The Founding of Victoria, BC
August 2 is the 150th anniversary of Victoria’s incorporation. In the weeks before, all natives had been expelled from Victoria and their houses burned. The colonial regime of James Douglas had decided natives would be allowed to remain in the European settlement only if a settler certified that they had employment.
The short films of Shawn Swanky coming soon!
The last three months have been busy! I’ve published 2 books, The Great Darkening project has made the news and I’ve created some exciting treats to share with everyone on ShawnSwanky.com. Let me bring everyone up to speed.
The Long Shadow of 1862 Still Continues
The ongoing legacy of the unconstitutional seizure of British Columbia from its indigenous peoples can be found everywhere around us today. Today I visited the Musqueam camp at the Marpole Midden on SW Marine Drive near the Arthur Laing Bridge in Vancouver. Indigenous people have occupied this strategic site at the mouth of the Fraser River for at least 4000 years. It has been long recognized as a Canadian Heritage site containing a priceless cultural record along with some undisturbed intact burials of the Musqueam people.
The First Smallpox Journey of Francis Poole
At about 9:00pm on July 4, 1862, Francis Poole and eight men from what had begun as a party of 40 straggled into Ft. Alexandria in the geographic center of colonial British Columbia. Poole would say in his memoir that his party had been in hourly dread of attack by “hostile savages,” that one of his party had been killed by the Tsilhqot’in and that his party left a “sorrowful trail of blood.”
War at Victoria maps
Maps created for Section 87 in Tom Swanky's, The Story Story of Canada's "War of Extermination" on the Pacific.
June 10th, 1862 and the Seizure of British Columbia from its First Nations
On June 10, after visiting Dr. Clerjon at the Ft. Rupert H.B.C. post on Vancouver Island, a party led by Francis Poole would begin introducing smallpox at Bella Coola and then along the route of the proposed Bentinck Arm road through Tsilhqot’in territory to the Fraser River. Within 30 days an eye-witness estimated 75% of the Nuxalk at Bella Coola were dead or dying from the disease. Over 75 percent of all the Tsilhqot’in people would be dead before year end, a sign of systematic introduction.
Canada’s “War of Extermination” cover art
Cover art for Tom Swanky's, The Story of Canada's "War of Extermination" on the Pacific.
Shadows
A magical dresser helps a student overcome the fear of his soul dying at the hands of his teachers.
Ambition Takes Wing
We always need people with ambition. The greater good requires talented leaders showing the way and bringing along the flock. Ambition, however, has a dark side.
Pigeon-Toed Politicos
Duck! The TV network, 'All Birds, All The Time' raises political debate to a level of eloquence hardly thought imaginable.