Blog & News

The Nelson Museum Archives and Gallery has officially launching a new permanent installation called We Love a Parade!, based on a 2021 gallery exhibition that celebrated the history of the West Kootenay Gays and Lesbians Society, meticulously compiled by longtime archives volunteer Michael Wicks.

Read more in the Nelson Star.

Google Street View

Two dozen long-forgotten scrapbooks have been rediscovered after more than a century on the top floor of Wongs’ Benevolent Association on Pender Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown (seen above).

Read more in The Vancouver Sun.

1420 Broad Street in Victoria

Bell Media is selling its Francis Rattenbury-designed building in Victoria. The building, constructed around 1907, is on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.

Read more in the Victoria Times-Colonist.

It's June and that means it's time for the Great Canadian Giving Challenge once again!

The Great Canadian Giving Challenge is a national public contest to benefit Canadian charities. Every $1 donated to a registered charity in June via CanadaHelps, automatically enters the charity to win an additional $20,000 donation.

The $20,000 grand prize draw will take place on Canada Day July 1st where one lucky charity will win!

Through the Great Canadian Giving Challenge, we are raising money for the BCHF Centennial Legacy Fund, which supports community historians who are uncovering the diverse cultural, social, genealogical, and geological history of BC.

Donate now

The BCHF thanks all donors for their continued support. 

This presentation was delivered by Dr. Si:yémia Albert "Sonny" McHalsie and Dr. Keith Thor Carlson at the BC Historical Federation Conference on May 4, 2024 at the Gathering Place at the University of the Fraser Valley's Chilliwack Campus.

Si:yémiya is the Cultural Advisor / Sxweyxwiyam (Historian) at the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre, Stó:lō Nation, in Chilliwack, B.C. He is also an instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley, and has taught in the past for the University of Victoria for the Ethnohistory Field School. Si:yémiya is an active researcher and publisher, having authored and co-authored various articles and books over the past twenty-five years. The guiding principle behind his research is the ancient Stó:lō tradition of “being of good mind.” His areas of expertise include Stó:lō place names, sxwōxwiyám (ancient narratives) and sqwélqwel (family histories), fishing, and oral history.

Professor Keith Thor Carlson holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History at the University of the Fraser Valley, where he has additionally been appointed Director of the Peace and Reconciliation Centre. Keith has been partnering with Coast Salish communities, especially the Stó:lō, to help document and interpret history and cultural traditions since 1992. His research is designed and executed collaboratively with Indigenous communities to meet community-identified priorities.

Si:yémiya takes you to places within S'ólh Téméxw, sharing Hal'qeméylem place names, and telling some of the sxwōxwiyám (ancient stories) and sqwélqwel (personal and family histories) that give shape to Stó:lō culture, history and people.

Dr. Carlson explains how place-naming is an integral component of the settler colonial process, and suggests ways in how we can take action to move towards decolonizing, re-Indigenizing, and re-naming places that are known to have original Indigenous names.

Si:yémiya provided examples of place names that guided Indigenous communities while travelling that reflected their knowledge of sites with bountiful food resources; that commemorated historical events and occurrences; and that documented stories of origin and transformation.

Carlson spoke to the process by which colonialists asserted a degree of control by naming spaces and associating new memories that reflected settler heritages. He suggests empowering Indigenous communities to create policies and processes that lead to re-naming on Indigenous terms.

Filming and editing by Elwin Xie, BC Historical Federation.

View of upper ranch and river bench, Wallachin. (Image D-08188 courtesy Royal BC Museum and Archives)

Since 2016, an annual event called Walhaschindig has drawn people to Wallhachin, a community built in the 1910s between Cache Creek and Kamloops that was supposed to be an orchard's paradise. The museum in the community's historic Soldiers Memorial Hall will be open five days a week through the end of September.

Read more in the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal.

Nearly 100 objects, many likely thousands of years old, have been returned to the Snuneymuxw First Nation by the Royal BC Museum, including carved stone bowls, spindle whorls, and food processing utensils. 

Read more in the Victoria News.

Conversations continue about the creation of a museum in BC to celebrate Canadians of South Asian heritage. What is described as a “crucial consultation session” will be held June 13 in Surrey.

Read more in the Surrey Now-Leader.

(Google Street View)

Parksville council has voted to look into moving an historic E&N Railway watertower to Victoria. The tower escaped demolition in 2020, but a group that wanted to restore and relocate it to a spot nearby has faced challenges.

Read more in the Parksville Qualicum Beach News.

Revelstoke city council has approved a new heritage management plan to “safeguard the valued features of Revelstoke and its natural and cultural heritage.”

“The Heritage Advisory Commission is grateful and thankful to Denise Cook, planning staff, the city’s Indigenous liaison Dale Tomma, and the community for their great work on this important document for the present and future," said senior planner Erica Hartling on behalf of commission chair Laurie Lafontaine. 

"The heritage management plan will be an undeniable asset and an important tool for Revelstoke to preserve its heritage and even more.”

According to a news release, the plan represents a commitment by the city, and the wider Revelstoke community, to increase efforts to sustain all aspects of Revelstoke’s heritage as a fundamental part of the city’s future. The plan:

• Provides direction on how events, places, and people in history are acknowledged, and promotes specific narratives that are foundational to the cultural functioning and identity of a people.

• Lays the foundation to adequately involve a more accurate representation of all the voices that make up Revelstoke, in discussions of heritage and policies that lay the groundwork for heritage management.

• Serves to ensure that there is this commitment, energy and effort to safeguard the valued features of Revelstoke, both its natural and cultural heritage, while promoting current best practices in heritage conservation in alignment with community values (identified in the OCP). The plan, a living document funded in part by the Columbia Basin Trust and Heritage BC, is composed of five parts:

1. Community Foundations: An introduction to the Heritage Management Plan and how it can be used as an effective tool for conservation. It outlines a vision for heritage in the city and includes a thematic framework and historical chronology to provide a contextual understanding in support of heritage policy development.

2. People, Culture and City: Identification of the natural and cultural forces that have shaped the community. It summarizes community heritage values and significant places.

3. A Fresh Start: From Vision to Actions: The goals for Revelstoke’s heritage program with outlines of policies and actions for the conservation of heritage in the city.

4. Using the Right Tools: Potential ways for the city to actively support heritage conservation, including identifying processes and policies for revitalizing Revelstoke’s downtown with an analysis of the Revelstoke Station heritage conservation area.

5. Appendices: Supporting documents for the guidance and direction found in the previous four parts of the heritage management plan.

The plan in its entirety can be found here.