On June 6, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by gardeners extraordinaire Lucretia, Melanie, Jane, and Erica to talk tips and tricks, spring garden techniques, herbalism, and the museum’s upcoming garden tours. Tune in to hear a dynamic discussion about getting your hands in the dirt!
Continue reading Spring Gardening Tips & Cortes Museum HoursOriginally published January 22, 2024. This is the first audio recording of the article below, and may have sufficient additional details to be called the most recent version. The text was originally published in the booklet Squirrel Cove (Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society)
At the beginning of the 1900s, Squirrel Cove on the east side of Cortes Island was a hub of activity for homesteaders, loggers, fishermen, miners and trappers. They came from all the surrounding islands for supplies, groceries, mail, repairs, radios and dances in the hall. There were two stores, a post office, church, hall, two machine shops, a boatworks, a marine ways, and a big dock where the Union Steamships stopped regularly. Jim Spilsbury also stopped frequently to install or repair his radios in boats and homes.
Continue reading Schools of Squirrel Cove
Originally Published February 2, 2020
The grounding of “March Wind” in January 2020 prompted Roy Hales to write a story about boats adrift. I’d like to dig (or dive?) a little deeper under that story and consider some of the factors that have led to the increasing number of derelict and dilapidated boats on the BC Coast.
Continue reading Vessels of Concern: Signs of the Times
On May 2, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Ashley Zarbatany to to unpack the outcomes of the recent federal election, explore the roots of confusion around strategic voting, and consider what these results might mean for the future of Canada and Cortes!
Continue reading Folk U: Unpacking the 2025 Election
What does it mean to be a neighbour on Cortes Island? This question is at the heart of the new Cortes Island Museum exhibition ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour?’ curated by Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the museum and Monica Hoffman. Opening Sunday May 4th the exhibit invites visitors on a visual and narrative journey through both the historical and contemporary communities that shaped life on the island.
“The idea of focusing on neighbourhoods came from the prior exhibition, ‘From the Ground Up,” explained Hoffman.
Boyle added, “We did touch on how people work together to build structures, in terms of collaboration. It was also about repurposing material and sharing of resources and, in a way, this is also what this new exhibition is about. Collective land arrangements are a way for people to live affordably on Cortes, to share the land, but also to share the material, resources and work collaboratively. So there’s a lot of overlap.”
Continue reading At The Museum: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour’ Exhibit Explores Community Life In Cortes Island
