150 Years and Counting: Fighting for Justice on the Coast

For 150 years and more, , and their allies have been fighting for justice on the Pacific Coast in the face of colonial dispossession and racist exclusions. This historical booklet outlines some of the stories related to the fight for justice—a struggle that continues today. It accompanies the exhibit of this same name.

Editor: John Price University of Victoria

Published by the project Asian Canadians on Island: Race, Indigeneity and the Transpacific

Fighting for Justice on the Coast in·dig·e·nous adjective: originating or occurring naturally in a particular place

Indigenous peoples is a collective noun identifying First Nations, Métis, and peoples in . The term ‘First Nations’ came into common usage in the 1970s to replace the inappropriate term ‘Indian’. As illustrated in the accompanying map, three large First Nations groups – the Coast Salish, the Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Kwakwaka’wakw occupied the coastal lands and seas to the northern tip of .

Indigenous peoples have lived on the northwest coast for thousands of years. During that time, they created sophisticated economic systems--cultivating clam gardens, nurturing camas crops, developing reef-net fishing and Credit: BC Ministry of Education and Training constructing whaling apparatus.1 Working the lands and seas productively, they also established trade routes from Alaska down to the Columbia River. The abundance of the lands allowed the coastal population to increase to 100,000 people, likely making it the most densely inhabited area in Indigenous America.2

The flourishing population also generated traditions and cultural treasures that today capture the admiration of the world. Often used to mark status, invoked in spiritual rituals, or used in ceremonies such as the , these treasures present a deep connection among the people, land, and sea: “For millennia the principles presented in origin stories were verified through the practice of oosumich and applied in daily life and ceremonial , resulting in societies that managed, for the most part, to balance the rights of individuals and groups as well as the rights of humans and the other life 3 forms.” (Nuu-chah-nulth hereditary chief Umeek, E. Richard Atleo) Reef-Net Fishing was an environmentally sensitive means for gathering salmon. Credit: Briony Penn and John Lutz, author of Contact Makuk

European arrivals and colonization of the Coast were not accidents of history. For over 500 years, Europeans sought to conquer the world. Armed with Christian notions of superiority, first Spain and Portugal, and later the Russians, British, Dutch, Germans, Americans and others sought global commercial and strategic advantage in , Africa and the Americas. In the Pacific, the Spanish and British clashed for control in the 1790 Nootka‘ Crisis’, both claiming sovereignty over the lands occupied by the Mowachaht and other Nuu-chah-nulth peoples.4

First Nations at first welcomed the newcomers, hoping to gain access to new products through trade. Comekela, a Mowachaht chief, boarded a

1 150 Years and Counting

trading vessel returning to Macau in 1787 and stayed in China for nearly a year. Dozens of Chinese workers came to Yuquot (Friendly Cove) as part of early British fur-trading missions out of China.5 However, colonial and ethnocentric attitudes of superiority on the part of these ships’ European crews and officers soon led to frictions. Increasing Indigenous resistance led to violent clashes— Robert Gray, master of the Columbia attacked and killed dozens of people and ordered the bombing and destruction of the village of Opitsaht in 1792. Led by Chief Maquinna, the Mowachaht and their allies attacked and captured the American ship the Boston in 1803, killing most of the officers and crew.6 Diseases brought from Europe, however, soon decimated Indigenous communities, with many losing up to 90 percent of their pre-contact numbers.7

Colonization

Despite the difficulties, Indigenous peoples remained determined to defend their lands and to continuously challenge colonial expansion. The British believed they had the right to colonize any area of the world. In Asia, the Chief Maquinna welcomed but also resisted British empire commercially exploited using the East India Company, European incursions. and then colonized it. It then developed its opium trade from India to China Credit: Royal BC Museum and Archives, A-02678. and when the Chinese objected, the British went to war. They then imposed an unequal treaty and seized .

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was the commercial arm of the British Empire in America and in 1843 the HBC built a fort on Songhees lands that would eventually become Victoria. The 1846 border with the Americans (as laid out in the Oregon Treaty) arbitrarily cut through the traditional territories of the Nuu-chah-nulth, and Coast Salish First Nations, including WSÁNEĆ, without a word of consultation. The British government then prodded the HBC to bring in British settlers to consolidate its control of Vancouver Island.

In the hope of developing respectful relations with newcomers, Indigenous peoples demanded recognition of their territories and protection of their livelihood. Brandishing gunships and cannon, the colonial government was determined to end Indigenous control of the Coast. At times it resorted to force but it also negotiated unequal treaties (the Douglas Treaties, 1850– STOLȻEȽ Elder John Elliott (Tsartlip First 54) with First Nations.8 However, this treaty-making process soon came Nation) works to revitalize language and cultural practices at ȽÁU,WELṈEW Tribal School in to an end and whatever minimal protections they might have offered were Saanich. ignored. Colonial politicians such as Joseph Trutch subsequently repudiated Credit: Darren Stone, photo, Times Colonist the idea of treaty-making. As geographer Cole Harris concluded: “Native people lost almost all their land and, with it, their means of livelihood, to an aggressively colonizing settler society.”9 2 Fighting for Justice on the Coast new-com-er noun: a person who has recently arrived in a place

Given that First Nations have lived on the Coast for thousands of years, non- indigenous peoples were, and are, newcomers. In the era of the fur trade, early arrivers included Quebecers, Métis, inland First Nations, Hawaiians (Kanakas) and European peoples. However, from 1849 on, the colonial government sought mainly British settlers to solidify its hold on the area. The 1858 gold rush on the brought in thousands of American newcomers hoping to strike it rich. Among those coming from the US were free African Americans fleeing persecution in California, as well as thousands from southern China who had come to California during the 1849 gold rush there. This influx of newcomers to Victoria and points inland created new challenges for First Nations and even for the colonial government.

The governor in 1858, James Douglas, initially welcomed free African Americans as settlers.10 But they also encountered racism. Faced with white resistance to their joining the Victoria Fire Department, community leaders suggested they form a militia to defend the colony—thus was born the

Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps. In this same era, enterprising businessman Of Aboriginal and Hawaiian heritage, Maria Mifflin Gibbs, was elected to Victoria City Council. Many African American Mahoi identified as Kanaka. A skilled midwife, homemaker and gardener she raised her family newcomers pre-empted and worked the land, particularly on Salt Spring on Russell Island, now part of the Gulf Islands Island where the Stark family and others settled. National Park Reserve. Credit: Salt Spring Island Archives, 20008009009. Chinese newcomers ended up in various communities along the Fraser River, at times destitute at the end of the gold rush. First Nations often helped these newcomers through difficult times. Though frictions existed between some Chinese and Indigenous peoples, they also “formed great friendships” as noted by First Nations leader and author Bev Sellars.11

Aspiring settlers from southern China formed a distinct community in Victoria’s . Like First Nations, they often became the target of European racism. In 1864, Lee Chong, a Chinese merchant in Victoria, pleaded for equal treatment in a petition to Vancouver Island’s governor, Arthur Kennedy.12

Those of African heritage also sparred with Kennedy who refused to recognize the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps. A captain in the corps, R.H. Johnson Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps. wrote to the Colonist newspaper: “...their enthusiasm and ardour as far as Credit: Royal BC Museum and Archives, this colony is concerned have evaporated. This mean and scandalous manner C-06124 in which they were treated upon the advent of Governor Kennedy is still fresh in their minds.”13

3 150 Years and Counting

British Columbia increasingly became ‘a white man’s country’ based on the dispossession of the land and rights of First Nations, and the physical exclusion of peoples of colour from the Coast.14 The province systematically introduced discriminatory legislation and lobbied the federal government to create a colour bar against Asian immigration. The federal government imposed a ban on immigration of those of African heritage in 1911.15 First Nations, Asian Canadians and many others continuously challenged the persistent attempts at dispossession and exclusion.

In 1878 the provincial legislature passed legislation to tax the Chinese living in BC $40 per year (a breathing tax). Chinese workers and merchants responded by going on strike that September: “Ladies are doing their own kitchen and housework, restaurant and hotel-keepers their own cooking, heads of families are sawing their own wood and blacking their own boots.”1 6 A leading merchant, Tai Sing, and eleven others sued the government. The Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government could pass such an act and the tax was struck down.17 The provincial government persisted, passing legislation in 1884 prohibiting Chinese individuals from pre- empting land.18

That same year the B.C. legislature passed the first law banning Chinese

In 1886, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent immigration. It would continue to pass similar acts (called Natal Acts as they Association wrote to protest the head tax. emulated the racist immigration laws passed by British-controlled Natal in Credit: University of Victoria Archives southern Africa) into the 20th century as the province tried to wrest control of immigration from the federal government.

In Victoria, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association came together in 1884, largely to protest discrimination. It fought the federal government’s commission that recommended a $50 head tax on Chinese immigrants.

Chinese Canadians also organized across the Pacific, establishing the Chinese Empire Reform Association and an affiliatedChinese Empire Ladies’ Reform Association in Victoria in the early 1900s. Helping China become stronger was seen as a way to obtaining rights in Canada.

In September 1907, Chinese and Japanese communities rose in protest when white rioters in Vancouver attacked Chinatown and ‘Little Tokyo’. The Chinese community initially took shelter from the rioters but many purchased rifles to defend themselves and a three-day protest strike ensued. In Little Tokyo, residents repelled the rioters after being alerted to their Chinese Empire Ladies Reform Association. arrival. The provincial and federal government blamed the victims, however, Credit: Harvard-Yenching Library and imposed further limits on immigration from Asia.19 4 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

In 1908, two Japanese newcomers to the Coast (Nakane and Okazake) protested their detention upon arrival in Vancouver. They filed and won a legal challenge to the provincial government’s attempt to limit immigration by forcing all immigrants to speak a European language (Natal Act).20

First Nations across the province mobilized to challenge the McKenna- McBride Royal Commission (1913-1916), a joint commission convened by the provincial and federal governments to ‘adjust’ reserve lands. First Nations’ representatives testified before the commission, exposing the injustice of the reserve system and demanding a return of their unceded territories. Those pleas were ignored and the Commission instead recommended seizing 47,000 acres of valuable reserve land while adding 87,000 acres of dramatically less valuable land. This experience led First Nations to form the Allied Tribes of .21

Husain Rahim, a newcomer from challenged the ban against South Asians voting. He, along with many others, protested the continuous journey regulation, adopted in 1908 as a way of stopping immigration from India. In 1913, passengers aboard the Panama Maru responded to attempts to stop them from landing in Victoria by taking the government to court. Members from the Victoria Topaz St. Sikh temple (gurdwara) with Husain Rahim publicly protested. The lawyerJ. Edward Bird, successfully argued their case in court. Fifty-five newcomers from India entered the country.22 The provincial and federal governments panicked, introducing a blanket ban on immigration to B.C. by Asians. When Gurdit Singh chartered the Komagata Maru the following year, the government refused to even allow 23 Husain Rahim (centre with hat) and members of the passengers to land, holding them incommunicado for two months. The Sikh community in front of Victoria’s detention Canadian naval vessel, The Rainbow trained its guns on the vessel forcing it centre, 1913. from the harbour. British authorities met the ship upon its return, provoking Credit: Kohaly Collection, Special Collections, Simon Fraser University Library a confrontation and killing 20 of the passengers.

Despite informal colour bars against enlistment, over a thousand First Nations and Asian Canadians from the Coast fought in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WW I, and many died. Upon their return home, survivors from the war found little had changed in regard to citizenship rights.

After 40 years of struggle, Eurocanadian women made some headway in winning the franchise for themselves, gaining the right to vote in British Columbia for the first time in 1917. However, the campaign for the vote for women was predicated on an “increase in the British born electorate” and agitation against First Nations and Asian Canadians (men and women) voting.24

5 150 Years and Counting fran·chise noun: the right to vote

The formation of ‘British Columbia’ and its entry into Canada in 1871 was far from auspicious for the vast majority of the population. With a single stroke of the pen, the colonial legislature in 1872 took away the right to vote from approximately 40,000 First Nations and Chinese newcomers, while expanding it for the minority of 10,000 Europeans.25 In 1895, the BC government banned from voting and later denied Indo- Canadians the vote in 1907. Similar prohibitions existed on the federal and municipal level. The lack of the franchise meant First Nations and Asian Canadians could not obtain professional certification, such as in law and medicine, or serve as a school trustee or on a jury in BC.

Tomekichi Homma, a naturalized British subject, walked into a polling both in 1901 and asked to be placed on the voters list. His was a deliberate act to challenge the provincial legislation “No Chinaman, Japanese, or Indian shall have his name placed on the Register of Voters for any Electoral District, or be entitled to vote at any election.” He was refused. With the support of the community, Homma challenged the matter in court.26 Both the county court and Supreme Court in BC ruled in his favour. The BC Government refused to accept the decisions, appealing to the Privy Council in London. The attorney general of the day, D.M. Eberts, argued: “Even if they exercised the franchise properly, it is intolerable that these foreign races, which can never be assimilated with our population, should in many constituencies determine who shall represent the people in the legislature.”27 The British

Tomekichi Homma, civil rights leader, painting by Privy Council agreed with Eberts, arguing that voting was a privilege, not S. Brooke Anderson, 2003. a right, and that voting could be denied to Japanese or Credit: Nikkei National Museum, TD1176. just as it was denied to women. For over 75 years Asian Canadians and First Nations were denied the vote.

For First Nations, the franchise issue was more complicated than for others. Federally, they held a ‘conditional right to vote,’ a legal process of assimilation in which they could vote but only if they gave up or lost their Indian Status. Few gave up their status by choice so the federal government introduced ‘involuntary enfranchisement’—if First Nations people were admitted to university, practiced law, or joined the military they lost their status. First Nations women lost their Indian Status (often unknowingly) if they married non-First Nations men. First Nations pressured the government to end these discriminatory acts but even today many First Nations people choose not to vote because they hold treaty—nation-to-nation—relationships with the .

6 Fighting for Justice on the Coast jus-tice noun: a concern for fairness and genuine respect for people

The reserve system created in British Columbia was extremely unfair and for over 150 years First Nations have contested the expropriation of their lands and demanded a new deal through treaty negotiations and court cases.

The Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation has been in treaty negotiations for many years, demanding a return of their lands taken in 1890.28 At that time the BC government officially created 17 small reserves, effectively expropriating thousands of acres of their traditional lands. The Mowachaht- Muchalaht who numbered 352 in 1890 were left with 750 acres in total. A white settler on the other hand, could receive 160 acres of land for next to nothing through pre-emption; First Nations and Asian Canadians were generally barred from pre-empting land.

First Nations continuously demanded access to their traditional and unceded lands. In 1906, Chief Charlie Tsulpi’multw (along with Chiefs Capilano and David) traveled to London to meet King Edward VII and to lay before him a petition outlining the grievances of First Nations peoples at that time: “….in British Columbia the Indian title has never been extinguished, nor has sufficient land been allotted to our people for their maintenance.” [James Douglas told us] “that we should receive remuneration for the lands settled upon by the white people; but when we asked for anything we were refused. But when Sir James Douglas was no longer governor other white people settled upon our lands, and titles were issued to them by the British Cowichan Chief Tsulpi’multw with Chiefs Joe Capilano and Basil David in London to deliver the Columbia government. We have appealed to the Dominion government, Cowichan Petition, 1906. which is made up of men elected by the white people who are living on our Credit: British Library Board lands, and, of course, can get no redress from that quarter. We have no vote, if we had it might be different; but as it is we are at the mercy of those who [have no] mercy.”29

The provincial government persisted in refusing to even discuss First Nations title claims or treaties. In 1916, First Nations came together to form the first province-wide organization to fight for land justice—the Allied Tribes of British Columbia. The Allied Tribes, includingAndy Paull, Peter Kelly, and Jane Cook (Ga’axsta’las) vigorously organized into the 1920s and demanded their title claims be taken to the highest court of the time, the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council. The federal government Allied Tribes gather at 1922 conference. In centre is Jane Constance Cook. responded by amending the Indian Act in 1927, banning the raising of Credit: Wedlidi Speck. From Leslie A. Roberton, funds for legal challenges regarding Aboriginal title. This ban was only lifted Standing Up, courtesy UBC Press in the 1950s.

7 150 Years and Counting i·den·ti·ty noun: the characteristics representing who a person is

Governments often imposed identities on people and even resorted to forcible registration. This was first done to First Nations on the Coast through the Indian Act (1876); Chinese Canadians were forcibly registered under the terms of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923); and Japanese Canadians registered beginning in 1940. The registration certificate, No. 6278, belonged to Lim Wong, who was born in Cumberland’s Chinatown. In early census data, enumerators could not even be bothered to record Credit: Imogene Lim the names of peoples of Asian descent—they were nameless. Of the 2,371 individuals listed in the B2 Johnson Street Ward, Victoria 67.6% were nameless: Chinese 1,542 (65%), Japanese 11 (0.5%), and “Indian” 49 (2.1%).

Who are you?

For many years Debra Toporowski could not be a member of the because her Cowichan mother had married a Chinese Canadian man in Duncan. The Indian Act forced her mother to give up her status as a member of the Cowichan Nation. This only changed when First Nations’ women pressured the government into amending the Indian Act (C-31, 1985) to prevent this specific type of discrimination against women. Debra is today a member of Cowichan Tribes and a band councillor. She is equally proud of her Chinese heritage. 1891 census Victoria. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Microfilm T-6292, District 4B First Nations and Asian Canadians have many identities, come from diverse backgrounds, work in many occupations, embrace various sexual orientations, and have a variety of family and community ties. This also held true in the past, though discriminatory legislation often proscribed where people could work. First Nations and Asian Canadians were hard-working people, whether homemakers or hunters, restaurateurs or domestics, cannery workers or fishers, lumber workers or market gardeners.30

Labour

For many years, European labourers and their unions campaigned against Asian workers, branding them as cheap labour or strikebreakers. Capitalists successfully used divide and rule tactics for many years to create dissension Debra Toporowski, Cowichan Tribes Councillor, among workers. World War I, however, saw labour activism reach a peak, holding her Indian Status card acquired through Bill C-31. with many Asian Canadians and First Nations workers joining the general Credit: Imogene Lim strike movement of 1919.

8 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

“It is said that in 1919 the IWW [International Workers of the World] had as many Chinese as white members. The Chinese and whites went thru one very successful strike in the lumber mills together during this year at which time they got a very satisfactory increase in wages. In the next strike some unorganized whites walked in and took the jobs of the Chinese, since which time they have retired from the I.W.W. hall to the Chinese Labor Association on Pender St.” --“Testimonial Meeting on the Oriental,” IWW Hall, Cordova Street, 4 Mary Harry, Nora Wilson, Eva Wilson and Louise March 1924, Survey on Race Relations (Box/Folder 24, Interview 16), 4. Henshall at Redonda Bay Cannery in 1942. Credit: Museum at Campbell River, 008386. A labour journal, The British Columbia Federationist, remarked in 1918 that if they could be “as sure of some of the married white workers as they are of the Chinese, there would be no difficulty in enforcing union conditions throughout the jurisdiction…But at that, it’s a sight for the gods.”31

Japanese and Chinese workers joined white workers in a strike at Swanson Bay in 1920. This led to the formation of the Japanese Labour Union that published a union paper Rodo Shuho [Labour Weekly]. The Vancouver Trades and Labour Congress refused to allow the Japanese Labour Union to affiliate.

Bearing the Brunt

Many miners gave up their lives in the coalmines of Cumberland on Vancouver Island. The mortality statistics reveal the proportionately higher toll that Asian Canadian miners paid in explosions in the Dunsmuir mines, yet their sacrifice was seldom acknowledged:

2.15.1901 No. 6 Mine 64 dead (35 Chinese, 9 Japanese, 20 White) 7.15.1903 No. 6 Mine 15 dead (all Chinese) 4.30.1922 No. 4 Mine 18 dead (9 Chinese, 6 Japanese, 3 White) 2.08.1923 No. 4 Mine 35 dead (19 Chinese, 14 White)32

9 150 Years and Counting cul·ture noun: collective behavior and achievement

First Nations and Asian Canadians had to wage constant battles in the face of systemic persecution when Victoria’s Chamber of Commerce formed a committee on ‘Oriental Aggression’, the resurfaced on the Island, and Hilda Glynn-Ward published her novel, Writing on the Wall (1920), reiterating the racist sentiments of the day. In the end, only family and cultural ties allowed communities to weather the storms that BC politicians and their supporters generated during and after WW I.

Nuu-cha-nulth parents of children and youth at Christie residential school (Hesquiat) continually protested against mistreatment of the students. In April 1917, the youth rebelled “in a kind of revolution” and that summer they attempted to burn down the school.33 Despite this, the federal government made attendance at residential schools compulsory in 1920.34

The Chinese Benevolent Associations lobbied hard but were unsuccessful in stopping a provincial government from passing legislation to prevent white women or girls from frequenting Chinese businesses. This measure, introduced by the first white woman elected to the legislature, Mary Ellen Smith, reflected stereotypical views of Chinese men as predatory and white fears of inter-marriage in that era.35

Victoria’s Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Chinese Canadian Club, and Chinese Commerce Association, helped organize a student strike to protest against the Victoria School Board’s (VSB) decision to segregate Chinese students (1921).36 Instead of walking to the new school, the Chinese students simply went home, which led the VSB to eventually end the segregation.

In 1921 Chief Dan Cranmer, Kwakwaka’wakw of Yalis (Alert Bay), defied the potlatch ban and organized a major event on ,Mimkwamlis (Village Island), only to be arrested with 44 others.37 Authorities forced villagers to surrender their potlatch treasures above) or be sent to jail—22 ended up in Oakalla prison. The seized masks and regalia ended up in museums around the world. Only in the past 30 years have some finally come home to the U’mista and Nuyumbalees Cultural Centres, in Alert Bay and Cape Mudge respectively. Thousands of such treasures, either seized by the government or taken by collectors, remain alienated including the Mowachaht/Muchalaht Potlatch regalia seized by authorities in 1921. Whalers’ Shrine taken from Yuquot (Friendly Cove) over a hundred years Credit: Royal BC Museum and Archives, D-02021 ago.

10 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

In Alert Bay (Yalis), the local grocery store established by Jim King and later taken over by Dong Chong provided supplies for the potlatches in the area, despite the fact the governments had banned them: “After the potlatches were stopped, they’d go to Kingcome Village where there were no policemen, they kept it pretty quiet. I always knew because they bought things from me, but I wasn’t going to tell on them.”38 Keeping quiet was risky since the law specified that every “person who engages in or assists in celebrating the Indian festival known as the “Potlatch” […] is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than six nor less than two months in any gaol […]”.39

The diverse Nations and Asian Canadian communities each maintained cultural practices that allowed them to survive in the face of adversity. There Paldi’s diverse communities attend the 1936 funeral of Joginder Singh at the Sikh Temple, were also examples of cross-community bonds of solidarity. founded in 1918. Credit: Museum & Archives, For Asian Canadians, cultural renewal took place through community 2007.02.2.71 language schools such as Lequin Yishu, a free public school in Victoria sponsored by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, or through private tutoring. schools operated in Cumberland, Royston, and .

In Paldi, near Duncan, BC, workers from varied cultural backgrounds, including Chinese, Japanese, European and South Asian lived and worked together. The children played and went to school together regardless of ethnicity. Each group preserved their traditions through worship, ceremony and social events. Nanaimo Nam King Low restaurant was open to all. People shared food traditions in ceremony and in everyday occurrences. Credit: Royal BC Museum and Archives, E-04544 Chinese restaurants such as the Nam King Low in Nanaimo, and Chow’s Grocery in Duncan often welcomed First Nations peoples when white establishments would not serve them. When the roasting oven was operating in Cumberland, Chinese and Japanese community members eagerly awaited the freshly barbecued meats. The common occurrence of Chinese chop suey houses is a testament of the familiarity of “Chinese cuisine” to one and all. The proximity of Chinese and Japanese ‘towns’ led to adaptation of foods. Japanese Canadians who lived in Cumberland before being uprooted took with them the recipe and the memory of ‘Cumberland Chow Mein’. It can still be found in the cookbooks of the Japanese Canadian Association and Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in . Japanese Canadian, Chinese Canadian, came together with others in political organizations such Asian, and European youth gather for photo at provincial youth congress, 1940. as the BC Youth Council dedicated to mutual discussions on youth issues and to stop discrimination based on race, creed, colour or political beliefs. Credit: John Bong, New Canadian. 11 150 Years and Counting trail·blaz·er noun: a person who makes a new track through wild country

Despite or because of their situation, many First Nations, Asian Canadians and African Canadians blazed new trails, often breaking colour bars in the process.

Emma Stark, of the Stark family on Salt Spring Island, gained her teachers’ degree in Nanaimo and went on to become the first female Black teacher

Anna Fong Dickman. on Vancouver Island, taking up her post at a one-room school in Cedar in Credit: Courtesy of Diana Lam. 1874.

Harry Manson (Xulsimalt) was a Snuneymuxw soccer star who helped form an all-First Nations soccer team and later joined the Nanaimo soccer club, leading it to victory in the Challenge Cup in 1907. Segregation meant, however, that neither Manson nor three other Snuneymuxw players on the team could attend the victory banquet.40

A new generation of Asian Canadians also challenged the colour bar in professions. Gordon Cumyou graduated in law at UBC and articled with J. Edward Bird’s law firm but was then refused admission to the bar in 1918. Anna Fong Dickman of Nanaimo was refused entry to nursing schools in

Kenichi (Ken) Doi, a winning pitcher BC but trained on-site at King’s Daughter hospital in Duncan, became a recruited by the Vancouver Asahi baseball practical nurse at Nanaimo General Hospital, and then a registered nurse at team. Vancouver General Hospital in 1931. Credit: Cumberland Museum and Archives, C140-024. Sports became an important means for young people to connect; baseball, soccer and lacrosse teams proliferated throughout the islands. Ken Doi of Cumberland’s Royston baseball team went on to be a star on the renowned Asahi baseball team.

In 1931, First Nations re-organized, forming the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia to fight for fishing and coastal rights.

In 1936, second-generation Japanese Canadians () formed the Japanese Canadian Citizens League, sending a delegation to to lobby for the right to vote.

Samuel Hayakawa, Minoru Kobayashi, Hide Hyodo Shimizu and Edward Banno (left to right) at Parliament to campaign for voting rights. Credit: Nikkei National Museum, 2000.14.1.1.

12 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

Second-generation Chinese Canadians became active in communities across the province, raising social issues and mobilizing support for war refugees in China. Among these emerging leaders was Victoria’s Bessie Hope (Tang), who participated in numerous campaigns and demonstrations to raise funds for Chinese refugees and to stop discrimination.41

A top boxer in the province, Wing Hay Young tried to enlist in 1940 but the colour bar against Asian Canadian enlistment remained largely intact in Wing Hay Young in uniform. BC. However, Young’s white boxing buddies were incensed at the refusal to Credit: David Hay. allow the young Chinese Canadian to enlist and descended on the enlistment office en masse. Wing Young became one of the first Asian Canadians to enlist in World War II, earning honours on the battlefield.

13 150 Years and Counting al·lies noun: a person or organization that cooperates with or helps another in a particular activity

People and organizations forged cross-cultural or multi-ethnic alliances. Special ties developed between communities that often faced discrimination on an everyday basis:

“We bartered for seaweed, sea urchins, got big sacks of rice, whatever we didn’t have— baking powder, sugar, coffee, we exchanged for what you have. There used to be old Royal Café, my grandma, my selsila, would get a big platter of fried rice for a quarter, my great grandma liked lemon pie... there was a shop on this side of the Royal Café, it was the Bluebird Cabs, there were two men there, very fine old men—Sam and Joe. My grandma liked dealing with Sam, he was an older guy, very gentle... In the back, my popii, the late Robert Sam, a lot of guys they skipped, eh, they went there for the pool, all of the boys went there for the pool, that was their hangout...Why did we go there? It was because of such camaraderie between the Songhees Elder Joan Morris. Chinese nation and ours plus you knew what you were getting for Credit: Jeff Tanaka food.” --Songhees Elder Joan Morris, speaking at the Robert Bateman Centre, November 7, 2016.

Many missionaries actively engaged in practices, such as the Indian Residential School system, that harmed Indigenous peoples throughout the province, and beyond. But there were also examples of people who advocated for Indigenous peoples or for Asian Canadians. Louis Walsh Hall was one such person. A Presbyterian minister in Cumberland, he worked closely with Asian Canadian miners and encouraged them to join the union. In 1907 he moved to Victoria where he became Minister of the Chinese Presbyterian Church. He worked closely with the Sikh community, and accompanied Sundar Singh, Teja Singh and Rajah Singh to Ottawa in 1911 to protest Louis Walsh Hall with Sikh leaders, 1911. immigration restrictions. He also went on protest missions to the US in Credit: Toronto Star, December 8, 1911. 1913 demanding justice for Sikhs and, in 1914, tried to reach the passengers on the Komagata Maru when it arrived in Victoria before proceeding to Vancouver. Isabella Ross Broad of Victoria was also another person who fought discrimination against Sikhs. A believer in a British Empire where all subjects enjoyed equality, she castigated the government and others in her pamphlet An Appeal for Fair Play for the Sikhs in Canada.

14 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

J. Edward Bird, a lawyer and a member of the Socialist Party of Canada, actively intervened to defend the South Asian newcomers to Victoria in 1913. He represented them in their legal challenge that won a resounding victory in BC Supreme Court, allowing 33 newcomers to enter the country. He also defended First Nations and actively supported their fight for title during the McKenna-McBride hearings of 1913-16. Bird also represented the South Asian passengers on the Komagata Maru who were prevented from landing and eventually forced back to India where many were killed by British forces. Gordon Cumyou articled with Bird’s law firm.

Of the “Famous Five” women who fought for women’s rights, Nellie McClung was the only one to repudiate the racism that marked their early endeavors. In the 1930s, after she moved to Victoria, she worked closely with Japanese Canadians involved in the journal The New Canadian. When agitation to uproot them began in 1942, she wrote in the Victoria Daily Times the “Canadian Japanese are not to blame for the treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor,” and that it was a time to respect human rights and democracy. Nellie McClung spoke out against the “We must have precautions, but not persecutions,” she asserted. uprooting of Japanese Canadians. Credit: Glenbow Archives, NA-1514-3.

15 150 Years and Counting te·nac·i·ty noun: the quality or fact of continuing to exist; persistence

Rose Murakami and the Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island have published a booklet, Ganbaru, a word her father used meaning “Persevere. Don’t give up, don’t allow weakness or evil to have the upper hand and don’t be content with second-best.”42 The booklet describes the amazing story of the Murakami family of Salt Spring Island—their determination to establish a family farm, their perseverance after being uprooted and dispossessed of their land, and their courage to return in 1954 despite the enduring racism. Their story is unique on the Coast but the tenacity in face of adversity is a common thread in the many stories of the 23,000 Japanese Canadians who were uprooted from their homes, incarcerated, dispossessed of their property, and then told they had to move east of the Rockies or go to Japan. They were not able to come back to the Coast until 1949, four years after the war ended. Katsuyori and Kimiko Murakami with children, Alice (standing), Violet and Mary (seated), and Rose (on Kimiko’s knee). At Paldi, near Duncan over one hundred Japanese Canadians including the Credit: Salt Spring Archives, 2004005024. Inouye family left the district, forced onto Vancouver Island Coach Line buses at 5:45 a.m. on April 14, 1942.43 Mayo Singh, who operated the Paldi lumber mill, spoke out against the uprooting and offered to act as guarantor for Japanese Canadians, to no avail.44 On numerous occasions he took supplies to Hastings Park to help rebuild living quarters. Mayo Singh’s daughter-in-law, Joan Mayo, recalled hearing from Tomi Inouye, who still had two babies in diapers at the time, of her terror when “two officers ransacked her house and took away the radio, maps and all her Japanese music records.”45

The story ofJohnny and Mary Madokoro and their family is further testimony to the tenacity of Canadians of Japanese ancestry (also known as Nikkei). The Nikkei had a phrase ‘shikata ga nai’ which means ‘it can’t be helped’ and defined the strength that allowed them to carry on their lives in a country that had alienated them. Forced to relocate in 1922 to Tofino from Steveston after the government started limiting fish licenses for Nikkei, Johnny Yoshio Madokoro began fishing at age 15. His mother asked him to become family head after his father, Kamezo, had passed away. When he was 25 years old, he married Mary Miki Kimoto. The following year, he had a new boat, The Crown, built, and he and Mary were blessed with a son, Kenneth Fusao soon after. In 1941, Mary gave birth to a second son, Bud Takashi. Johnny, with other Japanese Canadian fishing families formed a fishing co-operative after BC Packers refused to give them a fair price for their fish. The co-operative bought theWestern ‘ Chief’ to take their

16 Fighting for Justice on the Coast fish to markets where it could get the best price. After a lot of hard work life seemed to be improving. Then, after Pearl Harbor, Japan became an enemy of the Allies and Nikkei were seen as enemy aliens. BC politicians, led by Ian Mackenzie, George Pearson, A.W. Neill, R.L. Maitland, Macgregor McIntosh, and Robert Mayhew, played on this fear and campaigned to force all Japanese Canadians, including the Madokoro family, from the Coast. The number uprooted exceeded 20,000 including 3000 men, women and children from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Given only 24 hours to pack one suitcase, all other belongings were stored in attics that were soon looted by Tofino neighbours. Packed onto the coastal vesselMaquinna , then onto trains and a ferry, they were ‘dumped’ into Hastings Park. Forced to live in stalls that reeked of horse manure and horse urine, John Madokoro felt totally dismayed and recalled: “We were starting to find out how much some ‘fellow’ Canadians hated us.”46 Officials posted a list of 120 men to be shipped to for roadwork, separating families. “There was an explosion of outrage as we absorbed this latest order.”47 Johnny and others formed the Mass Evacuation Group that attempted to stop the separation of families. Eventually some families were reunited but not before Johnny was forced out of Vancouver. “When the train stopped at a railroad crossing, we looked out the windows and cursed every hakujin [white person] we saw. This was not ‘our Canada anymore.”48 Johnny and others ended up in Glencoe, Ontario working on a sugar beet farm. The family was finally reunited in Toronto where their third son Dennis George was born in 1945. Ironically, in 1952, BC Packers were short of qualified salmon fisherman so Wedding of Johnny Yoshio Madokoro and Mary Mikiko Kimoto on September 14,1938 in Tofino. Johnny and his family took up their offer to return to the west coast to fish. On left are Anglican minister, Bill Ezaki and Unable to return to Tofino because of continuing racism, Johnny and Mary unidentified flower girl. Madokoro bought a house in Port Alberni and Johnny took up fishing while Credit: Madokoro Family Photo Mary raised three sons and daughter Marlene and son Brian. Marlene and her husband Frank still live in the family home.49

Corporation of the Village of Tofino50 Commissioners Meeting for January 24, 1947 Resolution re Orientals

“The Commissioners of the Corporation of the Village of Tofino hereby resolve—That, at the request of the residents of the Village of Tofino, all Orientals be excluded completely from this Municipality, and shall be prevented from owning property or carrying on business directly or indirectly within the Municipality.”

Copies of this resolution to be sent to Mouat, Gibson, Legion and Board of Trade

17 150 Years and Counting

The owner of a 600-acre property on Salt Spring Island,Torazo Iwasaki left the boat that was taking Japanese Canadians to Vancouver to be incarcerated when it docked at Mayne Island. Persuaded to return to the boat, he later refused to recognize the government’s arbitrary sale of his property and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court in 1967. He lost this last appeal.

Comparing Canadian and US Records51 CANADA UNITED STATES Uprooted and never informed of rights Kept in camps, numerous legal challenges Unable to join armed forces Able to join armed forces Paid for their own incarceration Incarceration costs paid by government Properties sold without permission Few properties sold Told to move east of Rockies or go to Win legal battle against incarceration Japan Unable to return until 1949 Began returning to homes in 1944

Coming Home

For most of the nearly 3000 Japanese Canadians who lived on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands before the war, there was nothing to come back to. Their property had been sold off, and many were fearful of latent racism. Of the few who did come back, they often had support. In Paldi, Mayo Singh offered jobs to many Japanese Canadians, including the Yano family who continue to live in the area. For their own reasons, B.C. Packers offered financial support to returning fisherman such Haroldas Kimoto and Johnny Madokoro. TheMatsunaga family of Campbell River and the Murakami family of Salt Spring Island were determined to reclaim their heritage as fishers and farmers. Many others did return to visit old friends on the Islands, including those who recently attended the dedication of ‘Heiwa Park’ in Duncan in memory of the community there.

After returning to the coast, Shigekazu Matsunaga A long and difficult struggle by Japanese Canadians and their allies in the eventually found and bought back his beloved 36- 1980s finally obliged the federal government to acknowledge its wrong- foot, double-ender Soyokaze (Gentle Wind) that had been seized and sold during the war. It now doing (see next section). sits as a featured outdoor exhibit at the Museum at Campbell River. Credit: Museum at Campbell River.

18 Fighting for Justice on the Coast im·ag·ine verb: to form an image or concept

First Nations, Asian Canadians and their allies have had to imagine a different world and, through individual and collective actions, they have made a difference. The changes outlined below give a partial window on the continuing struggles for justice. They open up the possibility to reimagine and reinvent the Coast.

Indigenous Rights: The long and difficult fight on the part of First Nations for land and justice finally achieved some changes including ending the ban on the potlatch, and the ban on raising funds for land claims (1951). Local activism, and organizations such as The Native Brotherhood of BC and newer organizations such as the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Union of BC Indian Chiefs spurred organizing and legal challenges, resulting in important breakthroughs. These include the entrenchment of section 35 in Canada’s patriated Constitution Act, 1982 as well as landmark decisions in the Supreme Court of Canada in favour of Indigenous rights, including, Calder (1973), Guerin (1984), Sparrow (1990), Delgamuukw (1997), Tsilhqot’in (2104), among others.52 “It only took 150 years, but we look forward to a much brighter future. This without question will establish a solid platform for genuine reconciliation to take place in British Columbia.” — Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. These steps have been part of an Indigenous Resurgence including Idle No More that has put fundamental issues such as sovereignty and self-government on the agenda.

Wage Equality: During the war, the International Woodworkers of American (IWA) hired Victoria’s Roy Mah and community activist Darshan Singh Sangha to help organize Asian Canadian woodworkers on Vancouver Island. By the end of the war, over 2000 Asian Canadian workers in the lumber mills and forests on the Coast had joined the union. The union put an end to the discriminatory wage structure that saw First Nations and Asian Canadians paid one-third the amount of white workers and opened up the possibility of achieving pay equity, a struggle that continues to this day.

Franchise: Community leaders such as Joe Hope and Foon Sien, Kapoor Singh and Mayo Singh, Lila Wong and many others finally succeeded in Kartar Singh, Kapoor Singh, Dr. Durai Pal Pandia, and Mayo Singh, celebrating winning overturning the 70-year ban on voting. The multiple campaigns culminated amnesty for undocumented South Asian migrants with Chinese and South Asian Canadians wining the franchise in BC in in 1939, would help win the franchise in 1947. 1947. First Nations and Japanese Canadians achieved the franchise in BC Credit: Sarjit K. Siddoo, and Dr. Hugh Johnston, author of Jewels of the Qila. in 1949. Indigenous Peoples finally gained federal voting rights in 1960.

19 150 Years and Counting

Today, we embrace the notion of universal voting rights and also reconsider how we might best establish governing structures.

Immigration: Chinese communities across Canada had declared July 1 ‘National Humiliation Day’ to protest the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923) that banned almost all newcomers from China. The fight for immigration equality finally achieved a small step when the government repudiated the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1947. However, community activism and lobbying by people such as Ruth Mar, Muriel Kitagawa, Kapoor Singh, and Dr. Pandia and many others eventually put an end to the overtly racist quota and points system

Redress: Japanese Canadian communities fought for and won a landmark Acknowledgement in 1988 in which the federal government admitted the injustice of the uprooting from 1942-1949, recognized the “fortitude and determination of Japanese Canadians,” and offered a redress package. Since then, many communities have built on this gift, and obliged federal, Lila Wong fought in World War II and was among the first Asian Canadians to vote after 1947. provincial, and municipal bodies to offer varying types of redress for historic Credit: Cumberland Museum and Archives, wrongs including the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. C040-328. As redress leader, poet and scholar Roy Miki notes, however, some attempts at redress have been token, or used to try and distance governments from a past that remains all too present today.53

Truth and Reconciliation: TheTruth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its Final Report (2015) that included 94 calls to action to redress the legacy of Indian Residential Schools. Notably, all levels of government are encouraged to adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These include measures to reinforce Indigenous Language Revitalization undertaken by First Nations in collaboration with university and college partners.

20 Fighting for Justice on the Coast re·la·tions noun; the state of being connected

In this exhibit and accompanying brochure we have emphasized some of the coastal stories that illustrate the struggle for justice. Yet many more could, and should be told. Together they form a basis for rethinking our histories and futures.

Critical to reimagining the Coast is repairing relations between newcomers and First Nations. This implies serious reflection and reconsideration about the colonial past, the land, and Indigenous sovereignty. Justice today means coming to terms with the reality that most of the territory of BC is unceded and belongs to First Nations. Have we read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action? Do we understand Aboriginal title and its implications? The peculiar history of the province, recent legal decisions, and environmental imperatives suggest that a serious reset of priorities may be necessary. This is because the British Columbia government refused to sign treaties with First Nations for over 150 years, and recent legal decisions have supported and upheld First Nations claims to land title over their traditional territories. Campaigns such as Pull Together and Skills for Solidarity are recent examples of Indigenous and settler-descended groups working Credit: Nagedzi (Andy Everson). Born in Comox together for the environment and justice on the Coast. in 1972, Andy Everson is the grandson of the late chief Andy Frank of the K’ómoks First Nation. Upholding the traditions of both the K’ómoks Justice also requires continuing to reflect upon stories that will lead to and Kwakwa?ka?’wakw First Nations, he created this poster to support Idle No More. actions and self-reflection. Ugly incidents of overt racism continue to occur on the Coast on a regular basis. Structural or ‘polite’ racism remains an issue in many workplaces, organizations and everyday life. Action to protest and overcome ongoing racism needs everyone’s attention.

Asian Canadians often experience the stereotype that no matter how long they have lived in Canada they are still seen as foreigners. They are routinely asked, “Where are you from?”, or, “No, where are you really from?”, and told, “Your English is really good.” Despite our changing society, being Canadian is still equated with being white.

Taking a stand against racism also means speaking out and standing up whenever possible to stop attacks against those who continue to suffer discrimination, be they First Nations, those of Arab heritage or Muslim persuasion, or Chinese or Filipino newcomers. The fight for justice continues.

21 150 Years and Counting Credits:

An initiative of the Asian Canadians on Vancouver Island: Race, Indigeneity, and the Transpacific (ACVI) Project (John Price, Director) Exhibit Concept Development: Imogene Lim, Tusa Shea Exhibit Coordinator: Connie Graham Exhibit Design: Nicolas Graves, Blink Printing, University of Victoria Booklet Design: Rebecca Jamin, Blink Printing, University of Victoria Booklet editor: John Price Photo and Copy Editor: Erin Chewter

This project would not have been possible without the support of individuals and families who shared their stories with us. We are also indebted to the many ACVI research associates, members of community organizations, members of the UVIC history class 466/509B, and particularly to our partner museums including Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives, Cumberland Museum and Archives, Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island, Museum at Campbell River, Nanaimo Museum, Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, Legacy Art Gallery, Salt Spring Archives, and the Esquimalt Municipal Archives.

Special thanks to Satwinder Bains, Beth Boyce, Erin Chewter, Nick Claxton, Kathryn Gagnon, Connie Graham, Robin Inglis, Margarita James, Sherri Kajiwara, Mary Kitagawa, Imogene Lim, Wenjuan Lu, Dennis G. Madokoro, Marlene Mortensen, Rose Murakami, Frank Neumann, Christine O’Bonsawin, Anna Rambow, Mark Salter, Tusa Shea, Michelle Willard, Macayla Yan and Henry Yu for help with this booklet. Any misrepresentations or errors remain the editor’s alone.

22 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

ENDNOTES

1 See John Dewhirst, and William J. Folan, The Yuquot Project (Ottawa: Parks Canada, 1980); Judith Williams, Clam Gardens: Aboriginal Mariculture on Canada’s West Coast (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2006); Eugene Arima and Alan Hoover, The Whaling People of the West Coast of Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery (Victoria: Royal BC Museum, 2011); John S. Lutz, Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008). 2 Population statistics for this period vary and are difficult to verify. The best historical review of these figures can be found in Cole Harris, The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997); See also Wilson Duff, The Indian History of British Columbia: The Impact of the White Man(Victoria: Royal BC Museum, c.1997), 38-39. 3 Umeek E. Richard Atleo, Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004), 127. 4 For an extensive study of this topic see, Daniel W. Clayton, Islands of Truth: The Imperial Fashioning of Vancouver Island (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000). 5 Accounts of Comekela appear in numerous contemporary diaries, see J. Richard Nokes, Almost a Hero (Pullman, WA: WSU Press, 1998). 6 John R. Jewitt, White Slaves of Maquinna: John R. Jewitt’s Narrative of Capture and Confinement at Nootka (Surrey, BC: Heritage House, 2000). 7 This is the figure presented in Cole Harris,Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002), 293. 8 On the role of coercion in colonization, see Barry M. Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-90 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1984); and Chris Arnett, The Terror of the Coast: Land Alienation and Colonial War on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, 1849-1863 (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1999). 9 Harris, Making Native Space, 293. 10 The stories of African American newcomers is available on the BC Black History Awareness Society website, accessed June 1, 2017, http:// bcblackhistory.ca. 11 Bev Sellars, Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016), 86. 12 “Chinese Address to the Governor,” British Daily Colonist, April 5, 1864, 3. 13 As cited in Crawford Kilian, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978), 135. 14 The full list of discriminatory measures passed by the B.C. legislature against First Nations and Asian Canadians has never been verified. A preliminary list of discriminatory legislative measures against Asian Canadians and others includes over 200 pieces of legislation. See Canada, British Columbia, Ministry of Justice, Chinese Legacy BC: Legislation Review Report, accessed May 13, 2017, http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/ gov/british-columbians-our-governments/our-history/historic-places/documents/heritage/chinese-legacy/legislation_review-report_final.pdf. 15 The story of Canada’s immigration colour bar against those of African heritage is told in Sarah-Jane Mathieu, North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010). 16 “On Trial,” The Daily Colonist, September 18, 1878, 2. 17 Tai Sing v. Maguire (1878), B.C.R., vol. 1, pt. 1, p.101(BCSC). available http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bcreports/001.pdf 18 For a government compiled list of discriminatory legislation, see Canada, British Columbia, Discriminatory Legislation in British Columbia 1872-1848, accessed May 30, 2017, http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/our-history/historic-places/ documents/heritage/chinese-legacy/discriminatory_legislation_in_bc_1872_1948.pdf. 19 A detailed account of the riots is provided in Michael Barnholden, Reading the Riot Act: A Brief History of Riots in Vancouver (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2005); see also Julie F. Gilmour, Trouble on Main Street: Mackenzie King, Reason, Race and the 1907 Vancouver Riots (Toronto: Allen Lane, 2014). On the impact of the riots, see John Price, “‘Orienting’ the Empire: Mackenzie King and the Aftermath of the 1907 Race Riots,” BC Studies, no.156 (Winter 2007/08): 53-81. 20 See the court decision In Re Nakane and Okazake (1908), B.C.R., vol.13, p.370 (BCSC), accessed June 9, 2017, www.library.ubc.ca/ 23 150 Years and Counting archives/pdfs/bcreports/013.pdf. 21 Testimony before the Commission is available on-line at the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs website, accessed June 8, 2017, http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/final_report.htm#axzz4jQNA15iS. 22 The details related to this case are available on the Panama Maru 1913 website, accessed May 31, 2017, http://web.uvic.ca/panamamaru1913/ on-trial/. 23 The most accessible source for information regarding the 1914 challenge to the colour bar is the SFU-sponsored Komagata Maru: Continuing the Journey website, accessed May 31, 2017, http://komagatamarujourney.ca. 24 For an early foray into the politics of women’s suffrage, see Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess, eds., In Her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women’s History in B.C., (Victoria: Camosun College, 1980). For more recent work, see Veronica Strong-Boag, ed., Canadian Women, Suffrage and Human Rights, vol.1-7 (Vancouver: UBC Press, forthcoming). 25 Harris, “Voices of Smallpox Around the Strait of Georgia,” in The Resettlement of British Columbia, 3-30. 26 Andrea Geiger, “Writing Racial Barriers into Law: Upholding B.C.’s Denial of the Vote to its Japanese Canadian Citizens, Homma v. Cunningham, 1902,” in Gail M. Nomura and Louis Fiset, eds., Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005). 27 “The Case for British Columbia,” Victoria Daily Colonist, January 3, 1903, 8. 28 For the details of reserves created in 1890, see British Columbia Archives, GR-2982, Box 4, Files 41.1 and 41.4. 29 “Indians’ Petition to King Edward,” Victoria Daily Colonist, July 6, 1906, 8. 30 For written accounts of First Nations labour history, see Rolf Knight, Indians at Work: An Informal History of Native Labour in British Columbia, 1858-1930 (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1978); and, more recently, Lutz, Makúk. 31 British Columbia Federationist, July 27, 1917, 1, quoted in Gillian Creese, “Exclusion or Solidarity? Vancouver Workers Confront the ‘Oriental Problem,’” BC Studies, no.80 (Winter 1988-89): 39. 32 Statistics provided by the Cumberland Museum and Archives. 33 Jim McDowell, Father August Brabant: Saviour or Scourge (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2012), 386-387. 34 BC Geography Open Textbook Collective, Case Study 1: The Indian Residential School System, from “Chapter 3: Aboriginal Issues in British Columbia” in British Columbia in a Global Context, (Vancouver: BCcampus, 2014), 47-50, accessed April 20, 2017, https:// opentextbc.ca/geography/chapter/4-4-case-study/. 35 For details, see Scott Kerwin, “The Janet Smith Bill of 1924 and the Language of Race and Nation in British Columbia,” BC Studies, no.121 (Spring 1999): 83-114. 36 For an authoritative account of this year-long struggle, see Tim Stanley, Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011). 37 This story is recounted in Leslie A. Robertson and the Kwagu’lG ixsam Clan, Standing Up with Ga’axsta’las (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 254-257. 38 Dong Chong, as quoted in Judy MacCallum, “Dong Chong Delivered Groceries by Wheelbarrow,” North Island Gazette, November 13, 1980, 17-18. 39 As quoted in Keith D. Smith, Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 96. 40 Duncan McCue, “Aboriginal Star Hailed as ‘Pioneer’ by Soccer Hall of Fame,” CBC News, November 7, 2014, accessed May 20, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/aboriginal-star-hailed-as-pioneer-by-soccer-hall-of-fame-1.2822153. 41 See “Interview with Bessie Hope, Part 1 of 3,” October 1986, Multicultural History Society of Ontario, accessed June 1, 2017, http://www. mhso.ca/chinesecanadianwomen/en/database.php?c=439. 42 Rose Murakami, Ganbaru: The Murakami Family of Salt Spring Island (Ganges, BC: Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island, 2005).

24 Fighting for Justice on the Coast

43 Cowichan Leader, April 21, 1942. 44 Joan Mayo, Paldi Remembered: 50 Years in the Life of a Vancouver Island Logging Town, 2nd ed. (Duncan, BC: Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives, 2016). 45 Mayo, Paldi Remembered, 90. 46 Dennis Madokoro, “Yoshio Johnny Madokoro,” Nikkei Images 11, no.4 (Winter 2006): 7. 47 Johnny Madokoro, as quoted in Bob Bossin, Settling Clayoquot, The Sound Heritage Series (Victoria: Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Provincial Secretary and Govt. Services, Provincial Archives, Sound and Moving Image Division, 1981), 65. 48 Madokoro, “Yoshio Johnny Madokoro,” 7. 49 With editing assistance from Marlene Mortensen and Dennis G. Madokoro. 50 As cited in Bossin, Settling Clayoquot, 71. 51 Modified from Roy Miki and Cassandra Kobayashi,Justice in Our Time: The Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991), 51. 52 “Law Foundation of British Columbia and Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Aboriginal Title Curriculum Project,” Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, accessed April 21, 2017, https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/ubcic/pages/1436/attachments/original/1484849661/UBCIC_ Aboriginal_Title_Research_Paper.pdf?1484849661. 53 Roy Miki, “The Legacy of Japanese Canadian Redress: A Reflection/An Assessment,” Ayukawa Commemorative Lecture, University of Victoria, March 29, 2017.

25