Innholdsfortegnelse for 55.1 Spring 2022 i British Columbia History

Today I learned that on January 11, 2022, Kaye Kaminishi turned 100 years old. He is the last living member of the legendary Vancouver Asahi baseball club. It’s pretty incredible to think about—the things that Kaye and other centenarians would have seen throughout their lifetimes. As we enter another year of the global pandemic, I am curious about the resilience someone like Kaye must have had throughout his 100 years. There are so many questions I would like to ask him. A century is a long time to live and gain wisdom—to keep learning from the past. As the BC Historical Federation turns 100 years old on June 22, 2022, the significance of the organization’s longevity is not lost on me. I’ve had to follow in some pretty big footsteps;…

This book is a valuable resource and one of the first to document the century-old Japanese-Canadian story. Born in 1920 and educated in Victoria, Toyo Takata was the oldest of six children to Kensuke and Misuyo Takata. From 1948 to 1952, Toyo was the editor of the English section of The New Canadian, the only Japanese-run publication allowed to operate in the internment camps [see issue 54.4 for more on this newspaper]. Because of this experience, and as the president of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, he “became the unofficial historian of the vanished Japanese community of BC.” It was through Toyo’s research, including interviews with George Nagano, that he determined that George’s father, Manzo Nagano, was the first Japanese person to settle in Canada in 1877. He…

Have you heard of the Haitian Revolution? It was the largest slave rebellion since Ancient Rome, “a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule” in what is now Haiti, in the years 1791–1804. Historians believe this revolution had an enormous impact on the institution of slavery all around the world; it inspired stories that “shocked and frightened slave owners” everywhere and led to slave rebellions in the US and British colonies.6 Historians Susan Buck Morss and Michel Rolph Trouillot first wakened me to what had been erased in the field of history, at least in the way I had been taught it, through their writings on the Haitian Revolution. Morss writes in Hegel, Haiti and Universal History that “the critical writing of history is a continuous struggle to…

“The challenge is going to be carrying enough food to fuel the physical effort required to paddle, portage, track, and/ or line the canoe and all my gear. Out of necessity, my diet is going to be dreadfully boring! I pretty much know what I’ll be eating for any given meal on any given day for the whole trek. Breakfast: Oatmeal supplemented with raisins, walnuts, or almonds, and brown sugar. Lunch: Moose jerky or pemmican. Dehydrated vegetable or fruit bark. Peanut butter and brown sugar wraps. Dinner: Pasta or quinoa flavoured with double-smoked Landjaeger sausage, pesto sauce, parmesan cheese, or a pre-packaged sauce. “Snacks will be whatever I can resupply with along the way. I’ll boil or filter water to stay hydrated. Tea sweetened with brown sugar is going to…

Dear Editor, The Winter 2021 edition of BC History magazine is a wonderful read. This edition holds some special interest for me. Gladys Fletcher of Ainsworth, my wife Trudy’s grandmother, wrote for the Kootenaian, mentioned in the article about The New Canadian newspaper. I very much enjoyed the article “Rassling in the Royal City,” as during my high school days, 1965 to 1970, two of my instructors were teachers by day and “professional wrestlers” in the evenings. You never misbehaved in their classes. The article by Andrea Lister, “Read All About It,” covered a piece of history that occurred nearby, and I learned that relief camp 227 operated in Agassiz. Using the digitized editions is worth the effort but searching can be a challenge. I live in Popkum and am…

After Redress in September 1988, community funds were available across Canada for capital projects that served the Japanese-Canadian community. A campaign was underway in Victoria to rebuild the Japanese gardens at the Gorge, but the Takata Garden Society was frustrated by bureaucracy from the Esquimalt Parks and Recreation. (A far cry from the incredible support seen today from the municipality of Esquimalt, mayor and council, and Esquimalt parks and recreation.) In 1995, some of the funds raised were used to donate 15 sakura (cherry blossom trees), a plaque, and a memorial stone that commemorated the history of the gardens. The majority of the funds were used to build Takata Garden and Teahouse at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. Begun in 1995, the Takata Garden opened in 1999 with members…

Let me give you one example of how and why the discipline of history is not innocent. Many traditional historians believe that the writings of German philosopher George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel are foundational to the discipline of history. Hegel himself was influenced by contemporary and earlier thinkers, such as Christoph Meiners. According to Meiners, “one of the most important characteristics of tribes and peoples is beauty or ugliness.” Meiners divided humankind into two categories: the “beautiful White race” and the “ugly Black race.”3 The “ugly races” he saw as inferior, immoral, and animal-like. Scientific racism was an essential element of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade,4 and the way it became legitimized within history was perpetuated throughout the nineteenth century. In Lectures on the Philosophy of History, published in 1837, Hegel, the…

If you wish to read more writing by activist historians, here is a list of authors and titles to explore: • Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past, Power and Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2015) • Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000) • CLR James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: Random House, 1963) • Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999) • Nell Irvine Painter, The History of White People (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010) • Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Women, Native, Other (Indiana University Press: 1989) • W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (London: Penguin Classics, 1996) • Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York : Grove Press, 1963) •…

The books and digital media profiled in this issue of “Refracting History” will incite many readers to think differently about history. Some reposition historical narratives on the experiences of Indigenous peoples and other racialized communities in British Columbia or voices that share memories and reflections on the impact of residential schools, loss of land, and the revitalization of Indigenous cultures. Spílәx . m: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence by Nicola I. Campbell (Winnipeg, MB: HighWater Press, 2021) $32 Nicola I. Campbell, likely best known for her bestselling children’s books including Shi-shietko, Shin-chi’s Canoe, and A Day with Yayah, has written an extraordinary memoir that combines poetry and prose with memories that speak about what it means to be an intergeneration survivor of residential schools. Nicola I. Campbell is…

JANUARY 2017 • Capital Regional District and the Township of Esquimalt agree on an amenity-funding package. The McLoughlin Point Amenity Reserve Funds will be used for capital projects in waterfront parks and recreation facilities. Public is asked for project idea proposals for use of funds. FEBRUARY–MAY 2018 • Public online survey of proposals, round one. MAY–DECEMBER 2018 • Round two online survey. NOVEMBER 2019 • Esquimalt council approves multi-purpose building for Gorge Park. JANUARY 2020 • Detailed design phase of the project with Iredale Architecture. Construction commences shortly after. JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2022 • Anticipated completion of Esquimalt Gorge Pavilion. APRIL 2022 • Planned grand opening with historical display wall.…

Being an activist historian means incorporating the histories of all people—not just whitewashed histories. Stories such as that of BC’s Mifflin Wistar Gibbs should be commonly known—yet are not. Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was the de facto leader of the Black community in Victoria beginning in 1858. Prior to his arrival, Gibbs was a successful businessman, community leader, and staunch supporter and ally of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Gibbs’s achievements and accomplishments in BC include being a partner in the Lester & Gibbs emporium, which was considered a competitor of the Hudson’s Bay Company in gold-rush Victoria, a builder of the first railway in Haida Gwaii (formerly “Queen Charlotte Islands”), a Victoria city councillor in 1867, 1868, and 1869, a chair of the finance committee and acting mayor, and a delegate representing…

In an interview with the CBC, Sumas First Nation Chief Dalton Silver said, “despite the devastation caused by flooding over the past week, the Sumas First Nation is ‘coping quite well’ as their houses are built on ground that’s higher than the ancient shallow lake. ‘We had elders that told us before that should this lake . . . come back our homes would be OK. We knew the levels of the lake before.’” — Michelle Gomez, “Sumas First Nation built on higher ground, unaffected by flooding in former lake bed, says chief,” CBC News, November 19, 2021, (https://www.cbc.ca/news/ canada/british-columbia/sumas-lake-history-1.6255693) If we ended this book at the 25th anniversary of Sumas Lake’s draining (that is in 1949) it would be easy to conclude that the grand project was an environmental…

The timeline for the trek is roughly as follows 1 APRIL • Departure from Gabriola Island, BC 2 MAY • Howse Pass, AB 4 MAY • Saskatchewan River Crossing, AB 6 MAY • Rocky Mountain House, AB 20 MAY • Confluence of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, SK 1 JUNE • Grand Portage, Minnesota 15 JUNE • Lake Winnipeg, MB 4 JULY • Atikokan, ON 15 JULY • Fort William, Thunder Bay, ON 15 AUG • French River, ON 1 SEPTEMBER • Ottawa, ON 15 SEPTEMBER • Montreal, QC 18 SEPTEMBER • Québec City, QC 1 OCTOBER • Grand-Métis, QC 5 OCTOBER • Halifax, NS 15 OCTOBER • Big Shippegan Lighthouse, NB TOTAL DISTANCE • approximately 6,900 km (as calculated by Google Maps). Allowing an extra 500 km considering…

To mark the BC Historical Federation’s 100th year, ten archivists from around the province offered a favourite photograph from their collections, taken around 1922. Get Published British Columbia History welcomes ideas for feature articles, as well as articles, photos, and book suggestions for our regular sections. British Columbia History is committed to publishing content that informs, entertains, and connects readers across British Columbia. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Please contact the editor with a brief overview of your work prior to submission. Submission Guidelines Manuscripts that have been published elsewhere, or are under review for publication elsewhere, will be considered at the editor’s discretion. • Electronic version, with file extension (either .doc or .rtf), will be required should the article be accepted for publication. • Endnotes, Notes, and Bibliography…

All the Quiet Places: A Novel by Brian Thomas Isaac (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2021) $22 Beyond the Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad (Victoria, BC: Medicine Wheel Press, 2021) $19.99 Dad Wore a Fedora and Sleeve Garters: A Life Well Lived by Salli Pustanyk Rice (Alton, MB: FriesenPress, 2021) $19.49 Deep, Dark & Dangerous: The Story of British Columbia’s World-Class Undersea Tech Industry by Vickie Jensen (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing: 2021) $36.95 Edward Fuez Jr: A Story of Enchantment by D.L. Stephen (Victoria, BC: Rocky Mountain Books, 2021) $28 Luschiim’s Plants: Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines by Dr. Luschiim Arvid Charlie and Nancy Turner (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing: 2021) $29.95 Murders on the Skeena: True Crime in the Old Canadian West, 1884-1914 by Geoff Mynett (Qualicum Beach,…