Category Archives: Indigenous Nations History

Community, Indigenous Nations History

Confessions of an ignorant Racist

The following piece is potentially triggering, and contains references to racism, racial slurs, and violence.This opinion piece is based on my personal experience and exploration within my lifetime, of the continuing cycle of systemic racism and colonial violence.

Associate professor Rajnish Dhawan, from the University of the Fraser Valley, makes a distinction between hate-based and ignorance-based racism. 

He is quoted in a series of programs that Fraser Valley Community Radio recently broadcast about Abbotsford’s hushed racist history.

That prompted me to think about the community I was raised in, across the river in Maple Ridge.

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History, Indigenous Nations History

The Klu Klux Klan comes to Abbotsford

By Aly Laube, Fraser Valley Community Radio, CIVL 101.7 FM, Local Journalism Initiative

To understand the nature of systemic racism and white supremacy in Abbotsford, you have to understand the history. But that history can be hard to find, tucked away in archives and couched in vague language. The information is there if you look, and it speaks volumes about the area’s past in relation to upholding structures that support white settlers.

In 1925, American Klu Klux Klan members came to Abbotsford in search of new recruits. For $10 apiece, residents born in Canada, the US, the UK, and Northern Europe who were white, male, able-bodied, Protestant, and “of sound mind” could sign up to join the KKK and become part of an organized effort to “maintain forever White Supremacy.” 

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History, Indigenous Nations History

Abbotsford’s secret History of Racism: Introduction

By Aly Laube, Fraser Valley Community Radio, CIVL 101.7 FM, Local Journalism Initiative

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity. This content might include some explicit language. 

Abbotsford, BC is the largest municipality in the Fraser Valley Regional District, an exurban area about an hour east of Vancouver. It’s growing very quickly, with a 2013 City of Abbotsford Official Community Plan expecting 40,000 new residents within 20 years.

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Indigenous Nations History

50 years later: Tlowitsis First Nation in Campbell River

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National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Displaced from their traditional territories and scattered across Vancouver Island and beyond for more than 50 years, the Tlowitsis First Nation is on the cusp of breaking ground on a home for its people.

Chief John Smith and his brother, Thomas, a councillor, hope to finally begin work on a new village for the Tlowitsis after a decades-long search and the 2018 purchase of land south of Campbell River from a logging company.

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Community, Indigenous Nations History

Booklet unveils Racist British Columbia: 150 years

By Cara McKenna, the Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new educational resource looks at British Columbia’s long history of racist policies and the resiliency of the many Indigenous, Black and racialized people who have been affected.

The open-source booklet Challenging Racist British Columbia: 150 Years and Counting was released today by co-publishers the University of Victoria (UVic) and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

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