Historical Overview

Before 1774 the people living in the Pacific Northwest, both along the coast and inland, were all part of the First Nations community. The cultures which make up this community have much in common with one another, but each one has distinctive languages and dialects, customs, myths, songs, and dances which makes it unique.

Totem Pole, Memorial Hall,
Christ Church Cathedral
G-08191
Cowichan People in Whale Dance, 1945
I-27569

 

Sailing Ship
Source from A-01059
The Europeans who explored and began to settle in the Pacific Northwest from 1774 on brought not only bags, boxes and ships full of material goods, but also their own "cultural baggage" - introducing new languages, customs, stories, songs and so on to the Pacific Northwest.

The Hudson's Bay Company, a British fur-trading company, employed not only English, Irish and Scottish people, but also First Nations people, French Canadians, and Hawaiians.

Mr. Pollow,
one of the Kanakas
C-02691

For instance the Hawaiians who came to B.C. to work for the Hudson's Bay Company were called Kanakas; they married local people and many of their descendants live here to this day.

The Hudson's Bay Company established trading posts and later forts, which eventually evolved into the colonies of Vancouver Island (established 1849) and British Columbia (established 1858). These colonies attracted colonists, settlers, and gold prospectors whose presence established Britain's claim to the territory above the 49th parallel. The colonies united in 1866, and in 1871 British Columbia joined Canada.

Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railroad,
track laying crew in the Alberni Area, 1911
Detail of F-06929
During the late 1800s and early 1900s many eastern and northern Europeans, Chinese, and South East Asians came to Canada in search of land, work and freedom.

Many of the people in this wave of immigration worked as labourers in the mining, forest, farm, fishery, railway, and service industries. They joined the earlier immigrants and the First Nations community to help create and maintain a multicultural and multilingual country.

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