This issue of the Buzz is archived at https://tinyurl.com/yj96p7we

Stewards of Splendour receives BCHF historical writing award

The BCHF has awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing to Jennifer Bonnell (pictured), author of Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia published by the Royal BC Museum in 2023. Six other books were also honored at the recent BCHF awards gala in Chilliwack. Click the button for the full list.

Recognition awards honour societies, groups, individuals

BCHF awards chair Anna Irwin (left) presents Jamila Douhaibi of the BC Black History Awareness Society with a certificate of merit.

On May 4, the BC Historical Federation presented its annual recognition awards in Chilliwack. The BCHF is proud to present the award winners across a number of categories including awards of appreciation, merit, recognition, the advocacy award, the cultural resources accessibility award, and the storytelling award. Click the button for the complete list and photos.

W. Kaye Lamb scholarships awarded

The BCHF has presented the $1,000 first prize in the W. Kaye Lamb awards for best student works to Megan Yaskow of the University of Northern BC for “Wilderness to Wonderland: Prince George’s Anxious Ambition and the 1958 British Columbian Centennial.” A $750 runner-up prize was awarded to Amanda Payne (pictured) for “No Place for a Walk: Sex Work, Crime, and Community in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood during the 1980s-1990s.”

UVic history prof wins Anne and Philip Yandle Best Article Award

A story looking at how coal fields in Port Rupert and Nanaimo were first cared for and worked by Indigenous miners has won the BCHF’s Anne and Philip Yandle Best Article Award. “The Indigenous Miners of British Columbia’s First Coal Fields,” by John Sutton Lutz (pictured), appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of British Columbia History magazine.

Centennial Legacy Fund recipients announced

Centennial Legacy Fund chair Quentin Wright (right) congratulates Spencer Legebokoff of the Doukhobor History Poetry Project.

The BCHF has announced four recipients of the 2023 Centennial Legacy Fund grants. They are: the West Coast Ringette Historical Society ($2,500), Indo-Fijian Cultural Society of Canada ($3,700), Spencer Legebokoff ($700), and Letitia Johnson ($3,100). Successful projects commemorate or preserve historical sites, cultural landscapes, or objects, and encourage new research, interpretation, or publication of BC history.  

BCHF welcomes four new directors to board

The BCHF board of directors welcomed four new members to the team at its annual general meeting this month. Pictured from left, they are Rizwaan Abbas, Surrey; Chelsea Brown, Abbotsford; Sarah Ling, Vancouver; and Laura VanZant, Revelstoke. Click the button below for full biographies. We also bid adieu to outgoing directors Mark Forsythe and Emma Quan.

Conference participants impacted by depth of Indigenous Knowledge

Dr. Si:yémiya Naxaxalhts’i Albert (Sonny) McHalsie speaks to participants of the 2024 BCHF conference near Yale. 

The BCHF conference this month included a keynote presentation by Dr. Keith Carlson and Dr. Si:yémiya Naxaxalhts’i Albert (Sonny) McHalsie explained how place-naming was integral to the settler colonial process and suggested ways to move towards decolonizing, re-Indigenizing, and renaming places known to have original Indigenous names. The messages were then seeded deeper in the minds of participants of a bus tour of Stó:lō homelands.

The 2024 BCHF conference in photos

Honorary president Jane Watt addresses the BCHF annual general meeting while director Elwin Xie keeps an eye on the livestream.

Click the button below for a gallery of photos from our Chilliwack conference, including our keynote address, bus tour, and gala awards dinner!

The BCHF year in review

The BCHF 2023-24 annual report is now available online, detailing activities over the last year regarding our conference, magazine, awards program, and finances. Plus it’s full of nifty photos. Click the button below to read it.

MEMBER NEWS

VIDEO: You Got Trouble

Madison Heslop delivers an entertaining lecture to the Vancouver Historical Society on the murder of a policeman on Vancouver’s waterfront in 1913, showing how the toxic concentration of rootless male labourers, rooming houses and liquor outlets prompted a kind of moral panic in the wider community.

Are you a member society with news to share in The Buzz? Send it to greg@bchistory.ca

HISTORICAL NOTES

Heritage BC announces 2024 award recipients

Heritage BC recognized the Kootenay Lake Historical Society for its outer deck and weather envelope rehabilitation on the SS Moyie.

Heritage BC recently announced the recipients of its annual awards, recognizing incredible achievements across the province in the categories of Conservation; Small But Mighty; Education, Communication, and Awareness; Indigenous and Diverse Cultures; Planning and Management; and Volunteers as well as the Ruby Nobbs Distinguished Service award.

BC Archives rolls out public engagement survey

Important changes are underway at the Royal BC Museum and Archives. The BC Archives will be moving to a new collections and research building in Colwood, scheduled to open in 2026. You are invited to provide participation, feedback, ideas, and thoughts through a survey open until Aug. 14. Click the button below.

St'uxwtéws assume management of Hat Creek Ranch

The St'uxwtews Pesuten Heritage Society is now running an historic site near Cache Creek, part of a provincial shift. In the 1860s, the Hat Creek Ranch was once a roadhouse stop on the way to the Cariboo gold fiends.

ADVERTISING

The BCHF offers a number of advertising opportunities in our e-newsletter, which is distributed to our entire membership monthly. Advertisements are jpeg images sized to 600 px wide for electronic distribution. To submit an ad, contact Greg Nesteroff: greg@bchistory.ca

Members enjoy discounted advertising rates. Choose 12 months for the best deal:

1-3 months = $100 each ($100-$300 annually)
4 months = $90 each ($360 annually)
6 months = $80 each ($480 annually)
8 months = $70 each ($560 annually)
12 months = $50 each ($600 annually)

Rates for non-members are as follows:

1-3 months = $150 each ($150-$450 annually)
4 months = $140 each ($560 annually)
6 months = $130 each ($780 annually)
8 months = $120 each ($960 annually)
12 months = $100 each ($1,200 annually)

British Columbia Historical Federation

Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, V1M 247 • info@bchistory.ca

The BCHF Secretariat is located on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish speaking Peoples. The BCHF is on Facebook. Join the conversation.