identity.” He congratulated the Royal Ontario Museum, the BC Museums Association, and The Exploration Place for helping ensure the headdress was returned 140 years after it was taken. His message for the Maiyoo Kehoh: “This will allow you to talk to your young people about a very important part of their connection with the history of your nation.”
More about the exhibit here: https://tinyurl.com/mr3feazw.
Ferry wharf, crowds and automobiles at North Vancouver captured in 1914. (NVMA 2976)
North Vancouver’s Shipyards District has been transformed over the last dozen years. Wallace Shipyards once employed thousands of people, and the Lower Lonsdale area was a major transportation hub for trains, ferries, and other ships. Over time, the industrial area fell into decline, and the City of North Vancouver spearheaded revitalization plans.
New development includes galleries, restaurants, housing, and open public space; its industrial heritage is preserved through historic docks, buildings, and giant cranes. The Museum of North Vancouver (MONOVA) opened in the area (Esplanade West) in 2021 and has launched a new exhibit space with You Are Here @ The Shipyards.
Acting MONOVA director Laurel Lawry says they wanted to introduce themselves to the neighbourhood. “Since time immemorial, this place has served as a gathering place for Indigenous peoples, for those arriving in North Vancouver, and to the commercial and industrial drivers—we see the new, vibrant Shipyards District as a culmination of those experiences and transformations.” Artifacts, oral history, and multimedia displays will share the Shipyards story until the end of 2023. Watch a BC Historical Federation interview about MONOVA here: https://tinyurl.com/bdfz7vck.
Rendering of Salishan Place by the River. (Courtesy Township of Langley)
Boxes filled with cherished artifacts have arrived and exhibit development is underway. The new salishan Place cultural centre at Fort Langley is a project of the Township of Langley and the Kwantlen, Katzie, Matsqui, and Semiahmoo First Nations. The three-storey facility incorporates natural materials like Douglas fir and western red cedar and replaces the Langley Centennial Museum built in 1958. salishan Place also marks a new approach to how museums tellstories, and whose stories are shared.
The Coast Salish cedar basket motif on the building’s exterior offers a clue: a weaving together of strands of history from the area’s multiple cultural perspectives. The drum is a prominent design feature, connecting people from around the world. The Township of Langley’s director of Arts, Culture and Community Initiatives, Peter Tulumello, calls it “an all-inclusive, single museum.” Interpretive themes that emerged from community consultations include welcoming, inclusivity, collaboration, reflection, and advancing truth and reconciliation. A soft opening of salishan Place by the River is planned for the end of the summer.
Image: Editor Barbara Price with newly published Mack Laing book. (Submitted photo)
Ontario-born artist, photographer, writer, veteran, and noted naturalist Hamilton Mack Laing arrived in the Comox Valley in 1922. It was love at first sight. Laing bought five acres on the shoreline for $750, built a kit home, and cleared land to create Baybrook Nut Farm. Following his wife, Ethel’s, death, he built another home nearby called Shakesides.
Between 1922 and 1944 he wrote a manuscript about their lives and experiences in the Comox Valley, but it was never published. Baybrook: Life’s Best Adventure has now been printed 80 years later by the Comox Archives and Museum Society. Editor Barbara Price says, “It is a great privilege to bring this book to life 80 years after it was written. Mack Laing, an early Canadian naturalist, so wanted this manuscript published. It is a story of love and simplicity and living off the land. His message is as fresh today as when he wrote it.”
Laing died in 1982 at the age of 99; Mack Laing Nature Park remains as part of his legacy.
An excerpt from the Winter 2022-23 edition of British Columbia History.
Bob Hanna (right) with stone sculptor David Weir at unveiling of the Robert Hill Hanna VC statue. Photo: Adam Beck
The son of a Canadian war hero has unveiled a stone statue of his father in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland. Robert Hill Hanna immigrated to BC from County Down in 1905, and at age 27 enlisted with the 29th Battalion in Vancouver. His November 1914 attestation papers describe him as a “lumberman” with fair hair and blue eyes, standing 5 feet 7-1/2 inches (171 cm) tall. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his efforts at the 1917 Battle of Hill 70 in northern France. With all of his company officers either killed or wounded, Hanna led a party against a fortified machine gun nest under heavy fire. His citation reads, “[H]e rushed through the wire and personally bayoneted three of the enemy and brained the fourth, capturing the position and silencing the machine gun.”
The people of Kilkeel never forgot their native son. A fundraising campaign by the Schomberg Society financed a life-sized statue that now stands in a public square near the heart of this fishing port. His son, Bob Hanna, journeyed with his family to Kilkeel from BC and told the BBC, “It’s unbelievable that an event of 105 years ago is suddenly in the forefront. This is happening to me now.”
Google Earth and local archival images make for an engrossing virtual tour of heritage buildings and places in Smithers. Developed by the Bulkley Valley Museum, the tour highlights the traditional territory—the yin tah—of the Wit’suwit’en people. The online viewer selects a building or site from the menu; Google Earth then swiftly zooms to that location, displaying a current image beside archival photos. Relevant information is included for historical context. Find the tour here: https://bvmuseum.org/virtual-exhibits. Research conducted for the virtual tour and downtown history walks are also the basis for a heritage registry project currently underway.
Part of the Bulkley Valley Museum’s Google Earth archival tour. Photo: Bulkley Valley Museum
Bravo to Richard Wright and Amy Newman, makers of Long Road to Cariboo, which won the Silver Award at the Independent Shorts Awards in Los Angeles and has now been accepted at three other film festivals. Storytelling and song recreate the back-breaking journey into the Cariboo during the gold rush, with special attention to its multicultural participants.
Title image from Long Road to Cariboo. Photo: Winters Quarters Productions
Richard Wright says, “The gold rush story is often told as European (i.e., white) miners coming to a bucolic landscape where ‘one could leave their gold sitting on the boardwalk.’ It was not this lofty image. It was miners from around the world, in particular Europeans, Chinese, South Americans, Mexicans, and, of course, First Nations. We wanted to tell and show the wide range of people who were here through their music.”
Imagine a 600-kilometre journey by foot from Fort Yale to the Cariboo gold fields across a vast and formidable landscape. Eventually the Cariboo Wagon Road provided wheeled passage to those who could afford it. The film traces that trek from the Fraser Canyon’s boiling rapids to the awe-inspiring Chasm wilderness near Clinton and beyond to the gold diggings. Long Road to Cariboo packs a lot of history into 22 minutes and can be seen at https://vimeo.com/726878846 and at “Richard T. Wright Photography–Winter Quarters Productions” on Facebook. Funding was provided by the New Pathways to Gold Society and BC Multiculturalism Branch; most scenes were filmed on the traditional lands of the Secwépemc (Shuswap) people.
Photo: Courtesy the Village of Daajing Giids
Signs reading “Village of Queen Charlotte” are now fading into history after local council voted unanimously to revert to the ancient Haida name, Daajing Giids, pronounced DAW-jean GEEDS. Village council responded to a request from the Haida Hereditary Chiefs Council and then canvassed its citizens. Mayor Kris Olsen told CBC, “We have embraced our responsibility and come through on the right side of this historic moment.”
Queen Charlotte Islands, Sound, and Village were named after one of Captain George Dixon’s ships when the Royal Navy officer and fur trader visited the area in 1787. (Charlotte was the wife of King George III.) The Islands were renamed Haida Gwaii in 2009 as part of a reconciliation agreement between the province and the Haida Nation. Initiatives to change colonial era names are underway in multiple BC communities.
Crew preparing exterior for painting at the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum. Photo: Mark Forsythe
Vancouver’s oldest building is showing its age. Built in 1868, the Old Hastings Mill Store was vital to workers at the adjacent Hastings sawmill for groceries, hardware, mail, and social contact. Originally located at the foot of Dunlevy Avenue at Vancouver Harbour, its entrance faced the water. A $200,000 restoration project includes repairs to the fir siding, window frames and chimney, topped off with a fresh coat of paint in its original white with rusty red accents. Rhino Design, a Vancouver renovation and restoration company, spent about four months working on the building, now located in Hastings Mill Park on Alma Street. The Old Hastings Mill Store Museum is operated by the last surviving chapter of the Native Daughters of BC, which saved the building from demolition in 1930. Donations are eagerly accepted via https://hastingsmillmuseum.ca. Net proceeds from the book Hastings Mill: The Historic Times of a Vancouver Community by Lisa Anne Smith are also being directed toward the project.
British Columbia Historical FederationPO Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, Canada, V1M 2R7Information: info@bchistory.ca
The Secretariat of the BCHF is located on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish speaking Peoples.
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