As the holiday giving season approaches, please remember the BC Historical Federation (BCHF) in your charitable giving plans. We are 100% volunteer-run and every dollar you donate goes to one of our three main activities. 

(1) The British Columbia History magazine is produced four times per year and 

If you donate $50, that will buy one hour of copy-editing time.  If you donate $500, you will help cover the design costs for one magazine issue. 

(2) The BCHF awards program contributes to prizes for the best historical writing, storytelling, and preservation each year. We also award scholarships to emerging scholars studying history in BC’s post-secondary programs. 

If you donate $100, you will help support and recognize individuals and groups working to preserve, research and share BC’s history with the public. 

(3) The BCHF’s Centennial Legacy Fund supports community historians uncovering the diverse cultural, artistic, genealogical and geological history of BC. Last year, the Centennial Legacy Fund helped to support small, local projects on Pender Island, in Barriere, and near Grand Forks. Often, Centennial Legacy Fund grants are used as seed money for larger research grants and leverage support from bigger funding agencies. 

Please consider giving what you can.  We need your help to continue our work! 

Please donate at https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-british-columbia-historical-federation/

The Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver is now offering guided tours in English every Wednesday and Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

"We are thrilled to receive such positive feedback on our guided tours and are excited to continue providing more tour experiences at the museum," the museum said.

Tours are complimentary with admission. Make sure you book your tour in advance on our website to secure your spot, as there is a 15-person limit. (Once it's sold out, the purchase option is hidden)

Joining a guided tour is the most comprehensive way to learn about the content of our exhibitions. It gives you a great overview to start before exploring the museum at your own pace afterwards.

A fantastic member of the museum assistant team leads all guided tours. Guides are all trained in museum interpretation and are incredibly insightful, passionate, and knowledgeable about our exhibitions.

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我們有新的導覽日期了！從11月1日起的每週三和週四下午2:30，我們將新增英文的博物館導覽。大眾對導覽的一致好評是我們進步的推動力，希望能繼續為大家提供更好的導覽體驗！

為什麼參與華裔博物館的導覽？

憑門票就能免費參加！記得提前在我們的網站上預訂並保留名額，因為每團上限15人。 (公眾導覽一旦額滿，將不會在購票頁面顯示）。

參加導覽可以更全面了解我們展覽內容。您可以先參與導覽，結束後再按照自己的步伐探索博物館。

所有導覽均由我們專業的博物館助理帶領！他們接受過專業培訓，所以不單十分了解館內的展覽，亦對在帶領時充滿熱情。

Join Heritage Surrey on Saturday, Nov. 18 for a free private tour of Museum of Surrey and a rare tour of the Surrey Collections vault. The behind the scenes experiences will follow the 10:30 a.m. AGM for the Friends of the Surrey Museum and Archives Society. Learn how you can support local heritage and get a glimpse at the work the society supports! RSVP by email to museum@surrey.ca.

The Haq and History exhibit, which will be at the Golden Museum from Nov. 7 to Dec. 16, offers visitors the chance to reflect upon stories from and about South Asian Canadian immigrants, including details about work, home life and keeping cultural traditions alive in BC.

Through panel texts, visitors to Haq and History will learn about Punjabi immigrants working in sawmills in the 1920s; hear about travel from Punjab to Canada in the 1950s; learn some of the challenges of sourcing Indian food in Vancouver in the 1960s; and learn about memories of life in the now-abandoned town of Paldi in the 1940s.

Haq and History is the latest collaboration of the Royal BC Museum and the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Golden's claim to fame is that it was home to the first Sikh temple in North America in the early 1900s.

Detail of a fire insurance map for the Columbia River Lumber Co. The Sikh temple was among the buildings in yellow near top right. (Library and Archives Canada)

University of Guelph historian Linda Mahood has studied hitchhiking as a social phenomenon from the 1920s through until the present day in her book Thumbing A Ride, and focuses this talk on Vancouver in 1970 when it was the destination of wandering youth, culminating in the Jericho Riot in October 1970, when police evicted young people from the Jericho Youth Hostel. Mahood's presentation to the Vancouver Historical Society can be viewed below.

Image MSC130-2116-01 courtesy of the British Columbia Postcards Collection, a digital initiative of Simon Fraser University Library

The Mount Baker Hotel in Cranbrook is celebrating its centennial. Starting in 2018 it was renovated in an Art Deco style.

Read more in the Cranbrook Townsman.

The provincial government has sold the old land titles office in Nelson, built in 1900. The building, more recently used as the regional Emergency Management BC office, will be the new home of Summit Psychology.

Read more at mynelsonnow.com.

A major expansion project at Shawnigan Lake Museum has been boosted by a $500,000 grant from the province's Destination Development Fund. The BCHF member society has successfully sourced multiple donations since launching a campaign to triple the size of its 2,100 square foot facility. Plans include highlighting the life and work of artist E.J. Hughes, the Kinsol Trestle and sharing more stories from local history. The cost for the project is expected to be $2.1 million;  shovels will go in the ground next summer. Read more in this Cowichan Valley Citizen story.

Call for Submissions - 2023

The British Columbia Historical Federation invites submissions for the 41st Annual Historical Writing Awards for authors of British Columbia history. 

Eligibility

• To be eligible for this competition, books must be published in 2023.
• Non-fiction books representing any aspect of B.C. history are eligible.
• Reprints, translations or revisions of books are not eligible.
• Books may be submitted by authors or publishers.

Judging Criteria

Judges are looking for quality presentations and fresh material. Submissions will be evaluated in the following areas:

• Scholarship: quality of research and documentation, comprehensiveness, objectivity and accuracy
• Presentation: organization, clarity, illustrations and graphics, index, table of contents
• Accessibility: readability and audience appeal 

Lieutenant Governor’s Medal and Other Prizes

The B.C. Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing will be awarded together with $2500 to the author whose publications makes the most significant contribution to the history of British Columbia. 

• The 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive $1500 and $500 respectively. 
• The Community History Award winner will receive $500.
• Up to three Certificates of Honorable Mention may be awarded as recommended by the judges.

Publicity

The 2024 awards evening will be held in spring, 2024. Finalists will be publicized in the weeks prior to conference, and the winners, announced during the event, will be publicized immediately afterwards.
Submission Requirements: https://forms.office.com/r/dwYBdCBHb3

Submission Deadline: December 31, 2023

• Mail three copies of your publication to PO Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, V1M 2R7

By submitting books for this competition, the authors agree that the British Columbia Historical Federation may use their name in press releases and in its publications. Books submitted to the judges are not returned to the publishers or authors.                                    

SUMBIT NOW

Des Pardes opens on Saturday, Oct. 14 in Abbotsford

Image: Sunder Singh Thandi (“Joe”), left, and Jassa Singh on the right standing in front of a flatdeck truck. Taken on Main Street, Vancouver, when Sunder purchased a new threshing machine, 1939. (Photo courtesy of The Reach Archives.)

The history, culture, and contemporary character of the South Asian Canadian community in Abbotsford is the subject of an ambitious exhibition organized by The Reach Gallery Museum. Des Pardes opens on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 12 to 3 p.m. with a family friendly event featuring hands on activities and entertainment. 

The exhibition title is borrowed from the Hindi/Punjabi phrase which can translate to “home and abroad” or “Motherland/Other Land” which is commonly used to describe the South Asian Canadian experience, where families have deep ties in Canada and abroad. The project showcases the unique and major contributions of the ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse South Asian diaspora to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of Abbotsford and beyond.

Des Pardes is one of the most significant projects ever presented by The Reach and includes contributions from hundreds of participants and collaborators from the community. Many contributors are featured in interviews on flat screen displays, and several families loaned heirlooms and other artifacts that are on view. The large-scale, multi-sensory experience uses historical photographs, oral histories, contemporary interviews, historical objects, and newly commissioned works of art to illustrate six themes: Migration, Faith, Family, Business & Livelihoods, Oppression & Opposition, and Contemporary Culture.

At the heart of the project has been a major initiative to digitize and make accessible to the wider public a vast array of South Asian heritage resources, generously funded by a Digital Access to Heritage grant from Canadian Heritage, with support from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre’s British Columbia History Digitization Program at the University of British Columbia, and the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. The exhibition makes visible a vast array of personal histories, images, and documents that represent three years of community-based research and many more of collecting.

Baltej Singh Dhillon in 1991. Dhillon was instrumental in removing the ban on beards and turbans in the RCMP. (Photo courtesy of the Baltej Dhillon Archive)

Amongst the newly digitized materials is the Punjabi Patrika archive. This significant local newspaper is one of only two bilingual newspapers in Canada and offers a unique insight into the history of Abbotsford and the surrounding region. The Reach has digitized the entire hardcopy archive spanning from October 1996 to 2014, inclusive. Another interactive kiosk features the Baltej Dhillon Archive which documents the challenges Dhillon faced in his quest to secure the right to wear the dastār or Sikh turban with his RCMP uniform.

“This project is important to our community, and to the broader historical narrative of the region,” says Laura Schneider, executive director of The Reach. “The Reach has featured exhibitions about various aspects of South Asian-Canadian history in the past, but the scope of community involvement that was undertaken to develop this project better represents the diversity of experience that exists in our community and makes it truly special.”

Des Pardes will be on view through May 18, 2024. For the full schedule of public and educational programs that will accompany the exhibition, please visit www.thereach.ca. For exclusive behind-the-scenes content related to the project, follow @despardes.exhibition on Instagram and Tik Tok.

Image: Baltej Singh Dhillon in 1991. Dhillon was instrumental in removing the ban on beards and turbans in the RCMP. (Photo courtesy of the Baltej Dhillon Archive)