Editorially speaking...
What a ride it has been.
Two days ago we marked—celebrated seems too strong a word in the face of recent events—the 150th anniversary of British Columbia as a province of Canada.
If ever we as Canadians had a moral duty to be good citizens by informing ourselves and engaging in a renewal of our society it’s now.
Claiming ignorance of the troubling events which have filled the news for the past few years, with greater frequency and urgency in the past few months, is inexcusable. We have a duty to learn how we came to be in this truly sad situation and to recognize our obligations to our Indigenous fellow citizens whom, it’s now so painfully apparent, have been abused and neglected miserably for 300 years.
In short, we can use this historic anniversary as a launch pad for an entirely new provincial and national agenda. There’s no better path to the future than by learning from our past and using that knowledge to improve and to repair.
We can’t undo three centuries of colonialism but we can make every effort to do better. Here’s hoping that, by the time of B.C.’s 160th anniversary as a province, we’re well on our way to true reconciliation and renewal.
* * * * *
One of the best ways to begin to do so is in our own backyards by visiting our local museums. Since COVID they’ve been all but closed to the public but that is finally changing. The Cowichan Valley Museum, Duncan, recently announced that it’s again open four days a week, Tuesday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Curator Kathryn Gagnon told the Cowichan Valley Citizen that the museum’s expectations of a quiet summer have become “a whole new ball game...”
A bonus is the fact that many visitors are from the Cowichan Valley instead of being tourists. This is a healthy trend. Once kids are back in school it’s to be hoped that classroom tours will resume. If ever children needed to be educated on Canadian history—the good, the bad and the ugly—this is the time, and the closer to home they begin, the better.
The new display at the museum highlights the history of the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm which operated at Cowichan Station, 1935-1950s. Some of the 329 British migrant children who attended the school, now an upscale subdivision, were as young as four years old.
The intention of Kingsley Fairbridge, founder of the school, and the Child Emigration Society (later the Fairbridge Society), was to give underprivileged British children an opportunity for better lives in the colonies.
But, as we’ve come to see in the case of residential schools, high hopes and good intentions often fell short of reality. “While there are former students who attest to the positive experiences they had,” Gagon said that “other troubling stories have emerged”.
The Fairbridge School display was created in collaboration with author Patricia Skidmore, who has written about her mother’s experiences at the school in Marjorie: Too Afraid to Cry. Gagnon points out that the Fairbridge Society was primarily funded by donations and that it “used the media effectively to depict an idyllic life in the schools. The reality, however, was often very different.”
I would remind readers that not everything about history is doom and gloom. Visit a museum and learn about the men and women who built the Cowichan Valley that we call home. Believe me, there are more positive stories about history than there are downers!
Duncan’s isn’t our only museum, of course. We have several outstanding museums, all of them volunteer operated: the Malahat Mill Bay Museum, Mill Bay; the Shawnigan Lake Museum; Kaatza Museum in Lake Cowichan; the Chemainus Valley Museum, the Crofton Museum and the Ladysmith Museum.
Check by phoning first to determine the days and hours they’re open to the public. Then visit and learn more about our local and regional history than you likely know now. Better yet, take your kids or grandchildren.
* * * * *
On a really positive note (yea!), the Boundary Historical Society’s annual reports have been digitized by the UBC Archives. These excellent anthologies, published over the years as paperback books, are an invaluable wealth of knowledge for historians. (I’ve referred to them many times and have several editions in my library.)
The purpose of the online digitization program, said BHS President Joan Heart, is to reach a wider audience.
Another worthwhile BHS project is the restoration of three graves in the Phoenix Cemetery. At the turn of the last century this mountaintop town above Greenwood was a booming copper mining centre; now it’s a man-made lake after subsequent strip-mining.
But the cemetery and its marker for Phoenix men who died in the First World are still there. BHS volunteers keep the cemetery tidy and the winding gravel road open to traffic. I well remember an early June morning of years ago when I visited the former townsite. I was alone in the silence, in a sea of yellow avalanche lilies. Something I’ll never forget.
You can access the Boundary Historical Society reports online at the Discover Okanagan Historical Resources website. Trust me, you’ll find something that will interest you even if the fabled Boundary Country is a long way from Cowichan!
President Heart undoubtedly speaks for other historical societies and museums when she says that it’s the BHS’s goal to help descendants, students, teachers and the public to search for meaning in their ancestors’ graves, notations, journals and other research.
“We can provide clues, solutions and insights into their lives giving meaning and closure or an opening to ask more questions, an insight into places long forgotten, but now unearthed, to delight and contribute to the present day narrative.”
Who said history is bor-ing?
* * * * *
* * * * *
Have a question, comment or suggestion for TW? Use our Contact Page.