Sonia Manak posted an item on 9.09.2015 (see the post 'The Barber Shop Story") retelling a pre-WW II story her grandfather had recounted about an unnamed Japanese Canadian barber in the Duncan area (unceded territories of the Cowichan Tribes). He apparently was the only barber in the Cowichan Valley who would cut Sikhs' hair. Our…
I recently visited Langley Centennial Museum to do some research. My maternal grandparents settled on Stó:lō territory at a place known as Murrayville in the early 1900s. The museum is in Fort Langley and so while I was visiting this picturesque little town (on the territory of the Kwantlen Nation (a members of the Stó:lō Tribal Council)…
According to the recent book, Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History by Margaret Horsfield and Ian Kennedy, whaling stations at Sechart in Barkley Sound and Cachalot in Kyuquot Sound employed scores of workers, "many of them Chinese, Japanese and aboriginal, to flense and render the [whale] carcasses." These are sites of close proximity of communities…
A news article on the Old Hillcrest Chinese cemetery came out yesterday, August 18, 2015. See http://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/opinion/322199611.html
LEE, Wu: A foreman at the Quathiaski Cove cannery on Quadra Island around 1911, he was part of a staff (permanent?) of 27 people. He oversaw sixteen other Chinese workers and earned $400 per year compared to $300 per year for the male crew. The Chinese crew lived in a building called ‘China House’ (really?)…