Blog & News

Sarah Joyce and Gordon Duggan have curated works by more than 200 artists from dozens of countries around the world during their decade at the helm of the New Media Gallery – but they are getting set to embark on a new adventure.

In May 2014, the City of New Westminster announced that Joyce and Duggan would be the new director/curator team at the gallery, which was set to focus on contemporary art that uses new media and technology, including video art, sound art, light art, robotic art, and web art. The pair are wrapping up their work at the gallery and getting set to embark on their next challenge.

Read the full article here.

The Museum of Vancouver is leading the charge toward sustainability in arts and culture by launching the SAGE Toolkit: an initiative focused on decarbonizing the sector through practical, circular solutions. SAGE (Sustainable Arts and Green Ecosystems) offers guidance for museums, galleries, and theatres to reduce waste and integrate environmentally-conscious practices into their operations.

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the toolkit emphasizes circularity, which aims to minimize waste and maximize the reuse of materials in exhibitions and theatre sets. The resource is the culmination of nearly two years of collaboration among designers, curators, and sustainability experts under the leadership of the museum’s director of collections and exhibitions, Viviane Gosselin, and sustainability consultant Maureen Cureton.

Read more about the SAGE Toolkit and how to access it here. 

The latest exhibit at the Pop Cult Museum at PD's Hot Shop in Qualicum Beach follows skateboarding through the decades, from early homemade boards in the 1930s right to the present day.

Wheels of Freedom traces the evolution of skate culture, as well as the boards themselves — and how new technology influences the activity and vice versa.

Read the full article here.

A new collection of short videos has been released by the B.C. Labour Heritage Centre.

B.C. Labour Heritage Moments showcase key topics in over 100 years of B.C.’s labour history. The nine videos are 3-4 minutes each. Titles include Indigenous Longshoremen, Ginger Goodwin, Injunctions and Collective Bargaining Rights.

The Centre used clips from its own extensive oral history collection, as well as other archival sources to illustrate the videos.

Each video was researched and written by staff members Natasha Fairweather and Donna Sacuta. Fairweather also narrates each episode. Video and sound editing was provided by Rob Leichner of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The collection was released at the B.C. Federation of Labour Convention in November. The Centre encourages organizations to use the videos at their events, in education programs and on social media.

The Moments Collection can be viewed and downloaded on YouTube and on the Centre’s website.

In 2022, at the suggestion of the research project Agents mémoriels, un engagement citoyen d’hier à aujourd’hui, the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) and the Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ) launched a call to national, provincial and territorial historical societies to initiate a conversation on common issues. The result was the Bridging the Gap initiative, which produced a report on the current state of historical societies in Canada.

The conversation broadened on November 4, when the first national meeting of Canada’s historical societies was held. In addition to the members of the steering committee - the CHA, the FHQ, the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française (IHAF) and the British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) - the following societies took part:

· Canada’s History

· Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society (NFLHS)

· Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society (RNSHS)

· New Brunswick Historical Society (NBHS)

· Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society (SHKS)

· Historical Society of Alberta (HSA)

· Yukon Historical & Museums Association (YHMA)

At the meeting, they discussed the contemporary issues they face in order to continue their work and remain relevant to their communities and Canadian society today. They agreed to continue the discussion, with the aim of maintaining this link and encouraging the sharing of experiences and successes. To be continued.

Title page, Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, 1897. Courtesy Imogene Lim

An excerpt from the Winter 2024-25 edition of British Columbia History.

By Imogene Lim

When someone says the word “Chinatown,” a certain image comes to mind. In British Columbia, it is of Vancouver or Victoria’s streetscapes of narrow laneways or buildings of two- or three-storeys in height, recessed balconies, “Chinese” businesses and associations, as well as a gateway to signal to the visitor that they have arrived. Each of these Chinatowns holds a distinction in the Canadian context: Victoria as the oldest, Vancouver as the largest. Both are in populous urban centres. Historically, they were a hub for migration (or destination) and dispersal, as well as commerce. 

But many early immigrants to Canada sought opportunity and fortune outside Vancouver and Victoria (the reason that those early Chinese referred to their destination as Gold Mountain, Gum Saan). [1] Their existence is represented in the historical record through physical remains, including cemeteries; oral history; and ephemera. In BC, where did the early Chinese find work or home—a place of belonging—besides Vancouver or Victoria?

As a result of a Legacy Project of the province, launched in 2015, [2] Heritage BC produced Chinese Canadian Historic Places Cultural Map, available on its website: https://heritagebc.ca/cultural-maps/chinese-historic-places-map.

The interactive map, which announces the depth and expanse of the Chinese Canadian presence in BC, was created through a community-nomination process. What sites might be missing? What will be remembered after the last Chinese Canadian pioneer dies in their remote community, or when there are only “newcomers” present? Erasure happens. [3] According to John Meares’ s expedition, Chinese arrived as early as 1788 accompanying the ship’s crew as artisans. [4] 

Through the passage of time, information is lost. However, there is one resource that the average person interested in Chinese Canadian history may have overlooked—in part, because of its title, Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary. [5]

It is not obvious from the title that place names were included—to be valued by those who purchased or had access to it. [6] The back of the book includes names of countries from every continent except Antarctica, plus “Principal Town Names of Canada” [7] and “Principal Cities and Towns in the United States.” [8] Of specific interest to BC History readers is “Places, Names of British Columbia,” [9] which lists over 200 locations. 

Composite image of the BC place names listed in the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, 1897

In the late 1800s, the places that mattered changed over the course of a century or more. As evident in BC, there has been an ebb and flow of population and industry, resulting in the boom and bust of communities. [10] For example, McDame Creek in the Cassiar Land District is unlikely to be known to most today; it is noteworthy because gold was found there by a prospector named Harry McDame.

For Chinese pioneers coming to Gum Saan, knowing the locations of various gold strikes [11] offered the potential of economic success. Though McDame Creek was meaningful enough to be included in the CEPBD, [12] equally important is to acknowledge its cultural significance to Black Canadian history. McDame and his partner, John Robert Giscome, were both from the Caribbean. According to the geographical name’s origin notes, McDame and Giscome may have been part of the 1858 emigration of San Francisco Blacks to Vancouver Island. [13] 

Consider another place name, this time in the United States: Asotin, Washington. In 2024, it is neither a principal city nor a town, yet there it is in the CEPBD. [14] Its population in 2022 was just under 1,200. [15] Historically, it was known as a Nez Perce winter camp, [16] and more importantly to immigrants of the day, gold was discovered in the area. [17] Again, in the late nineteenth century, gold was an allure to many, including those who were Chinese.

Some place names were by association, that is, created with the use of the descriptor “China,” plus a “fill-in-the-blank” geographic feature, to create place names such as, “China Creek, “China Bar,” et cetera. [18]

Screenshot of a map of BC geographical names with the term “China.”
BC Geographical Names

Even the pejorative “Chink” was employed to denote where early Chinese had lived and worked. Although none of these anonymous Chinese sites are stated in the phrase book, the notes about the origin of a particular name in the BC Geographic Names database [19] are revealing.

For example, consider the phrase book listing of Beaver Creek; [20] in the BC Geographic Names database there are over a dozen locations with this exact same name.

Screenshot of a map of BC geographical names with “Beaver Creek.”
BC Geographical Names

Which Beaver Creek in the screenshot is the one listed in phrase book? Presumably one of these Beaver Creeks had an association with Chinese immigrants. As mentioned, “Chink” was used in past place names; this was true, according to the BC Geographic Names database, for a creek originally “identified as Beaver Creek in 1912,” then the name “Chink Creek [was] adopted 1 March 1938” and finally changed in 1963 to its current designation of Atrill Creek. [21] Given the location of Atrill Creek, a.k.a. “Chink” Creek, in the Bulkley Valley, it perhaps is the Beaver Creek listed in phrase book.

The association of “China” with a place establishes a Chinese presence, yet the individuals who lived there remain unknown. Being nameless, these individuals were “erased from the story of building BC and Canada,” [22] unlike the example of Harry McDame. Think again how the word Chinatown is used: China + town; it is a defined space outside of China that is inhabited by Chinese people and, more often than not, is located on the margins of a town or city. [23]

Yet, this town within a town has no moniker to honour the memory of any notable resident. This is part of a larger discussion on naming and memorialization [24] mentioned here to encourage the reader to consider how a place becomes known—within the community and outside of it. [25] For example, the eponymous cities of Vancouver and Victoria are named after Captain George Vancouver and Queen Victoria. [26]

These were and are the names familiar to residents and visitors since the 1800s. However, among those who resided in Vancouver’s and Victoria’s Chinatowns, each city was known by a Chinese name based on descriptors of their respective geographic locations, that is, 鹹水埠 haam sui fao (“saltwater city”) and 大埠 dai fao (“big port”), respectively. [27]

One other aspect to consider in thinking about “Chinatown,” whether the neighbourhood is an urban or rural setting, is that the name is assigned by those who do not live there. Though the word Chinatown might be used today, among early Cantonese speakers the place name was 唐人街 tong yun gai (“street of Tang [dynasty] people” [28]).

A Chinatown in the mid-twentieth century could consist of city blocks of buildings and thousands of residents, like in Vancouver or Victoria, or less than a handful of structures and families or individuals that everyone knew, like in Alert Bay. [29] As well, the sights and sounds of the place are marked by the people and not necessarily the structures.

People make the place. This is a reminder that our view of contemporary prominent Chinatowns, specifically Vancouver’s and Victoria’s, has affected the way we perceive, even “imagine,” Chinatowns of the past. By examining the place names of BC found within the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, the reader comes to know the geographic extent to which early Chinese sought economic success. Moreover, with additional analysis of specific locales the narrative of one of the oldest settler groups in BC is enriched and expanded well beyond urban Chinatowns.

ENDNOTES

1. See Ann Hui, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019).
2. Government of British Columbia, “Historic Places,” last updated May 3, 2018, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/legacy-projects/historical-sites-artifacts/historic-places.
3. Imogene Lim, “Erasure: A Statement on Racism, Inclusivity and Equity,” Heritage BC (blog), August 9, 2020, https://heritagebc.ca/2020/08/09/erasure-a-statement-on-racism-inclusivity-and-equity/
4. Farzine Macrae, dir., 1788 (Vancouver: Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, 2008), 9:36, https://youtu.be/V7e9tTvpmvo?si=GdXpfVD6pXyvqMdP; Kathryn Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown: The Hidden History of Displacement You Were Never Told,” Global News, May 26, 2022, https://globalnews.ca/news/8793341/chinatown-history-toronto-vancouver-montreal-canada.
5. Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary (Vancouver: Thomson Stationery Company, 1897). Two copies, with preface dates of 1910 and 1913, are available through the Chung Collection, UBC Library Open Collection. From the title page, the book appears to have been registered in 1897, which is the date I use in referring to it.
6. I own a copy of the Chinese and English Phrase Book and Dictionary, hereafter cited as Phrase Book, courtesy of my father, who acquired it on his return to BC in 1937. His family left Cumberland’s Chinatown, where he was born, in 1928. My copy has a preface with the date 1910.
7. Phrase Book, 367–372.
8. Phrase Book 372–391.
9. Phrase Book, 360–367.
10. Sheri Radford, “6 Real-Life BC Ghost Towns You Have to Visit Once in Your Life,” Daily Hive, July 22, 2024, https://dailyhive.com/mapped/ghost-towns-british-columbia.
11. Duane and Tracy Marsteller, “Cassiar Gold Rush,” The Historical Marker Database, last updated February 24, 2022, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=187916.
12. Phrase Book, 364.
13. Government of British Columbia, “McDame Creek,” BC Geographical Names (hereafter cited as BCGN), https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/16334.html.
14. Phrase Book, 372.
15. Data USA, “Asotin, WA,” 2022, https://datausa.io/profile/geo/asotin-wa.
16. The Nez Perce are an Indigenous Peoples who travelled with the seasons in an area “in what is now Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana.” Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, 2021, https://critfc.org/member-tribes-overview/nez-perce-tribe/.
17. City of Asotin, “History,” 2020, https://cityofasotin.org/area-information/history; Happy Avery, “Asotin, City of—Thumbnail History,” HistoryLink.org Essay 11080, June 30, 2015, https://www.historylink.org/file/11080.
18. Winnie L. Cheung, Carolyn Heiman, Imogene Lim, David H.T. Wong, and Jim Wong-Chu, Celebration: Chinese Canadian Legacies in British Columbia (Victoria: Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, 2017), 12–13, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/our-history/historic-places/documents/heritage/chinese-legacy/celebration-book-pdf-copies/celebration_final_with_cover_lo-res_spreads.pdf.
19. BCGN, database page, accessed September 1, 2024, https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/web.
20. Phrase Book, 361.
21. BCGN, “Atrill Creek,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/9840.html.
22. Imogene Lim, “Erasure 2.0: Gatekeepers,” Heritage BC (blog), August 2, 2021, https://heritagebc.ca/2021/08/02/erasure-2-0-gatekeepers.
23. “In Nanaimo and Kamloops, for example, civic governments segregated Chinese Canadians, attempting to confine them to the outskirts of town.” Government of British Columbia, “Anti-Chinese Politics,” Chinese Legacy BC, lines 11–12, last updated November 24, 2016, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/anti-chinese-politics. This is notable in Cumberland where the Chinese, Japanese, and Black communities were not part of the town proper; see Figure 11 in David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities in Canada (Vancouver, UBC Press, 1988), 74. “Chinese Canadians were segregated socially, economically and politically.” Government of British Columbia, “Discrimination,” Chinese Legacy BC, line 1, last updated November 24, 2016, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/discrimination. See also Cheung et al., Celebration, 56.
24. See Cindy E. Harnett, “In An Act of Reconciliation, Victoria’s Trutch Street Gets a New Name,” Times Colonist, July 10, 2022, https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/in-an-act-of-reconciliation-victoria-street-gets-a-new-name-5568424; Sarah Reid, “Victoria Parents Pushing to Rename Elementary School,” CTV News Vancouver Island, last updated September 26, 2019, https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/victoria-parents-pushing-to-rename-elementary-school-1.4610897.
25. Prior to the changes in immigration policies in the late 1960s, the majority of Chinese immigrants came primarily from the province of Guangdong, China, and more specifically, from the Pearl River Delta; see Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown”; and Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988), 9–10). Chinese Canadians today are much more diverse in their backgrounds; they are not a monolithic ethnocultural group.
26. BCGN, “Vancouver,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/24320.html; BCGN, “Victoria,” https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/22474.html.
27. Pronunciation is in the Cantonese dialect. See Yee, Saltwater; and Downtown Victoria Business Association, Mysterious Chinatown: Self-guided Heritage Walking Map, 2021, https://downtownvictoria.ca/downtownvictoria.ca/uploads/2021/10/mysteriouschinatown_e.pdf.
28. Mannie, “The Rise and Fall of Chinatown.”
29. See Imogene L. Lim, “Here and There: Re/Collecting Chinese Canadian History,” Canadian Issues, Fall 2006, 61–64, https://www.proquest.com/docview/208683910?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals; which reflects on assumptions of what a Chinatown looks like.

Imogene Lim (林慕珍) is an anthropologist with roots in Cumberland and Vancouver’s Chinatowns. Both her maternal and paternal grandfathers were head tax payers, arriving in 1892 and 1890, respectively. Much of her current work involves communities on Vancouver Island associated with early Chinese Canadians. Family documents continue to serve as a source of inspiration and research; they are a reminder that she is a lo wah kiu descendant. 

By Mark Forsythe

It was 200 years ago that a band of 41 men journeyed from the Columbia River to the Fraser River and back. They left Fort George (Astoria, Oregon) on Nov. 18 in three canoe-shaped Columbia River boats, led by Scotsman and Hudson’s Bay Company employee, James McMillan. In the face of depleted beaver stocks and advancing American settlement their mission was to find a site for a new fort north of the Columbia. Fort Langley was built three years later at Derby becoming the first European settlement in what is now the Lower Mainland. This at a time when Yale was the region's metropolis with its bounty of salmon, and an important meeting place for Sto:lo peoples.

The Livings Arts Society recently took to the river with the Fort Langley Canoe Club to commemorate the Voyageurs’ arduous journey. Songs, readings from expedition journals and a brisk paddle on the Bedford Channel made for a memorable day. Most 1824 expedition members were Canadien Voyageurs, but there were also Iroquois, Kanakas, an Englishman, an American and Metis, including Francis Noel Annance, a clerk, translator and hunter with the HBC who kept a journal.  When they were forced to wait out fierce winds at Bellingham Bay local Indigenous guides knew a route that eliminated the need to paddle around Point Roberts and they nosed into the Nicomekl River at Mud Bay.

“We find the little river very winding and full of brush, logs etc. Towards the evening we come to the worst place; Dragging our boat through willows, shrubs, briars and beaver dams til we come to the portage and encamped.” They made two miles the next day, dragging and carrying their boats to the Salmon River. “The portage is handsome prairie. The fish excellent.” On Dec. 16 they emerged onto the Fraser River across from today’s McMillan Island: Sto:lo country.

(The Langley Heritage Society was one of the sponsors of the weekend event which also included presentations from BC and Washington State historians.)

Back row: Nelson Heritage Working group chair Berdine Jonker, Izu-Shi Friendship Society member Will Taylor. Front row: society members Grace Nanako and Jim Sawada, mayor Janice Morrison, and society member Bernie Zimmer.

The City of Nelson and its Heritage Working Group have presented present the Nelson Izu-Shi Friendship Society with the 2024 Heritage Award and a $1,000 honorarium for its Cottonwood Park signage project.

A non-profit volunteer group that supports the sister city relationship that has existed between Nelson and Izu-shi, Japan since 1987, the Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society holds seasonal cultural events and workshops to introduce Japanese Canadian culture, arranges multigenerational exchange visits and stewards the Friendship Garden in Cottonwood Falls Park.

As part of their park caretaker role, the Society undertook a huge initiative to develop display signage telling the stories of Cottonwood Creek. Over a five-year span, it has worked closely with researchers, Indigenous leaders, local historians, Nelson families, and the Museum and Archives to research and develop this project, publicly launched in October of this year.

Ten signs in black steel frames and protected by tempered glass take us through the fascinating stories of the wildlife, the people and their histories, and the environment of Cottonwood Creek.

“The Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society is surprised and very pleased by this unexpected honour,” says president John Armstrong. “We really appreciate the recognition of our work and the contributions of others over the past five years. We hope the signs will inspire greater interest in the little-known parts of Nelson’s history and lead to a new awareness of the value of Cottonwood Creek and the potential for its restoration as it flows through our community.”  

"The dedication and commitment of the Nelson Izu-Shi Friendship Society's members and volunteers to undertaking the Cottonwood Signage Project has been impressive,” said Berdine Jonker, chair of the Heritage Working Group. “The extensive knowledge imparted, the attention to historical accuracy and the engaging design of the signage makes the Nelson Society the ideal recipient for the 2024 Heritage Award.”

The city’s Heritage Working Group established this award in 2015 to recognize individuals, groups, businesses, or other organizations that have made an outstanding contribution towards the preservation and/or promotion of Nelson's heritage. Previous winners are the Hume Hotel, the Nelson Electric Tramway Society, Nelson CARES, the Nelson Museum & Art Gallery, Joern Wingender, Peter Bartl, Greg Scott, the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce and Cartolina.

The Cumberland Museum & Archives announced the launch of their new book, "A Place Called Cumberland" earlier this month.

This beautifully crafted publication celebrates the rich history and vibrant stories of their community. It is the culmination of extensive research and collaboration that reflects the voices and experiences of Cumberland's diverse past and present.

Learn more on the museum's website here. Copies of the book can be purchased directly from them, or online here.

From the Canadian Museums Association:

The CMA, as part of a coalition of Canadian museums, and national and provincial heritage organizations issued a joint statement to the Government of Canada regarding the development of the new National Museums Policy for Canada. As passionate advocates for our country's museums and cultural heritage, we are deeply concerned about the policy vacuum in which Canada’s museums are currently operating. 

Our current National Museums Policy dates from 1990, a pre-internet era that could not have anticipated the seismic shifts in technology, climate, and society that we all now face. This outdated framework has led to a critical situation where existing programs, despite their original intent, are no longer fit for their original purpose. 

We urgently need a National Museums Policy that: 

• Addresses the realities of the digital age and climate crisis 
• Provides sustainable, inflation-adjusted funding 
• Supports museums in their roles as educational institutions, community hubs, and guardians of our collective memory 
• Recognizes and leverages museums' potential in fostering social cohesion and democratic values 
• Prioritizes self-determination for Indigenous peoples and Indigenous cultural heritage rights including repatriation/rematriation 
• Implements innovative strategies inspired by global best practices 

The time for action is now. We cannot afford to let our museums – these vital custodians of our heritage and significant contributors to our economy – falter due to outdated policies and inadequate support. 

Read the joint statement here.