“Time erases stories that don’t fit the preferred narrative.” (BC historian Jean Barman to BBC writer Diane Selkirk)
This summary is inspired by a random e-mail I received that included just a link – the link was to a BBC story about Hawaiians in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands.
Captain Vancouver claimed the islands for the British Crown, and referred to them as being located in a “gulf.” While the Gulf Islands are clearly not in a gulf, the name stuck.
In the same year, Spanish and British cartographic expeditions also explored the area, intent on finding a passage to the northwest Atlantic. (Gulf Islands Tourism)
Canada’s Gulf Islands are scattered across the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Southern Vancouver. The area is now home to Gulf Islands National Park Reserve—an ecological paradise of land pockets on 15 islands, plus numerous small islets and reef areas. The forested Gulf Islands include Mayne, Galiano, Hornby, and Gabriola. The largest is Salt Spring. (Destination BC)
“The Gulf Islands are comprised of dozens of islands scattered between Vancouver and Southern Vancouver Island. With a mild climate and bucolic landscapes, it’s been the continuous unceded territory of Coast Salish Nations for at least 7,000 years.”
“The Spanish visited in 1791 and then Captain George Vancouver showed up, claiming the Gulf Islands for the British Crown. Not long after, settlers began arriving from all parts of the world. Many of them were Hawaiian, while black Americans, Portuguese, Japanese and Eastern Europeans also settled on the islands.”
“(I)n the late 1700s, during a period of strife when Indigenous Hawaiians (including royalty) were losing their rights and autonomy at home, many of the men joined the maritime fur trade.”
“A large number of Hawaiians settled on the western shore of Salt Spring Island where they could continue their traditions of fishing and farming “
“Employed by the Hudson Bay Company, hundreds, if not thousands, of Hawaiians found their way to Canada’s west coast. By 1851, some estimates say half the settler population of the Gulf Islands was Hawaiian.”
“Then in the late 1850s, as the border between the US and present-day Canada solidified, many Hawaiians who had been living south moved north, where they were afforded the rights of British citizenship.”
“Once in BC they became landowners, farmers and fishermen. Gradually, they intermarried with local First Nations or other immigrant groups and their Hawaiian identity was almost lost. But during the years when the land containing the orchards was researched and studied, their story was revived, and Hawaiian Canadians began reclaiming their heritage.”
“British Columbia’s Gulf Islands are testament of an era when, during a period of internal strife, Hawaiian royalty left their tropical home for distant islands.”
“Maria Mahoi, a woman born on Vancouver Island in about 1855 to a Hawaiian man and a local Indigenous woman … spent her young adulthood sailing a 40ft whaling schooner with her first husband, American sea captain Abel Douglas.”
“As they had children and their family grew, they settled on Salt Spring Island. Here a large number of Hawaiian families had formed a community on the western shore extending south from Fulford Harbour to Isabella Point, overlooking the islands of Russell, Portland and Cole.”
“Mahoi’s first marriage ended, leaving her a single mother with seven children. She then married a man named George Fisher, the son of a wealthy Englishman called Edward Fisher and an Indigenous Cowichan woman named Sara. The two had an additional six children and made their home in a log cabin on 139 acres near Fulford Harbour.”
“The restoration of Mahoi’s story ended up helping to shape part of a national park.”
“Much of what we think of as Hawaiian culture – hula dance, lei making and traditional food – are the customary domain of women. So those parts of the Hawaiian culture didn’t come to the Gulf Islands with the first male arrivals. But the Hawaiians left their mark in other ways.”
“The community provided both the land and the volunteer builders for the St Paul’s Catholic Church at Fulford Harbour; and Chinook Jargon, the local trade language of the time, included many Hawaiian words. The culture also showed in where the Hawaiians chose to live: most settled in the islands where they were able to continue their practices of fishing and farming.”
“Visitors can enter Maria Mahoi’s house on Russell Island and hear stories about her life on the island .“
“In Mahoi’s case, she also left behind the family home. The small house – with doorways that were just 5’6” – reflects the small stature of the original inhabitants, something that intrigued later owners.”
“Over time, as more of Russell Island’s unique history became clear, it was acquired by the Pacific Marine Heritage Legacy in 1997 and then deemed culturally distinct enough to become part of GINPR in 2003.”
“In 2003, Portland Island, with its winding trails, sandstone cliffs and shell-midden beaches, had become part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (GINPR), a sprawling national park made up of protected lands scattered across 15 islands and numerous islets and reefs in the Salish Sea.”
“Over the next 15 years, 17 abandoned orchards, on eight of the islands, were studied by Parks Canada archaeologists and cultural workers in order to gain a glimpse into the lives of early settlers in the region.”
“On Portland Island, a new park sign told me, the heritage apples including Lemon Pippin, Northwest Greening, Winter Banana and Yellow Bellflower had been planted by a man called John Palau, one of the hundreds of Hawaiians who were among the earliest settlers in the region.”
The article notes, “History, though, can become obscured. And the story of the Gulf Islands became an English one. ‘People think of the islands as a white place,’ BC historian Jean Barman told [the author]. ‘Time erases stories that don’t fit the preferred narrative.’”
The “island history had faded from general knowledge”. “ Part of the problem is the fact that the records of Hawaiians who came to the west coast are particularly challenging.”
“Newly arrived Hawaiians often went by a single name or just a nickname. Even when a first and last name was recorded, a name’s spelling often changed over time. So it became difficult to track a specific Hawaiian royal through his or her lifetime.”
“The legacy of the early Hawaiian settlers was virtually erased from history, but now Hawaiian Canadians have begun reclaiming their heritage.”
“‘When people share the stories of who they are, they’re partial stories. What gets repeated is based on how ambivalent or how proud you are,’ Barman said, explaining this is why many British Columbians of Hawaiian decedent she’s spoken to claim royal heritage. It was a story they were proud of.”
