The Voices of Women in History

The book launch on Saturday turned out to be a lovely little affair with family, friends and community members coming out to support this recent publication. Four of the women who put "Women of Pender Harbour" together were in attandance and each spoke of their role in the 10 year project. They took turns reading different passages and highlighting some of the interesting women and stories from Pender Harbour. After the talk, the crowd mixed and mingled in the gift shop area over tea, coffee and treats.

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Dorothy Faulkner

Karen Dyck

Aaron and John

Joan

l to r: Kimiko Hawkes, Pat Jobb, Karen Dyck, Dorothy Faulkner & Cathy Jenks

Artifact Analysis

Come and watch archaeologists at work!

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Three separate communities have come together to create a public event that will showcase local First Nations history, archaeology and our local communities on the Sunshine Coast.

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Many ancient artifacts have been curated at the Sunshine Coast Museum but very little information exists around the meaning and function of these items.

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Please come and join us as archaeologists photograph, catalogue and analyze these implements so that they can be developed into an educational exhibit.

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At the Museum

716 Winn Road in Gibsons

Friday and Saturday

October 29th & 30th

from 11 to 4 each day.

"What were these used for?"

"How old are these?", "What are they made of?"



"Who used these?"



Through a collaboration between the Squamish Nation, the Archaeological Society of B.C. and the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives, we have the rare opportunity for Rudy Reimer and other archaeologists to come to the Museum and work with the stone artifacts in our collection. They will be on hand to answer your questions and explain the process of analysis.

 

Join us for a book launch!

“Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History”

by Dorothy Faulkner, Elaine Park, & Cathy Jenks

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

at the Museum – 716 Winn Road, Gibsons, B.C.

Reading, Q&A, and book signing with authors.

Refreshment will be served.

For more information, contact the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives at (604) 886-8232

or go to http://www.sunshinecoastmuseum.ca/

The coast of British Columbia is indented by inlets where early logging and fishing families established independent settlements in the wilderness. Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History presents part of B.C.’s history through the words of the early women settlers of one of these coastal villages.

Modern Pender Harbour, today a thriving community of 2500 on the Sunshine Coast, northwest of Vancouver, was for much of the twentieth century a place that tested the courage and ingenuity of its women. The book contains life stories of women who laid the foundations of the community, such as Thawquamot Theresa Jeffries, a Shishalh girl sold into marriage to one of the first English settlers; her daughter Mary Ann Rouse, the harbour midwife in the 1920s; her granddaughter Martha Warnock, who fought the government to get a road to school for harbour children.

Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History is published by the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society, a voluntary non-profit group working to preserve the history of the Pender Harbour area. The book began with an idea by members of the Pender Harbour Women’s Connection group to honour the local women pioneers. After nine years of work by volunteers conducting interviews and gathering information and photographs, project leader Dorothy Faulkner, writer Elaine Park and graphics editor Cathy Jenks have woven the recollections of more than 40 pioneer women into a colourful tapestry of remembrance. The historical narrative is augmented by more than 200 heirloom photographs, biographical profiles, a Pender Harbour historical timeline, genealogies of some of the founding families and an endpaper historic map.  An original painting donated by internationally renowned artist Motoko, entitled “Boat Day at Irvines Landing,” graces the jacket cover.

Production of the book was made possible by the donated skills of Howard and Mary White of Harbour Publishing. All proceeds from sales of Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History will support preservation of historical records and artifacts in Pender Harbour.

Jean Barman, Professor Emeritus of educational history at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is the author of several history books including The West Beyond the West, Stanley Park’s Secret, The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey and British Columbia: Spirit of the People.  She has made the following comment on the book:

“Women’s lives recounted in their own words are rare indeed. Women of Pender Harbour is a welcome exception, following forty remarkable everyday women across a century and more. These diverse women share their upbringing and first romances, their roles as wives, mothers, and fisherwomen, and their determination to build community. Through these women’s recollections, we glimpse the coastal enclave of Pender Harbour. Once isolated and self-contained, it increasingly appealed to ‘summer people,’ some of them so entranced they became residents. Women of Pender Harbour is an important slice of British Columbia history.”

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, Dorothy Faulkner, Elaine Park and Cathy Jenks will be reading selections, sharing stories, and discussing their research here at the Museum from 2 till 4 pm.  Join us for some lively conversation and refreshments. Copies of the book will be available in the gift shop and admission is by donation.

Community Oral History

This past Saturday, we had a lively group of 17 participants gather at Christenson Village for a workshop with Prof. Helene Demers on the subject of oral history. There is never enough time in the day to cover it all but we touched on the basics and everyone received the revised copy of the Community Oral History Kit created by the Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives. Professor Demers drew from her work over the years to highlight the importance of sensitivity, compassionate listening, and ethics. The participants came from various backgrounds – residents and staff at Christenson, Quest University students, Canada World Youth participants, friends of the Museum, and interested community members; they ranged in age from 20’ish to 80’ish; and there was a nice balance of both men and women. Everyone was engaged, enthusiastic, and willing to share their own stories. By the end of the day, there was a very real sense of a collective group and a wonderful energy that comes from that. Thanks to all the participants, to Professor Helene Demers and to Bruce Devereux and the folks at Christenson Village.

 L to R: Kimiko Hawkes(SCMA), Qaqamba Koyana (Canada World Youth), Prof. Helene Demers (VIU), Selena Boan (Canada World Youth)



Bruce   

Jennifer and Jim

Rebecca, Gordon, and Jeanie

Jennifer

Sandra and John

Joanne and Caroline

Lynn and Maynard

Gordon and Jeanie

Qaqamba

I am in the midst of planning a follow-up recording session here at the museum where folks can familiarize themselves with the equipment, practice their interviewing skills, and record a session or "conversation" with a partner. Participants will receive a copy of their recording to take home. The idea is based on the StoryCorps concept:

“The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing.”

Check out http://storycorps.org for more info.

Bruce Devereux and a few others in the community have expressed interest in organizing this event and providing some of the necessary equipment. I hope to have this happen by mid-November so if you’re interested in booking a recording session, would like to help out, or just want some more information, please get in touch.



Monday Movie Night a Success!

It brings a smile to my face when we have a full-house for an event here at the museum - and that's exactly what happened on Monday night for the screening of the documentary, "SFU Tla'amin Field School - Summer 2008". It was standing room only for the 36 minute film and the discussion continued on into the evening. Invited guests from SFU--Barbara Winter, film director and curator of the SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, John Welch, one of the field school project directors and a professor in the Department of Archaeology and School of Resource and Environmental Management, and Roxana Slujitoru, a Communications student, who did the post production and graphics for the film--answered intelligent questions and carried on a thought provoking conversation with the audience.

The title of the film doesn't do it justice. It really should be something like "Archaeology Rocks!" or "Archaeology for a Better World". Joking aside, it is a surprisingly powerful and moving documentary...who knew archaeology could be so far-reaching. A range of topics were covered like the process of collaboration, the importance of the herring fishery, the effects of logging on archaeological sites, and the intertidal zone. The message throughout was one of conservation: conservation of archaeological sites, of herring as a 'keystone species', and of Tla'amin culture and heritage.

The reason I felt this film was so relevant to show to the community at the public museum was because it speaks so directly to the power of collaboration. The SCMA is in the process of community bridging and working collaboratively with both the Squamish and Sechelt First Nations on a new exhibit, and it's a very exciting time. On another level, events like this bring people together. The museum becomes a place where conversations take place, and points of view are shared with the understanding that the multiple perspectives are what create a vibrant community. After watching the film (for the fourth time) and partaking in the event as a whole, I was left with a renewed sense of commitment to community involvement, collaboration, and creating links.

SFU Professor Dana Lapofsky is interviewed in the film and her words give me goosebumps: "I think for a lot of people these days, we're really aware that the Earth is hurting, it's damaged, it's just on this trajectory of doom. And for me, the way to take back the Earth and the trajectory we're on, is to make small changes...to build relations, from person to person, and from community to community, and making those links...realizing that we are all good people, and we all care about the future of the planet, the future of our families."

This field school is a collaboration between SFU and the Tla'amin, the students and the Tla'amin youth, the project directors and the elders. And yet, it's a powerful example for us all. As Lapofsky points out, "One-on-one, group-to-group, community-to-community, I feel like we're strengthening the fabric among people and that can only, only make the world a better place. And I take just huge joy from that". 

So do I.

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pged9cYg0NQ