BC Books From the North Coast

“Perhaps the definitive guidebook to Haida Gwaii.”—Globe and Mail

Haida Gwaii, ancestral home of the Haida Nation, was once as inaccessible and mysterious as it was beautiful. The tight cluster of islands off British Columbia’s northwest coast remained virtually untouchable for millennia, allowing its people to develop a distinct and exceptional cultural identity that was revered across the region. Today, Haida Gwaii—a name that means “islands of the people” in the Haida language� …

“A story seemingly drawn out of a Hollywood action script…Gripping stuff.”—Canada’s History

Just before midnight on February 13, 1950, three engines of a US Air Force B-36 intercontinental bomber caught fire over Canada’s northwest coast. The crew jumped, and the plane ditched somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Almost four years later, the wreck of the bomber was found accidentally in a remote location in the coastal mountains of British Columbia, three hours’ flying time in the oppos …

On January 22, 1979, an eleven-year-old Native girl died of a ruptured appendix in an Alert Bay, B.C. hospital. The events that followed are chronicled here by Dara Culhane Speck, a member by marriage of the Nimpkish Indian Band in Alert Bay. She has relied mainly on interviews, anecdotes and public records to describe how this small, isolated Native community took on the local hospital, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, provincial and federal ministries of health and national media, becau …

On January 22, 1979, an eleven-year-old Native girl died of a ruptured appendix in an Alert Bay, B.C. hospital. The events that followed are chronicled here by Dara Culhane Speck, a member by marriage of the Nimpkish Indian Band in Alert Bay. She has relied mainly on interviews, anecdotes and public records to describe how this small, isolated Native community took on the local hospital, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, provincial and federal ministries of health and national media, becau …

Stories of Indigenous children forced to attend residential schools have haunted Canadians in recent years. Yet most Indigenous children in Canada attended “Indian day schools,” and later public schools, near their home communities. Although church and government officials often kept detailed administrative records, we know little about the actual experiences of the students themselves.

In What We Learned, two generations of Tsimshian students – a group of elders born in the 1930s and 1940 …

Northern British Columbia has always played an important role in Canada’s economy, but for many Canadians it has existed as an almost forgotten place: a vast territory where only a few roads and a ferry system connected small cities, towns, and villages to the outside world. Now as the appetite for natural resources intensifies, this resource-rich and geographically important region is being pulled onto national and global economic stages. This timely volume examines the connections between lo …

Encompassing millions of hectares of globally rare coastal rainforest, the Great Bear Rainforest in coastal British Columbia is home to ancient trees, rich runs of salmon, and abundant species. The area also supports small human communities, particularly First Nations. Once slated for clearcut logging, large areas were protected in 2006 by the signing of one of the world’s most innovative conservation agreements. This book provides a detailed account of the complex and contested process that r …

This beautifully designed book features dramatic new photographs of the collections and exhibitions housed in western Canada's oldest, largest and best-loved museum. It is introduced by CEO Jack Lohman, who created the book as part of a far-reaching revitalization of the Royal British Columbia Museum. Lohman also contributes an insightful essay about the importance of museum collections and supports his argument with four more specific essays from Indigenous collections curator Martha Black, bot …