Category Archives: History

History, Indigenous Nations History

The shadow of residential schools ‘gets longer and longer’

Warning: This story contains details that may provoke distress or trauma in some readers.

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Homalco Chief Darren Blaney has the tragic distinction of being a third-generation residential school survivor.

Like his father, and grandfather before him, Blaney was forced from his home, family, and culture in the small community of Church House in Bute Inlet along B.C.’s remote central coast.

“My great-grandfather was the first one from Homalco to go to residential school in 1875,” said Blaney.

Continue reading The shadow of residential schools ‘gets longer and longer’ →
History, Indigenous Nations History

First Nations finding five generations of family

By Abby Francis, quathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Family Tree is a project Tla’amin has been working on since the 1990s. Tla’amin was given a grant for genealogy by the treaties society, they used the grant to connect the community through lifelines of a family tree. However, the tree had stopped being updated in the early 2000s, leaving out any new family members born after that time. Until now. 

Continue reading First Nations finding five generations of family →
Arts, History, Indigenous Nations History

Sacred journey exhibit celebrates Indigenous canoe culture

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Nations and families from far-flung parts of coastal B.C. gathered to launch the Sacred Journey exhibit and celebrate the enduring importance of Indigenous canoe culture that stretches across the Pacific Northwest coast.

Continue reading Sacred journey exhibit celebrates Indigenous canoe culture →
History, Indigenous Nations History

Kamloops Indian Residential School Survivors share their stories

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Mona Jules recalls the Kamloops Indian Residential School sounding like a beehive when she arrived at the age of six in the late 1940s.

Being fluent in her own Indigenous language, Jules said she couldn’t understand anyone.

“The buzzing and the noise. I just looked form face to face. I couldn’t understand anything,” she said.

Leona Thomas remembers her first day, entering that school at the age of six in 1958, and being pried from her brother’s back and split up.

Continue reading Kamloops Indian Residential School Survivors share their stories →
History, Indigenous Nations

The hushed Racist history of Abbotsford

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

Without the labour of Asian immigrants, who ran the city’s lumber mill and built railroads all over Canada, Abbotsford wouldn’t be what it is today. Many of the South Asian families in the valley are second and third generation Canadians with established roots in the local community. 

Continue reading The hushed Racist history of Abbotsford →