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Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra at the opening of We Are Hockey, an exhibit at the Sikh Heritage Museum National Historic Site, Gur Sikh Temple, 2019. Photo: South Asian Studies Institute Collection
Iam a 37-year-old PhD candidate in the department of history at UBC, and a sessional faculty member in the department of history at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), which means I’m in a contract-based, impermanent, and precarious teaching position. I am co-chair of the Race and Antiracism Network at UFV and coordinator of the South Asian Studies Institute at UFV.
I am also mother to a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. I share these identities with you because they shape the kind of person, historian, and educator I am. I call myself an activist historian because I am shaping the future for my sons so they don’t have to experience the same hurdles I have been through and continue to see around me, including not seeing themselves reflected in the study of history. I refuse to let my boys be educated in a world where they don’t see themselves in the content of history.
I am honoured to be writing this piece for BC History magazine as the BC Historical Federation celebrates its centenary. BC History doesn’t work through performative gestures but through meaningful engagement with BC’s varied histories in all their complexities, diversities, equities, and creativities. In this important year for the publication, they are actively engaging with the theme of activism and the changing face of the discipline of history.
I therefore begin by acknowledging that I am writing from the unceded, ancestral, and ongoing territories of the Sto:lo peoples, the people of the river. Lately we have seen that settler-colonial infrastructures—that is, the farms—are struggling to revert to their original form—a lake—through the sheer force of Mother Earth.
I speak, of course, about the flooding of the Sumas area in the Fraser Valley, where I have lived for more than 30 years. I see this event as a reminder that we need to listen to Indigenous methodologies and practices as well as to calls to action from land defenders in this climate emergency.
I am here to share my journey over the past few years and provide you with some insight and motivation to become an activist historian yourself. I want to tell you about the challenges those of us who identify as racialized historians face and to recentre activism as a worthwhile practice. I’ve seen the word “activism” used to mean something to be feared or co-opted by privileged white people.
When I use the word “white,” as a woman of colour, I mean it as a purposeful reminder that we need to break down systems of white supremacy within the discipline of history. I am aware that simply by virtue of who I am, my use of the word “white” is hyper-politicized.
But this isn’t meant to make you feel guilt or shame; it’s a call to action for you to be a part of the dismantling of white supremacy. Your response to the word can tell you how ready you may be to heed the call. My use of the word “white” is informed by the understanding that Black and Indigenous scholars and activists have been fighting systems of colonial white supremacy for centuries.
To understand what it means to be an activist historian is to first question the very foundations of the discipline. The project of colonialism around the world—including in Canada, in BC—was justified through what is called “scientific racism.” The term has been defined as “a history of pseudoscientific methods ‘proving’ white biological superiority and flawed social studies used to show ‘inherent’ racial characteristics [that] still influence society today.” [1]
Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra was a co-author of Challenging Racist “British Columbia” — 150 Years and Counting
The discipline of history, in other words, is not innocent in terms of how it chooses to cite certain scholars but completely relegate others to the margins. The discipline is implicated in the drawing of the “color line,” as pointed out by the brilliant Black thinker W.E.B. Du Bois. [2]
The term “was originally used as a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the United States after the abolition of slavery. An article by Frederick Douglass that was titled “The Color Line” was published in the North American Review in 1881. The phrase gained fame after Du Bois’s repeated use of it in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk.
To be an activist historian is, in part, to teach the histories of enslaved and colonized people as central to the discipline. I have come to understand this is why, during one of my PhD committee meetings, I reflected on scholars such as Aime Cesaire (and many others) and wondered, “Why do they speak to me in ways that I have not been spoken to throughout my previous historical training?” The response from one of my committee members was, “Sharn, it’s because they don’t speak in the language of the colonizer.”
To be an activist historian is to understand the systems that Black, Indigenous, and racialized scholars are trying to alter and to resist the discipline that puts Hegel on a pedestal. To teach against the grain of colonialism, empire, and violence is an act of resistance.
When I began my PhD in the Department of History at UBC in 2014, I was the first Sikh woman to pursue a PhD in that department. Today, as I reach the end of my studies, I reflect on how my entire outlook has transformed. I came out of my first year traumatized because I felt like I did not belong in that department.
But over the years, after reading racialized historians and theories based on critical race theory, I began to understand why I resisted so much that first year. To holistically teach the racist foundations of the history is to (hopefully) prevent other students from experiencing the trauma I faced. Having activist historians lead the way will create and move the discipline forward.
Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra presenting an exhibition for the South Asian Studies Institute. Photo: South Asian Studies Institute Collection
Activism is on a spectrum that includes street protests as well as pushing back against racist faculty, racist policies, and the coded daily language of racism. It includes writing, teaching, and choosing to centre racialized histories, historians, and scholars. Activism includes moving aside to cede space to racialized colleagues and coworkers rather than constantly co-opting the space to centre your own white power.
To become an activist in history means to study the history of those who are not included within the system and the institution. It means seeing what is taking place around you and attaching those threads of history to your class lectures and how you teach the students. All of this is possible. I do it. And I love it.
To be an activist historian also means to find a place within the margins. The concept of the margins as a powerful space for acts of resistance was coined by the brilliant scholar bell hooks (she spelled her name in lowercase letters), and I wish to end this article by quoting from her, as she passed away in December 2021 but continues to inspire so many of us. She wrote the following:
I am located in the margin. I make a definite distinction between that marginality which is imposed by oppressive structures and that marginality one chooses as site of resistance—as location of radical openness and possibility. This site of resistance is continually formed in that segregated culture of opposition that is our critical response to domination.
We come to this space through suffering and pain, through struggle. We know struggle to be that which is difficult, challenging, hard and we know struggle to be that which pleasures, delights, and fulfills desire. We are transformed, individually, collectively, as we make radical creative space which affirms and sustains our subjectivity, which gives us a new location from which to articulate our sense of the world. [9]
Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at UBC, a sessional instructor in history at the University of the Fraser Valley, a co-curator at the Sikh Heritage Museum, National Historic Site, Gur Sikh Temple, and the coordinator of the South Asian Studies Institute at UFV. She is also mother to two sons.
1. “Scientific Racism,” Confronting Anti-Black Racism, Harvard Library, https://library.harvard.edu/confronting-anti-black-racism/scientific-racism 2. W.E.B Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk Essays and Sketches (Chicago, Ill: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903). 3. bell hooks, “Choosing the margin as a space of radical openness,” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 36 (1989), 23.
If you wish to read more writing by activist historians, here is a list of authors and titles to explore:
Tom Lymbery, a former BCHF council member from Gray Creek on Kootenay Lake, reminisces on the 2003 BC Historical Federation conference in Prince George. This story originally appeared in the East Shore Mainstreet.
In 2003 Terry Turner and Susan Hulland’s East Shore history, Impressions of the Past, placed second for the BC Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing in the BC Historical Federation competition. I went with them to the BCHF conference in Prince George where the award would be presented.
We were accommodated at the student residences at the new University of Northern BC. It was some distance from the city, so we were fortunate to be driving to be able to access other events and meals. We met a woman from Nanaimo, the site of the next year’s conference, and took her to breakfast at Tim Hortons – which was a first for Susan.
Terry and Susan’s award was presented by BC Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo, to which they gave a very good response at the impressive banquet.
As the conference always runs for three days, we settled in on the first day. The next day we were taken by chartered Greyhound bus to see the historic St. Pius X Catholic Church in the Lheidli T’enneh community of Shelley, northeast of Prince George. The church was built in 1913, likely by the Oblates, a missionary order originally from France.
Image: “St. Nicholas” is one of several exquisite stained glass windows from the historic St. Pius Catholic Church on the Shelley reserve of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation northeast of Prince George. (Photo: Kent Sedgwick, Northern BC Archives, UNBC Accn. 2012.13)
A First Nations man met us there and explained the problems they were having to maintain the church and protect it from vandals. The church was built with beautiful stained glass windows from the French region of Alsace Lorraine. A few years after our visit the windows were removed to Exploration Place in Prince George for safekeeping until the church could be restored.
The afternoon Greyhound trip went up the north side of the Fraser River where many sawmills once operated but were now closed and consolidated in Prince George. Our young charter driver had ingeniously put “New York City” on the bus destination sign, and stopped at a restaurant named Paradise. Terry took a photo of the amusing scene. This community might soon be gone – we saw sawmill buildings in the background, but they were no longer in use.
We drove further on, intending to cross the last remaining combination rail-and-highway bridge in BC to take us to Penny, another sawmill place now barely hanging on. But as there was a work crew on the bridge, our driver turned the bus around on the highway (quite a feat) and returned us to Prince George.
On the next day, Sunday, we had an option of driving to Fort St James, and this we were eager to do. One of the advantages of BCHF conferences is the opportunity to visit places you might never get to otherwise. We were taken by a different company’s charter bus, and stopped for a break at Vanderhoof, which claims the distinction of being the geographical centre of BC.
Fort St. James National Historic Site on the shore of Stuart Lake is the earliest HBC trading post this far west. It was built back in 1806 by Simon Fraser of the North West Company to trade with the local Carrier (Lheidli T’enneh) First Nation. For much of the post’s 150 year lifespan it was the Hudson’s Bay Company’s headquarters for what is now mainland BC.
The fort was opened especially for our group, and served us the traditional beans and bannock fare for lunch. The great-granddaughter of Chief HBC Factor Sir James Douglas spoke to our group, and explained how she traced her Black ancestry back to Sir James Douglas’ mother who was Creole, and her Metis ancestry to his wife Amelia.
As Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, Sir James enabled hundreds of Black Americans to settle in the colony, and publicly denounced the practice of slavery. He signed treaties and established reserves for some of the First Nations on Vancouver Island, but his successors such as Joseph Trutch didn’t carry through on these.
After visiting another church with stained glass windows from France, I suggested to our bus driver that some of us would like to see the Russ Baker Memorial at Fort St. James, named for Frank Russell Baker, one of the first bush pilots in the region. After World War II, Baker’s small local airline helped to give Pacific Western Airlines its start. Other fabled bush pilots included Sheldon Luck, who Millie and Geoff Noden in Riondel rated as their favourite pilot. (Geoff, a long time Cominco employee, had been flown in to many isolated mines.)
I had inadvertently mentioned to our driver that our Greyhound driver had turned his bus around on the highway. So he drove us toward where he thought the memorial was, but not being as skilled a driver, he somehow got the coach stuck on some rocks when he attempted to turn the bus around. However he managed to get the bus free and returned us safely to Prince George.
Driving home we took Highway 16 through McBride, past the spectacular Mount Robson, then down the Icefields Parkway to end a super trip.
Image: A chartered Greyhound bus with “New York City” on its destination sign arrives at the Paradise restaurant, next to a sawmill that was soon to close, northeast of Prince George in 2003. (Photo courtesy Terry Turner)
Devastation at the core of Lytton. Photo: Mark Forsythe
“NO STOPPING NEXT 3 kms.” I pay heed to a stark yellow sign on the road that bisects the remains of Lytton, catching glimpses of blackened foundations, burned-out vehicles, and solitary chimneys as I drive slowly past a lightly screened fence. Rain has tamped down the acrid smell of ash and chemicals. It comes eight weeks too late. The town has no hospital. No homes or businesses. No life.
A fire driven by intense winds and a record-breaking heat wave roared through Lytton on June 30, 2021, as citizens scrambled for their lives. In just 20 minutes the historic village was gone, and two people were killed.
No stopping is permitted on the road bisecting what was once downtown Lytton. Photo: Mark Forsythe
Lorna: I’m glad I left the museum early that day because I was working in the basement, and I don’t think I would have known until the building was on fire. That actually happened next door…They were in the house and didn’t know it was occurring until their wall was on fire. That’s how fierce and fast it was. If it had been in the night, I think we would have lost a lot of people. [Her two sons lost their homes, and her daughter’s business burned to the ground.]
Mostly it makes me sad … particularly where people gave me things like their mother’s Chinese skirt. I’m planning to rebuild, getting support, and have put out a call for artifacts. I’m most frustrated with how slowly things go after a fire; I’m still waiting to see if anything is salvageable. It won’t be the same, but I’m hoping to create a museum that’s as valuable. Having the database allows me to still have a research centre.
Richard: One hundred and fifty years of history was lost. If the fossils are gone, it’s 125 million years of history. It’s very disappointing that things are taking so long, and people want to help now. We hope that they’ll want to help six months or a year from now when we can actually get stuff done. The village insurance will cover rebuilding the building, but if we can find things, we do have the database. Everything will have to be restored to some extent, and that’s an expensive and long process on its own. We’re kind of looking towards that as where we really need help. [Richard worked at the destroyed St. Bartholomew hospital and alerted staff to the fire. There were also museum artifacts on display there.]
John: June 30 changed everything that we knew from the day before. I was acting Chief that day and asked Roger James to send out a robotext to evacuate, and he was able to get that message out to our members. That system was put in place just prior to COVID, so we’re glad we had that. I did get to go to my home and was able to retrieve just two baskets [not his own] and my passport. That was it. The fire had started to come into my kitchen. Our family collection was huge because my mother had baskets from our own family, from her sisters and sisters-in-law. There’s a really strong tradition and connection to basketry and the artwork that goes into them, a labour of love.
John Haugen (Lytton First Nation), Richard Forrest (Lytton Museum & Archives Commission), and Lorna Fandrich (Lytton Chinese History Museum) gather at the Kumsheen Rafting Resort. They all plan to rebuild. Photo: Mark Forsythe
John: We need to know why we’re here. We need to know who the people are, what they’ve done. If you don’t preserve, then the town just disappears off the face of the earth. If we don’t, then all we’ll have is a brand-new town.
Lorna: I’m still passionate about getting out the story about the Chinese in Lytton. I don’t want to be one of the businesses that scrams! For me, that took some thought. When I built the first building, I was 64; by the time I get [the next] one built, I’ll be 71. I think we’ll take a chance and see where it evolves.
John: The Indigenous story has been here for over 10,000 years—it’s been said that Lytton is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in North America. When early people came here, they said the Nlaka’pamux people were like ants on an anthill. We are so connected to this land we would feel displaced if we went anywhere else. I really know we’ll come back strong in our Nation here.
Lorna: There was a Chinese railway camp here at Kumsheen, and after some of the cabins burned down, the guys were raking up all the nails and found some small pieces of pottery. Now those six little pieces mean a lot to me. Some things will reappear that way. The Chinese Canadian Historical Society has done a fundraiser to be shared equally between myself and the Lytton First Nation. Clinton Museum did a fundraiser for my museum and the village museum. Blake MacKenzie from the Gold Trails & Ghost Towns [Facebook] group did a fundraiser for both of us. Chinatown Storytelling Centre are hoping to raise $10,000 for the building.
John: We have to start by trying to get a digital record of the baskets because nothing at the Lytton Band survived. Nothing. A teacher who worked here in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s and now lives in Calgary reached out to me two days after the fire; she has baskets and wants to drop them off. We don’t have many buildings left. What we do have we want to use to help young people stay connected to what was important to our past and what we bring forward into the future.
Richard: Once the building is there, the real aim is to make sure we can do more modern displays and digitize a lot of things. There are some metal objects probably worth saving. We’ll try to save everything we can and make a judgement later and start to rebuild a collection from that. We’re going to rebuild, no doubt about that.
Following the interview, Lorna Fandrich added: “The BC Heritage Emergency Response Network and Team Rubicon spent two days salvaging artifacts from the museum. I now have 200 pieces in varying degrees of quality packed up in my garage. Many of the intact pieces have melted glass from the display shelves attached to them, unavoidable but disappointing.”
Image: These fragments were discovered after the fires at the Kumsheen Rafting Resort site, once the location of a Chinese railway camp. Lorna Fandrich is rebuilding the collection for the Lytton Chinese History Museum, and her brother-in-law is assisting by gathering artifacts. If you have Chinese artifacts to share, please them send to: Fred Fandrich, 63420 Yale Road, Hope, BC V0X 1L2. Richard Forrest is also collecting journals, photographs, and other items for the Lytton Museum & Archives. Contact rforrest@botaniecreek.com. John Haugen is seeking Nlaka’pamux baskets for the Lytton First Nation and to rebuild his personal collection. Contact cc.jhaugen@lfn.band
Mark Forsythe travels through BC and back in time, exploring the unique work of British Columbia Historical Federation members.
What was life like for the early Chinese immigrants who came to British Columbia? What has that journey been like over the last 160 years?
The new Chinatown Storytelling Centre in Vancouver provides a fascinating glimpse during the gold rush years, railway building and hardships experienced during the Head Tax and Exclusion Act eras. It’s a story of resilience, a long struggle for rights and ultimately, success.
Carol Lee is a third generation Chinese Canadian and chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation which created the Storytelling Centre that she hopes will help build awareness and help revitalize.
She gave a tour to the BCHF’s Mark Forsythe. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/elhuRL79rcI
Gerald Thomson collection
By Gerald Thomson
In late May 2019, the mayor of New Westminster, Jonathan Coté, donned wrestling tights and got “ready to rumble” as “Johnny X.” The event capped off “rumble month” and was meant to revive interest in professional wrestling in the Royal City where it had once been popular. [1]
The Queen’s Park Arenex was a vital part of the local live wrestling scene, which included the Garden Auditorium and later the Agrodome at the Pacific National Exhibition, the Coquitlam Sports Centre, as well as the Chilliwack Agricultural Hall. Saturday afternoon All Star Wrestling hosted by Ron Morrier of Burnaby’s CHAN television began broadcasting in 1962. [2]
The Queen’s Park Arenex was opened in 1938 as a hard-surface sports facility because the Queen’s Park Arena, built in 1930 after the exhibition fire of 1929, had a winter-ice surface installed for public skating and hockey games. When the ice surface was removed in spring, the Arena was used by lacrosse teams such as the Adanacs and Salmonbellies. [3]
Designed like the Arena in an Art Deco style, the Arenex looked like it would last forever—but it collapsed under the weight of heavy snow in 2016. [4] How professional wrestling came to the Arenex is a complex story Documenting professional wrestling at the Arenex involved laboriously combing through the sports pages of the Columbian newspapers on microfilm in the New Westminster Public Library.
A 1914 photograph of the New Westminster YMCA wrestling team wearing singlets contained three sons from the Thomas John Trapp family (Donovan Joseph Trapp, Gregory Leonard Trapp, and Stanley Valentine Trapp). Columbia Street’s T.J. Trapp hardware store was a prominent local business; all three sons became pilots and would die in the First World War. [5]
High school wrestling was also well represented in New Westminster in the inter-war period, particularly at Trapp Technical High School. [6] Bill Matthew staged wrestling matches in the 1930s at New Westminster’s Royal Canadian Legion Hall using wrestlers from Portland, Oregon’s Hamlin-Thye circuit, such as New Zealander Tom Alley who “attracted considerable attention from the fans.” [7]
The Arenex was initially used from 1938 to the mid-1940s to stage boxing matches. [8] Through careful detective work, I determined the first Arenex wrestling matches took place in November 1944 between Billy Khonke and Cliff Parker, later a local wrestling promoter for Big Time Wrestling. The event began with a curtain raiser bout between Frankie Rea and Art Rea followed by Rocky Rae versus Roy Atlee. Jack Whelan organized the event for the social committee of the International Woodworkers of America, New Westminster local. The large crowd was disappointed when Parker won the decision after “Khonke’s trick knee” gave out. [9]
After this, Arenex wrestling ended and fans were enticed to Vancouver matches with novelties like a fight between a bear and a human wrestler. [10] In April 1950 professional wrestling returned to New Westminster, but not to the Arenex, when Army and Navy Veterans presented “two featured bouts” with Jack Sherry versus Andre Adoree and Gorgeous George Pavich versus Johnny Maars at the YMCA. It would “be in the nature of a test” to see if the event attracted “any kind of crowd.”
Apparently successful, the YMCA had a second match on May 6 with Jack Sherry versus Andree Adoree and Gorgeous George versus Marion Hathaway along with “lady” wrestlers Beverley Blaine and Dakota Lily. About “500 blood-thirsty spectators screamed and yelled themselves hoarse” at the event, but Gorgeous George’s match turned into a hair-pulling event as he had “more hair than he [had] holds.” [11]
On Friday, December 15, 1950, wrestling officially moved back to the Arenex (incorrectly identified in the paper as the Queen’s Park Arena). [12] Local promoter Jack McLean said it would be the “best show yet” with “Prospector” Pete Peterson, a blond, bearded Swede, versus Tony Verdi, “the notorious marauder.” The opener featured Doran O’Hara versus Jack Pappenheim and Clair Robinson versus The Great Yamato.
Special buses would take fans from the Interurban tram depot on Columbia Street to the Arenex. The press called it a “sport for the hardy,” and when villain Tony Verdi defeated Cliff Parker he brought “the entire house down on him after displaying his strong arm methods of rassling.” One gentleman in the audience stripped to the waist and rushed up to the ring; the press called it a “free-swinging donnybrook.” Robinson won handily over Yamato, and O’Hara was awarded a decision over Pappenhiem due to his “dirty work,” while the “Prospector” never appeared. [13] New Westminster seemed to be enamoured with Friday night wrestling at the Arenex.
In December 1951 wrestling went back to the YMCA under ex-wrestler, now promoter Cliff “Painless” Parker. Parker balked at the $60 fee [equivalent to more than $600 today] for the use of the YMCA facilities: “I am not complaining,” said the grunt-and-groan promoter, “but it’s out of the question for me to have to pay that much.” Parker wanted to start a wrestling circuit as he had “enough talent here” and could “bring in American wrestlers to help.” In 1952 “all-in wrestling” came back to New Westminster, and Parker lined up “gents with fancy monikers” like “The Masked Marvel,” “Ivan the Terrible,” “The Angel,” and “The Crusher” for four shows at the YMCA. Parker expected to move all the wrestling matches “to the more convenient Arenex” in the near future. [14]
A cartoon appeared in the sports section of the Columbian showing Frank Stojack, one of the “name fighters” coming to wrestle. Stojak was lauded for his sturdy legs, Junior Pacific Coast Heavyweight title, inter-collegiate heavyweight championship, college football experience, and the fact he “ruled the ring with his rugged tactics.” [15]
Wrestling returned to the Arenex in February 1952 with an epic battle between “The Masked Marvel” versus Jack “Bull” O’Reilly of Australia with a special opening event of Frank Stojak versus Gene Blakely. Ringside seat tickets cost $1.50; reserved seats $1; rush seats 75 cents; and children’s tickets cost 50 cents, so it was definitely an affordable Friday night out [today, those tickets would cost approximately $5 to $15. The Masked Marvel “earned the hatred of both the crowd and opponent” but won; The Great Yamato was “hissed” during his 30-minute “scrape” with Bud Rattal. During the Stojak/Blakely match, fans tried to storm the ring and coffee cups were hurled. Parker was happy with the 700 fans that turned out. [16]
The next match was to be on February 29 with Herb Parks versus Eric Pederson (main event) and George Hessell versus Luigi Macera (special event). Fans were warned: “To avoid the rush get your tickets early.” [17] An advertisement in the Columbian on March 3, 1952 read “Wrestling Every Friday Arenex: Tickets on sale at Swanson’s Sport Shop: Phone 19.” The announcement on March 11 for the main event between Australia’s Jack O’Reilly and Gene Blakely of Texas was followed by a picture of O’Reilly calling him the “bull-necked Australian grappler.” [18]
Despite wrestling’s success, its popularity faded in the mid-1950s. The Arenex was even considered for conversion into an indoor curling rink, as many people now watched wrestling at home on their new televisions. [19]
A total of 331 wrestling shows would take place at the Arenex from November 3, 1960, to December 4, 1970. [20] In the fall of 1961, wrestling returned to the Arenex under promoter Rod Fenton in partnership with Cliff Parker. The local press reported “response to the grunt and groaners has been good so far with near capacity” crowds. New bleachers were installed in the Arenex, indicating that the “rasslers are here to stay for a while.” Tickets were sold at Gregory Price Men’s Wear on Columbia Street for $1.50 general, $2 reserved, and 75 cents for children under 12 years [about $7 to $18 today].
A nine-man “every man for himself” match was to be held in November 1961 with champion Mr. Kleen (bald, dressed in white with one large gold earring) challenging Tiny Mills, Jackie Nichols, Bob “The Viking” Morse, Karol Kalmikoff, Danne McDonald, John Forte, “Cowboy” Jim Wright, and Rosco “Sputnik” Monroe. Mr. Kleen was impressive: his neck and arms were 23 inches [58 cm] and his chest was 56 inches [142 cm]. Female wrestlers were the openers, with Barefoot Beauty (Judy Grable) versus Battling Brunette (Margie Ramsey). A record crowd of 1,000 attended the Arenex on December 22, 1961. [21]
The next main event was to be a six-man battle royale with a $700 prize along with Judy “The Tangler” Grable returning to take on Fran Gravette. Rob Fenton said “last night’s six man tag team went over as such a success that he will possibly run the same encounter next week.” The dreaded Stomach Claw maneuver of Killer Kowalski failed to defeat Roy McClarty, and “Mr. Kleen applied the detergent to Hurricane Smith.” [22]
Mr. Kleen fought Gene Kiniski with “1,500 fans shouting their approval,” and Kiniski lost the match after he “mistook the referee for his opponent.” A “Texas Death Match” and the return of “Girls, Girls, Girls” (female wrestlers) created more hype; tickets were now sold at Fred Asher’s clothing store on Columbia Street. Kiniski was paired with Hard Boiled Haggerty (Dan Stansauk) in the Pacific Coast Tag Team Championship, a match they won “two falls to one” over English champions Oliver Winrush and Sir Alan Garfield. The audience liked to see the “villains” (Gene Kiniski, Hard Boiled Haggerty, and Vince Montana) lose to good “brothers” Roy and Don McClarty and Whipper Billy Watson. New wrestlers such as Hercules Cortez, “a large gentleman,” (300 lb. [136 kg]) were given “a warm hand from ring side aficionados,” while villain Kiniski “tip toed around the ring to clobber” his distracted competitor. A fan leapt up to grab Kiniski’s leg, which he deflected like an “exacting choreographer.” [23]
The arrival of younger wrestlers like Mr. X, Sandor Kovacs, Dandy Dan Miller, Mike Valenti (Mikel Scicluna from Malta), and 601 lb. [273 kg] “Haystack” Calhoun (the Arkansas farm boy) kept audiences interested. When Japanese wrestler Kinji Shibuya (who was born in Utah) employed “nasty tricks,” one fan in the sell-out crowd of 1,200 “clubbed Shibuya with a folding chair” while others “tried to get at Kinji,” who fled to his dressing room. [24]
Female “midget” (considered today as a pejorative term for someone with short stature) wrestlers drew a “capacity crowd of 1,100 spectators” who turned out to see Dolly Darcel (“the world’s smallest athlete”) battle Darling Dagmar (“the blonde bombshell”). [25]
Midget tag-team wrestling continued at the Arenex with Pee Wee Lopez and Chico Santana (43 inches, 96 lb. [108 cm, 44 kg]) battling Marcel Frenchy Semard (the “French Canadian squirt”) and Tiny Bell (“midget fireball”). Big men were still popular; Haystack Calhoun and Dandy Dan Miller “squash[ed] bad boys” Gene Kiniski and Mike Valenti. The Great Mephisto and his hypnotic powers took on Gene Kiniski “before a good crowd at Queen’s Park Arenex.” [26]
Kinji Shibuya roughs up Dandy Dan Miller, January 19, 1963. Gerald Thomson collection
During a ten-man endurance test, “tough Joe Brunetti outlasted the gang” to win $1,000. “Close to 600 fans” saw Whipper Billy Watson defeat Kinji Shibuya while Big Tex Mckenzie, an ex-rodeo performer who stood six feet nine inches [206 cm], “put his brand on desperado” Ripper Leone. In late 1963 the wrestler Don Leo Jonathan, the 300 lb [136 kg] “Mormon Giant” battled Waldo Von Erich, the 260 lb [118 kg] “villainous Prussian.” [27]
Female wrestlers still “attracted a full wrestling house” when Princess Little Cloud (an “Apache Maiden”) and Judy Grable took on Dorothy Dot Carter and Bette Boucher (the “Fiery French Ma’mselle”). A battle to the finish or “Texas Death Match” was won by Don Leo Johnathan who “pleased 700 wrestling fans at the Arenex.” The Kangaroos (Al Costello and Roy Heffernan, both Australians) fought a rough match with Roy McClarty and Edward “Bearcat” Wright, one of the first Black American wrestlers. The Kangaroos flung their boomerangs, wore bush hats, and sang “Waltzing Matilda.” [28]
The Friday night Arenex wrestling matches were seen as safe, colourful family entertainment. A “Lumberjack Match” was staged between “Klondike Bill” (actually William Soloweyko from Calgary) and Don Leo Jonathan. The match developed into a “free for all” when all the wrestlers took sides in the battle; referee Sandor Kovacs “was dumbfounded” but “the fans loved it.” Reality did occasionally intrude as in November 1965 when a Cold War-themed match between Soldat Gorky (“the Russian Wolfman,” who was actually Manitoba-born Walter Allen) challenged Art Nelson (an “American Bruiser” from Georgia); the match ended in a stalemate. [29]
“Torrid Action” ended in a draw when competitors Don LeoJonathan and Big Bill Dromo “wrestled out the one hour limit before 600 enthusiastic fans.” A real fight between Dutch Savage and Paul Jones impressed fans as the “crowd saw Savage use Jones’s head for a skateboard.” Fighting brothers John and Chris Tolos from Hamilton, drew large crowds battling colourful competitors such as George “Cry Baby” Cannon.
In October 1966, Black Canadian wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Bowles in Amherst, Nova Scotia) squared off against Latino wrestler Jose Quintero or “The Cuban” (he was actually born in Texas). Also on the bill was “Abdullah the Butcher” another Black Canadian wrestler, born Lawrence Shreve in Windsor, Ontario. To this point, most wrestlers at the Arenex were white, except for Japanese and Mexican competitors.
Wayde Bowles took his ring name from boxing greats Rocky Marciano and Jack Johnson. As “Rocky Johnson,” he became part of The Soul Patrol with partner Tony Atlas in the World Wrestling Federation; they won the 1983 World Tag Team Championship. Rocky Johnson trained his son Dwayne “The Rock,” who wrestled from 1996 to 2019 while also pursuing a successful acting career. [30] Rocky Johnson became a regular at the Arenex in the mid-1960s. In one match, he was eliminated early by Abdullah the Butcher in an eleven-man battle to the finish.
In March 1968 the first South-Asian-Canadian wrestler, “Tiger” Jeet Singh, made an appearance at the Arenex. Born Jagjeet Singh Hans in Punjab, he came to Canada in the early 1960s and trained as a wrestler in Toronto. Appearing in October 1968 at the Arenex was Arman Hussain, a Sudanese Muslim wrestler (actually from Texas or Alabama) who dressed as an Arab sheik, performed a “camel walk,” and claimed to have an Oxford education.
High drama was the norm when Johnny Kostas tried to drop-kick Gene Kiniski but ended up flat on his back, and John Tolos, the “Golden Greek,” continued to give Bobby Shane the “what for” even after being stopped by the referee. Younger wrestlers such as Dean Higuchi, Bulldog Brown, Steve Bolus, Jerry London, Crusher Moose Morowski, and Haru Sasaki impressed the crowds of fans that crammed the Arenex every Friday night. [31]
January 1970 began with a six-man tag-team elimination match. By April, Arenex wrestling matches were being reported in the Columbian sports pages, but advertisements simultaneously appeared for Monday wrestling at Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). Ticket prices were higher in Vancouver, and there were no seat prices for children, suggesting that these were adult-only events.32 Matches at the Arenex began to decline in number—from 41 events in 1966 and 1967 to 34 in 1968, with only 21 held in 1970. Yet the 1970 matches were memorable; Bulldog Brown had an “annoying habit of leaping out of the ring every time he got into trouble,” which delighted the audience but caused the referee to disqualify him. [33]
On September 25, the most successful wrestling match ever held at the Arenex took place when the World’s Biggest Tangle occurred between 600 lb [272 kg] “Man-Mountain” Mike and Don Leo Jonathan. The Columbian photograph of the Man-Mountain face-down on the mat read: “If you weighed 600 pounds you’d want a rest too. Man-Mountain Mike was the defeated villain in a four-man main event Friday at Queen’s Park Arenex with one of his opponents, Yokouchi, looking on. Mike teamed with Don Jonathan who is only 300 pounds before a packed house.” [34]
In the same month, a Double Main Event featured Jonathan versus Quinn, Kiniski versus Fuji, Torres versus Yokouchi, and Marino versus Cody. The last wrestling events held at the Arenex were two tag-team matches; the first between Quinn and Brown versus Little Bear and McTavish and the second between Yokouchi and Fuji versus Cody and Froelich on December 4, 1970. Larger Monday night matches in the PNE’s Agrodome (which had up to 5,000 seats) and the Garden Auditorium (up to 2,600 seats) made more economic sense. [35]
Wrestling did briefly reappear in New Westminster in the early 1990s at the Eagles Hall on Columbia Street, the former Columbian Theatre, through Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW), headquartered in Surrey. The ECCW wrestlers had much in common with their colourful Arenex predecessors with names like Cheechuk, Wrathchild, and Killswitch. However, it was not family entertainment but rather an “adult-oriented hardcore” production with “violence, blood, superb athleticism, rampant homophobia, racial slurs, and lots of laughs.” [36]
New Westminster’s Queen’s Park Arenex had served from the 1940s until 1970 as a local venue for spectators seeking the thrills of spectacular wrestling in what French semiotician Roland Barthes called “grandiloquence” in “second-rate halls.” [37] The New Westminster Arenex served as such a hall; those legendary matches are now just memories.
Dr. Gerald Thomson is a retired special education teacher/summer sessional lecturer who grew up in New Westminster and still lives there. He previously published articles on the history of New Westminster’s May Day and Hilda Glynn-Ward (BC History) as well as Columbian College and the Provincial Child Guidance Clinic (Historical Studies in Education). He recently published an article in Studies in Travel Writing Vol. 24, No. 1 (February 2020). All of his New Westminster topics are about past things that are no more such as Columbian College, the now-cancelled May Day Festival, and, with this article, professional wrestling in the now gone Queen’s Park Arenex.
1. “New West ready to rumble,” New Westminster Record, April 4, 2019, 1, 11; Jennifer Saltman, “A mayor ready to rumble,” The Province, December 30, 2019, 13.
2. “NWA All-Star Wrestling,” Wikipedia.org.
3. Parks & Recreation History of Park Sites and Facilities: “Queens Park,” www.newwestcity.ca/database/files/library/Queens_Park_History.pdf.
4. Scott Brown, “New Westminster community centre’s roof collapses under weight of snow,” The Vancouver Sun, December 21, 2016, 9.
5. “New Westminster Y.M.C.A. wrestling class 1914-15,” New Westminster City Archives (NWCA), item: IHP0397, record ID: 17622; Alan Livingstone MacLeod, “Brothers Trapp,” www.flickr.com/photos/bigadore/34791377786. Thomas John Trapp II, born in 1913, was the lone surviving son.
6. “Trapp Technical High School wrestling team 1924,” New Westminster Public Library Heritage Collection (NWPLHC), item: 3350, record ID: 99256.
7. “Wrestlers to show at YMCA,” Columbian, April 14, 1950, 9; Tom Alley was New Zealand Heavy Weight Champion in 1929 after which he became a wrestler. Alley’s photograph (1930) is in the National Library of New Zealand (Ref: 1/1-033123-F); Robert Murillo, ProWrestling: The Fabulous, The Famous, The Feared and The Forgotten: Tom Alley (Turnover Scissors Press, 2015).
8. “10 fast bouts arranged by Royal City fighters for Elks fund at Arenex Wednesday,” Columbian, December 17, 1940, 8; “Ron Whalley wins verdict in main bout,” Columbian, October 25, 1941, 7.
9. “Wrestling – Arenex – Queen’s Park,” Columbian, November 22, 1944, 2; “Fights Tonight: Billy Khonke,” Columbian, November 29, 1944, 7; “Parker given nod over Bill Khonke,” November 30, 1944, 7.
10. “Big Time Wrestling,” Columbian, January 11, 1949, 2; “Wrestling bear decisions champ,” Columbian, October 6, 1949, 8.
11. “Wrestlers to show at YMCA,” Columbian, April 14, 1950, 9; “Wrestling Saturday, May 6th, 8 p.m. At the YMCA Royal Ave. at Sixth St.,” Columbian, May 1, 1950, 9; Rollie Rose, “Grapplers revel in hair-pulling event,” Columbian, May 8, 1950, 9.
12. Advertisement: “Tonight 8:30 p.m. Wrestling! In the Queens Park Arena with six men in the ring at once,” Columbian, December 8, 1950, 11.
13. “Bearded Swede to top Friday’s grapple card” and “Wrestling: Friday December 15 at 8:30 p.m. Queens Park Arenex,” Columbian, December 15, 1950, 11; “Verdi plays dirty to chagrin of Parker,” Columbian, December 16, 1950, 7.
14. “No pro wrestling for Royal City unless $60 nightly fee reduced,” Columbian, December 8, 1951, 13; “Royal City wrestling, Pro Boxing cards soon,” Columbian, January 11, 1952, 13.
15. Cartoon: “Frank Stojak: Tacoma’s crowd pleasing wrestler,” Columbian, February 20, 1952, 13.
16. “Wrestling Friday, February 22 – 8:30 p.m. ARENEX,” Columbian, February 21, 1950, 14; “The Masked Marvel takes Aussie,” Columbian, February 23, 1950, 12.
17. “Wrestling Friday, February 29 – 8:30 p.m. ARENEX,” Columbian, February 25, 1952, 12.
18. “Wrestling Queen’s Park ARENEX Every Friday 8:30 p.m.,” Columbian, March 11, 1952, 7; “Bull-necked Jack O’Reilly,” Columbian, March 13, 1952, 17; “Arenex wrestling card tonight,” March 14, 1952, 12; “Wrestling, Queens Park ARENEX, Every Friday 8:30 p.m.,” Columbian, March 17, 1952, 12.
19. “Ten bouts at Arenex tonight,” Columbian, November 28, 1952, 16; “Roe and Jorgenson battle to draw in Arenex,” Columbian, November 14, 1953, 13; “Television boots wrestling,” Columbian, February 28, 1953, 8; “City Curling Club to get underway: Arenex to be altered,” Columbian, March 20, 1953, 12.
20. “Wrestling returns to NW in big way,” Columbian, November 21, 1961, 17; New Westminster Arenex wrestling database at www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&sort=ort&land=5&stadt=2795®ion=127& arena=21065&showart=&ansicht=0&seite=3
21. “Nine man over the top rope battle royal,” Columbian, November 19, 1961, 9; “Girls, Girls, Girls,” Columbian, December 22, 1961, 9; Glyn Lewis, “A warning: Watch those flying mares,” Columbian, December 23, 1961, 11; “Wrestling returns to NW in big way,” Columbian, November 21, 1961,
22. “Girls return here Friday,” Columbian, January 3, 1962, 10; “Tag match ends in disqualification,” Columbian January 20, 1962, 10; “Dreaded claw-hold expert here–Killer Kowalski,” Columbian, February 23, 1962, 9; “McClarty wins over killer,” Columbian, February 24, 1962, 9.
23. “Mr. Kleen takes event from Kiniski,” Columbian, March 10, 1962, 10; “Texas Death Match: Battle to Finish,” Columbian, March 30, 1962, 9; “Girls, Girls, Girls: Princess Tona Tomah, Chippewa Princess vs. Kathy Starn, Battling Brunette,” Columbian, May 11, 1962, 9; “Unpopular champions keep title,” Columbian, June 16, 1962, 12; “Bad guys lose out in six-man tag match,” Columbian, July 14, 1962, 10; “For those who cheered it was all even in feature,” Columbian, September 22, 1962, 9; “Kiniski stops Cortez in wrestling feature,” Columbian, December 15, 1962, 9.
24. “Miller, Kovacs keep coast championship,” Columbian, January 12, 1963, 9; “Kinji gets clubbed: Occupational hazards,” Columbian, January 19, 1963, 10.
25. “Girl Midgets, Girl Midgets,” Columbian, November 23, 1962, 9; “Roy, Cortez win feature,” Columbian, November 24, 1962, 10.
26. “Hay Stack, Dan mat winners,” Columbian, January 26, 1963, 9; “Midgets – Tag Team – Midgets,” Columbian, May 3, 1963, 9; “Semard, Bell team wins,” Columbian, May 4, 1963, 9.
27. “Brunetti wins Battle Royal,” Columbian, June 1, 1963, 10; “Whipper whips Shibuya,” Columbian, October 19, 1963, 10;
28. “Whipper whips Gene Kiniski,” Columbian, December 21, 1963, 9; “Little Cloud team wins,” Columbian, January 18, 1964, 9; “Johnathan wins mat feature,” Columbian, May 2, 1964, 9; “By public demand return battle,” Columbian, June 26, 1969, 9.
29. “Lumberjack Match,” Columbian, March 19, 1965, 9; “Bad guy loses as rasslin script runs true to form,” Columbian, March 20, 1965, 9; “Clash of the bad men,” Columbian, November 5, 1965, 11; “Wolfman battles to draw,” Columbian, November 6, 1965, 11.
30. “Torrid Action,” Columbian, January 14, 1966, 9; “Rassle match ends in draw,” Columbian, January 15, 1966, 9; “Only Ref was saviour: Dutch squashes Jonsey,” Columbian, August 29, 1966, 9; “Tolos boys in tag win,” Columbian, January 28, 1967, 10; “10-Man Top Rope Battle Royal,” Columbian, October 6, 1967, 17; “9 Grapplers,” Columbian, October 7, 1967, 26; “Four Man Tag-Team,” Columbian, October 27, 1967, 9; Dawn Calleja, “‘I broke down a lot of barriers’: Late wrestler Rocky Johnson, father of The Rock, reflects on his career,” The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2020; “Jose Quintero,” Wikipedia.org; “Abdullah the Butcher,” Wikipedia.org; “Dwayne Johnson,” Wikipedia.org.
31. “Assassins keep Canadian title,” Columbian, December 30, 1967, 10; “Battle royal to Assassins,” Columbian, December 2, 1967, 11; “Good guys win bout,” Columbian, March 16, 1968, 11; Antoine Tedesco, “Unleashing a Tiger: Documenting the struggles and sacrifices of a wrestling icon,” SceneandHeard.ca, Vol. 7, Issue 3, May 5, 2009; “Stack, Paddy take feature,” Columbian, May 18, 1968, 9; “4 Man Tag Team,” Columbian, October 4, 1968, 9; Greg Oliver, “The Mystery of Arman Hussain,” www.slamwrestling.net/index.php/2008/01/10/the-mystery-of-arman-hussain/; “Tolos stars again,” Columbian, December 14, 1968, 9; “Dutchman is Savage,” Columbian, January 25, 1969, 10; “On the local scene: Ex-champ makes right moves,” Columbian, March 15, 1969, 12; “9 Man over the top rope battle royal,” Columbian, November 7, 1969, 9.
32. “Wrestling New West Arenex – 6 Man Tag Team Elimination,” Columbian, January 16, 1970, 9; “Bulldog, Crusher take their lumps,” Columbian, April 4, 1970, 23; “Wrestling Exhibition Agrodome – By Public Demand,” Columbian, April 4, 1970, 23.
33. Arenex Wrestling Data Base match totals for 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970; “Ref, Bolus too much for Brown” and “Wrestling Exhibition Gardens,” Columbian, May 2, 1970, 25.
34. “Man Mountain Mike falls hard,” Columbian, September 26, 1970, 15.
35. “Wrestling New West Arenex – Fri., Dec. 4, 8:00 p.m. – Two Tag-Team Matches,” Columbian, December 3, 1970, 11; “Mat Show goes on,” Exhibition Gardens, Columbian, January 12, 1971, 13; “Kiniski out finks Funk,” Agrodome, Columbian, January 19, 1971, 11; “Bad guys lose match,” Exhibition Gardens, Columbian, December 22, 1971, 13; “Defeats Don Leo: Kiniski is champion,” Exhibition Gardens, Columbian, December 29, 1970, 11.
36. Stephen Osborne and Brian Howell, One Ring Circus: Extreme Wrestling in the Minor Leagues, (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002), 6–7, 14–15, 26, 34–35, 94–95.
37. Roland Barthes, “The World of Wrestling,” Mythologies (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux Press [1952], 1991), 13–23.
BCHF vice-president Mark Forsythe interviews BCHF director Greg Nesteroff, co-author with Eric Brighton of the new book Lost Kootenays: A History In Pictures. In the first of two installments, they look at some of the photos featuring the West Kootenay. You can find part 2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlyQd3yHCM4
The Strand Theatre on Third Avenue as it appeared in 1965. It had disappeared by 1974. Exploration Place P993.11.1.6044.1
By Mark Forsythe
Loki the Magpie is a tad lonely. He’s accustomed to swapping tales with visitors to the animal biome at the Exploration Place Museum and Science Centre in Prince George, but when the facility was forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, things suddenly got a lot quieter.
Loki thrives on interaction with people and is known to quote back phrases or summon his own, like, “Hey you, come here!” The bird enjoys being at the centre of attention, and like everyone else at Exploration Place, is keen to greet more humans.
During the pandemic closure, Exploration Place was able to undertake major reconstruction of gallery spaces and curate new exhibits. Staff have also collaborated with the Maiyoo Keyoh Society to help repatriate a headdress that belonged to a hereditary chief of the Susk’uz Whut’en, George A’Huille.
They partneredwith the Lheidli T’enneh to establish a new free-standing childcare centre in Lheidli T’enneh Park, home to Exploration Place. The Lheidli T’enneh occupied a village here for some 9,000 years, until they were expelled by settlers. (Lheidli T’enneh means “the people who live where the two rivers flow together.”)
The owners of the Prince George Real Estate Company standing in front of their building, 1910s. Exploration Place P988.15.55
Exploration Place curator Alyssa Leier says the new childcare centre will “focus on Indigenous ways of knowing and will be unlike anything in Prince George.” It will bring 75 new spaces to the city; programming will emphasize language, culture, and Elder involvement.
This evolving relationship dovetails with a commitment to collaborate more directly with First Peoples and Knowledge Keepers with a hope to build trust and understanding. The repatriated headdress is a good illustration.
Jim Munroe, president of the Maiyoo Keyoh Society, stumbled across an online description of the headdress in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) while researching a land title case. Jim realized it connected directly to his wife’s family. Petra Munroe is Hereditary Chief of the Maiyoo Keyoh and the headdress (made from her ancestors’ hair) was worn by her great-great-grandfather some 140 years ago.
A missionary, Father Adrian-Gabriel Morice, gave it to the Museum of Archaeology in 1893 and it has been at ROM since 1912. The family approached Exploration Place for assistance, applied for a provincial Repatriation Grant through the BC Museums Association, and travelled to Toronto to view the head-dress on display beside one worn by Chief Sitting Bull. Now it’s coming home.
Left: Sketch by Father Adrian-Gabriel Morice OMI, circa 1885. Courtesy of Maiyoo Keyoh Society. Right: The George A’Huille headdress is made of dentalia (flute shaped seashells) strung on the hair of revered female ancestors. This headdress is a physical connection to ancestral direct link to the responsibility and governance of Maiyoo Keyoh, 170,000 hectares of land about 100 km northwest of Prince George. Coutesy of Maiyoo Keyoh Society/Royal Ontario Musuem ROM 2016-15387-3
Chief Petra Munroe told CBC Radio: “The headdress is so important to tell the story of where we came from.” Since Exploration Place is a Class A facility and a designated repository it can safely hold the headdress on the family’s behalf or until they are able to create an appropriate space for it. “It’s up to the family,” says curator Alyssa Leier. Plans are in the works for a ceremonial welcome this fall when it goes on display. “[We want] to show other nations that this is possible. If we could do it, they could do it,” says Chief Munroe.
In 2017, the Exploration Place Museum and Science Centre and the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation received a Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming for a new permanent gallery, Hodul’eh-a: A Place of Learning. It features a pit house entryway, a new cottonwood dugout canoe (the first built in more than 100 years), photos, artifacts, and a central hearth. The gallery space has become very popular and is used for school and community programs.
CEO Tracy Calogheros and curator Alyssa Leier commented in BC Studies: “The award celebrates a new gallery in the Exploration Place but it also recognizes a shift in the way a regional museum thinks and in how it works with and represents the First Nation in whose territory it is located.”
This marked an important change in how stories are told at Exploration Place. “The exhibitions did not represent Lheidli T’enneh culture or portray that nation’s resiliency and determined efforts to keep its culture alive in the face of colonial oppression and loss of lands and resources. The museum was missing valuable insight and a large piece of our region’s history.”
What’s curator Alyssa Leier looking forward to in a post-COVID-19 world? “Our reopening! The new childcare centre will make positive change for the community, and repatriations are really important as we try to decolonize these spaces.”
Loki the Magpie will have much to talk about.
The Exploration Place Museum and Science Centre is owned and operated by the Fraser-Fort George Museum Society. Visit www.theexplorationplace.com
Find out more about the headdress and its repatriation on this BCMA podcast: https://museum.bc.ca/brain/repatriation-discussion-with-maiyoo-keyoh-society/
To learn more about the Maiyoo Keyoh Society and to support their work, visit https://maiyookeyoh.com/
Listen to Chief Petra Munroe’s CBC Daybreak interview with Carolina de Ryk starting at 53:00: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-109/clip/15845074
Prince George, 1915. Exploration Place A988.30.14
Sandra Moorhouse-Good (mother), Aunalee Boyd-Good, Tseskinakhen William Good (father), and Sophia Seward-Good, 2019. Photo: Sean Fenzl
By Aimee Greenaway with Aunalee Boyd-Good, Sophia Seward-Good, and Thea Harris
Vancouver Fashion Week was the catalyst for two fashion designers to create contemporary Coast Salish music with their family.
Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good are the sisters behind Ay Lelum, The Good House of Design, a second-generation Coast Salish design house. When they needed original music for their Vancouver Fashion Week showcase in 2018, they collaborated with their family of artists for ideas. “We didn’t know where to start,” says Aunalee Boyd-Good. “The challenge for recording music is—where do you begin?”1
Their father, Tseskinakhen William Good—hereditary chief, master carver, and knowledge keeper from the Snuneymuxw First Nation—has his own traditional songs. But it was their brother, artist W. Joel Good, who suggested they contact Juno-award winning and multi-platinum producer Rob the Viking in Nanaimo for beats.2
The collaborative process between Ay Lelum and their producer is reciprocal and based on respect for working with important cultural information. “We can’t just cut a Hul’q’umi’num word off, because you are changing its meaning,” says Sophia Seward-Good. “In our language, you have to make sure you are pronouncing your word correctly, otherwise you change the whole thing.”3
Tseskinum William Good wearing his running clothes, circa 1900. Photo: Good family
Ay Lelum’s songs include non-conventional instruments including spinning wool, strumming taut wool, carving chips, and sharpening knives, and incorporate sounds such as bird calls, and babies talking. “So much in day-to-day artistic practices and life are rhythmic,” says Aunalee. “It’s like life embodied in the music.”4
Their father’s singing and drumming is featured in the songs “Story of the Grizzly Bear” and “Modern Prayer.” Their music, like all their art, is guided by their father’s teachings.
All generations of their family collaborate on Ay Lelum’s music, including Aunalee and Sophia’s niece, Thea Harris. “I am a passionate weaver, and I had such a strong feeling that I needed to be part of the process with the ‘Spindle Whorl’ song,” says Thea. “Being part of their creative process, I feel less like a maker and more like a witness. The music exists in another place, and we are chosen to be vessels of this knowledge and art.”5
The multi-generational approach to the family’s artistic work is intrinsic. “Based on Coast Salish teachings, my grandparents set the table that whoever wants to be a part of a creative process can come,” Thea reflects. “And my aunts make space for that, too, through their generosity of being open to the process, people, and everything that comes forward.”6
Every song is developed differently. “It is an intuitive process,” says Aunalee. “You are tapping into something ancient and traditional.” Her sister, Sophia, describes the process: “Normally, our plan is whatever artwork we’re using or story we’re telling, I go and learn our Hul’q’umi’num language around that framework. Then we go in and we allow the rhythmic words to guide our beat.”7
From their instruments to the artistic process, Ay Lelum is decolonizing their music. “We had a song and a dance for everything,” says Sophia. “We don’t hear those songs. Those songs were taken. Aunie and I have the chance to make songs for everything—our fashion, our history, our language revitalization. You don’t have to go to a museum to hear our music: you can get it off Apple iTunes.”8
Thea believes that Ay Lelum brings forward music and language in a way that offers hope for younger generations. “There’s a feeling in communities of lost music, language, protocols, and ceremonies, which is frustrating and can slow down momentum,” she explains. “I feel so strongly that it doesn’t take a special combination; we can all access ancient knowledge if we are generous with ourselves and are willing and open to access that knowledge.”9
Ay Lelum’s music has aired on CBC Music’s Reclaimed with host Jarrett Martineau. Their recent release, Run, was based on the story of their great-grandfather Tseskinakhen William Good (1878–1966), a world-class runner at the turn of the 20th century. In an interview in the 1990s, Elder Hazel Good described how her father won the 440-yard [402-meter] race at the World’s Fair in San Francisco in the 1890s, which gave him the designation of the fastest man in the world. But Good never received his medal—he was disqualified for being Indigenous.10
From 1908–1950, William Good, son of Snuneymuxw Chief Louis Good, served as a police officer and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation medal (1953) for his outstanding police service.11 “He was a non-drinker all his life and did his best to keep alcohol and bootleggers off the Reserve,” according to grandson Tseskinakhen William Good. “He was the first police officer in Snuneymuxw and upheld the law.”12
Ay Lelum’s music evokes powerful emotions. “If you get emotional hearing our language and songs, that is your spirit longing to connect with our ancestors,” says Sophia. “I think our music definitely evokes emotion and connection that feels lost.” As artists and modern storytellers who use their moment on the runway to honour the past and look towards the future, Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward Good weave sound and fabric into an invitation to connect with Coast Salish culture.13
Find Ay Lelum’s wearable art garments here: https://www.aylelum.com. Find their singles and EPs on Apple Music or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
1. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020. Thank you to John Harris for generously sharing the recording of his interview with his aunts about Ay Lelum’s music. 2. Aunalee Boyd-Good, “Creating a Coast Salish Symphony with Rob the Viking,” Salish Sea Sentinel, October 2019, https://salishseasentinel.ca/2019/10/creating-a-coast-salish-symphony-with-rob-the-viking/ 3. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020. 4. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020. 5. Interview with Thea Harris by Aimee Greenaway, June 18, 2021. 6. Interview with Thea Harris by Aimee Greenaway, June 18, 2021. 7. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020. 8. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020. 9. Interview with Thea Harris by Aimee Greenaway, June 18, 2021. 10. Michael Munro, “Medal Withheld Because of Native Ancestry,” Nanaimo News Bulletin, October 19, 1995. 11. “William Good of Indian Reserve Awarded Medal,” Nanaimo Free Press, April 3, 1954. 12. Wall text, Tseskinakhen William Good (1878–1966), Nanaimo Museum, June 21, 2021. 13. Interview with Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good by John Harris, 2020.
Thea Harris and Sophia Seward-Good pulling wool taut for Aunalee Boyd-Good to play. Photo: Raymond Knight
Surrey Centre Cemetery sits on the top of the hill above Mud Bay, overlooking farm land and the surrounding area as it has done for the last 135 years. As the local communities have grown and prospered, we can find jewels of local history in the stories of our pioneer families in their final resting place.
Through granite, marble and even wood-carved stones that dot the historic grounds, we find those that forged a new home and built a community. The cemetery holds the stories of veterans of all conflicts, including the Boer and the US Civil War as well as the family of an emancipated US slave who came to call Cloverdale home. Other features of the cemetery include a butterfly garden and a tree descended from the fields of Vimy Ridge.
This is part two. Sue presented part one at the BC Historical Federation conference 2021.
Maurice Guibord, director of the Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, will engage you with his presentation which incorporates his research on the Francophone heritage of Surrey. The presentation was delivered at the 2021 BC Historical Federation conference.
British Columbia Historical FederationPO Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, Canada, V1M 2R7Information: info@bchistory.ca
The Secretariat of the BCHF is located on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish speaking Peoples.
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