A little bit of history, and keeping an old culture alive (Throwback post)

Legislative Assembly, Victoria

Victoria is the capital of the province of British Columbia, and is a pretty important place in terms of Canada’s history. Aside from the name, which you may have guessed is after Queen Victoria, whose statue stands in front of the Legislative Building, there are strong links back to the early days of European settlement.

Legislative Assembly, Victoria

When the Europeans arrived in the late 1700s, they recognised Vancouver Island as a good trading location, and in 1841, James Douglas was tasked with setting up the first fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Trading Company in Fort Victoria. It's completion two years later saw the start of the permanent British settlement here.

With the influx of prospectors in the British Columbia gold rush, the area developed into a supply base, and the population grew. When the province joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871, Victoria was confirmed as its capital.

Legislative Assembly, Victoria

Legislative Assembly, Victoria

Legislative Assembly, Victoria

The grand Legislative Assembly building was completed in 1897, but by this time, the completion of the railroad on the mainland had seen Vancouver usurp Victoria as a commercial centre, leaving the it to become the sedate 'garden city' that is still is.

Royal BC Museum, Victoria

We took a tour of the Legislative Assembly building, led by people dressed as characters from its history, and it was worth seeing.

Royal BC Museum, Victoria

The Royal BC Museum here is worth a look around, and it is useful to take advantage of the free guided tour too. It did rather amuse us that our guide blamed the rush hour traffic for being late though – there’s hardly a car to be seen compared to London standards!

Royal BC Museum, Victoria

Royal BC Museum, Victoria

Thunderbird Park, Victoria

Thunderbird Park, Victoria

There is also quite a good collection of first nation totem poles and house poles in Thunderbird Park. Obviously you are driving, the best thing to do is get yourself over to Hauda Gwaii, but that wasn’t an option for us this time. Something to do next time though.

British Columbia has many indigenous First Nations groups. The main one from Victoria was the Lekwungen People, and there were nine groups from the wider area, collectively known as the Coastal Salish.

First Nations Event, Victoria

Talking of the First Nations people, there was an event on here during our stay, which was put on by them to showcase their culture and try to encourage more awareness and respect for it. There were some stalls, selling jewellery and other items, and they did displays of music and dances.

First Nations Event, Victoria

It was interesting enough, but we were left with the impression that this was something that they were putting on for us, rather than it being a genuine expression of their culture.

First Nations Event, Victoria

That seems rather sad really, as from what we saw, there remains a big divide between the First Nations people and the main population, and I'm not sure that half hearted 'spectacle' type events will do much to help with that. It is a complex issue though, which I'm not going to try to deal with in this post.

First Nations Event, Victoria

First Nations Event, Victoria

First Nations Event, Victoria

First Nations Event, Victoria