With much of the community in attendance, Haida Gwaii opened its new library on April 25, 2017. Community leaders want the aboriginal library to promote literacy and encourage a love of learning in Old Massett.
Old Massett is on the north end of Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, a group of islands off the BC coast, near Alaska.
The idea for this library began with Literacy Haida Gwaii, about three years ago. The community received $60,000 in sponsorship when the literacy society partnered with Write to Read BC, Rotary Club, and Government House.
To get started, the project received $5,000 for books and resources. The library also has two computers, with Internet access. Community members now have access to resources beyond Old Massett.
Judith Guichon, lieutenant-governor of BC, attended the library opening, along with Chris Neufeld of Britco Structures (now Boxx Modular).
Britco sponsors the Write to Read BC project by donating modular buildings and paying to ship them to isolated communities that want a library. The Old Massett module was shipped free of charge by BC Ferries. Vancouver Island Regional Library will help train volunteers to manage the library database. London drugs donated computers.
Spurred by the Write to Read BC library projects in Toosey and Stone, Indigenous community Nemiah Valley, has approached us about a community library.
Nemiah Valley, BC, is home to the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in people. This community is on Chilco Lake, a 4½-hour drive from Williams Lake. This has logistical challenges for the project.
Members of the Rotary Club relayed to us that community members are very excited that something like this is available to them.
Dr Shirley-Pat Gale, our co-lead, has made contact with the community, and will help set up an initial meeting in which the community can tell us what they want from a library.
Fort Rupert’s Indigenous community has really wanted an Elders library where Elders can relax, read, and do their crafts. In a visit, Steven Point, governor-general of BC, described the Write to Read project. The community responded positively.
A representative from the Fort Rupert community, along with Brenda Rothwell, the Success By 6 coordinator, are now going to start the process of planning an Elders library with Write to Read BC’s design response team.
Some time ago, the Kwadacha indigenous community in Fort Ware approached Write to Read BC about a library. We can now get a project started with them.
This is because two Rotary Clubs are willing to partner with the community.
Fort Ware is north of Williston Lake, which is a substantial logistical challenge. No provincial highways reach the community, but a logging road extends north from the Prince George region.
Klemtu, BC, an indigenous community in BC’s coastal fjords, has asked to partner with Write to Read BC to work towards a library and cultural centre.
For this project, Write to Read BC has also partnered with the Rotary Club of Saanich.
Our design response team has been invited to the community to meet and start planning the facility with them. Hoping to join us in the first meeting are Brenda Rothwell, Success By 6 coordinator for the area, Steven Point, lieutenant-governor of BC, and members of the Rotary Club of Saanich.
Write to Read BC partner, Nanaimo Correctional Centre, has finished an order of library furniture for the Lax Kw’alaams Tsimshian Academy and Community Library. This shipment of shelves, bound for Metlakatla Pass, is now being trucked to Prince Rupert by project partner, Bandstra Transportation. Bandstra provides Write to Read BC with free trucking.
These shelves follow an earlier shipment in late 2016. The arrival of those shelves were accompanied by Write to Read BC’s library response team and Rotary Club of Mission BC volunteers. Together with Lax Kw’alaams community members and academy librarian Naomi White, they sorted and placed books onto the first batch of shelves.
There were many books left over, and the second furniture shipment to the academy will help get most of those books onto shelves. A third shipment of shelves is scheduled for the end of June 2017. Mission Rotary Club volunteers will pick up the shelving in Nanaimo, drive it to Port Hardy, and then take it to Prince Rupert on the overnight ferry.
Learning centre equipment
Also in June, Write to Read BC will ship four Hewlett Packard all-in-one computers and 4 mini pads (tablets). This will allow the academy to offer remote attendance to courses and conferences, online, from its learning centre.
An example of installed shelves in a Write to Read BC library by its library response team.
Once the library response team has finished with the library, and the computers and tablets are installed, the library will be ready for its formal opening ceremony. It’s been operating in Metlakatla since early 2015. It is 11th Write to Read BC library and learning centre.
The CBC’s flagship television news program The National recently featured an 8-minute broadcast about the Write to Read BC project, which was broadcast across Canada. CBC aboriginal affairs reporter Duncan McCue, based in Vancouver, visited a native library in Malahat on Vancouver Island and spoke with several members of the project. Chief Michael Harry says he was pleased the library was built entirely from donated services and fundraising, without any federal or provincial support.
“It’s showed the government that we can do this without them, and that we want to thrive,” said Harry. “But more importantly, we want to create relationships with external communities surrounding us.” The Malahat Kwunew Kwasun Cultural Resource Centre will celebrate its grand opening this summer.
The CBC show mainly told the story of Write to Read BC founders, former lieutenant-governor Steven Point and his former aide de camp Bob Blacker. Point ended his term as lieutenant-governor in 2012 and was reappointed as a provincial court judge, so in his current position he cannot continue as spokesperson. But he’s thrilled to see Write to Read BC continue to grow.
“It’s connecting these folks, breaking down barriers that should never have been there. And they’re coming out to the communities for the first time, saying, ‘We want to help,’” said Point.
Point’s successor, lieutenant-governor of BC Judith Guichon, has enthusiastically endorsed the project since she took over the post. Write to Read BC has installed and opened six libraries, with six more on the way. To date, 30,000 books have been donated.
Just south of Chemainus, BC, is the Indigenous community of Halalt, Lyackson. Write to Read BC learned about this community’s library ambitions when Ada Mawson approached us in January 2017. Ada Mawson is the Success By 6 coordinator for the area, and she accompanied us to a Halalt meeting in March.
There is a definite need for a community library.
We are now working with the community to locate a Britco module for the site. Things are moving very quickly with the community, as they have been committed to make this work and are doing everything that will ensure this will happen.
The Rotary Clubs of Steveston, Chemainus, and Parksville will be partnering on this project.
We expect the library to be ready for opening before the end of the current term of the lieutenant-governor of BC ends in late 2018.
Write to Read BC volunteers intend to visit Klemtu, BC, and are enthusiastic about the chance to meet with the community to learn about their vision and their library needs.
The volunteers are currently arranging transportation and funding for the trip, which they want to do when the weather is fair.
We hope our funder will be able to participate in the building of a Version 4 library—one that’s built on site rather than prebuilt. and then shipped.
Write to Read BC’s design response team visited Kyuquot on northwest Vancouver Island. This visit had to take place when the weather was good, as the road from Campbell River to Fair Harbour ferry is busy with logging trucks, and feels safer when dry. They were received by a band committee including Chief Peter Hanson, committee member Daisy Hanson, band administrator Cynthia Blackstone, project coordinator Russell Hanson, and others.
A view of Kyquot village when arriving by ferry from Fair Harbour.
The Write to Read BC team included co-lead Bob Blacker, architect Scott Kemp, architect intern Kelly Bapty, mechanical engineer Mike Herrold, structural engineer Melissa Kindratsky, big log builder Steve Lawrence, filmmaker Michael McCarthy, financial guru Lawrence Lewis, and master carver Moi Sutherland. During the visit, they stayed with Susan Plensky and her husband Skip.
Together, the visitors and band committee started the planning process for a library. This concept quickly grew into a community centre that contains a library—in a building that will be built onsite rather than prebuilt and shipped there.
This ambitious work was named The Big Project.
A tidal dock that leads up to a reinforced seawall in Kyquot village.
The visitors and band committee of residents toured the village, and together decided the original site for the planned library was too close to sea level and at threat from any tsunami. To find an alternative site, the entire team hiked up the hill past the school to the site of a planned neighbourhood. The engineers wanted an up-close inspection, so the entire team bushwhacked into rarely-visited forest, where the biomass underneath was 3 m deep. This is the site they found.
Site of the future Big Project, uphill from Kyquot village.
Steve Lawrence, a big log builder, announced the site was perfect to harvest the timber needed for the community centre. The village will install a mill on the site, to cut the logs themselves. The community will also consider getting involved in the construction, which removes the need to bring in, house, feed, and pay a full construction crew for the length of the project.
Community involvement
The band committee heard that the entire village must be actively involved in planning and fundraising from the very beginning of the project. If the village does not pledge enough support and primary funding, The Big Project will not proceed. Fundraising will require a wide variety of events, grants, and donations from the public and businesses.
Financial planner Lawrence Lewis explained the costs in detail. The scope and success of the project depends on how much the community gets involved. Hiring an outside construction crew is not part of the estimate, which is why the village needs to consider taking on that work.
Working together: the band committee and Write to Read BC’s design resposne team in Kyquot village.
Design and construction
The Write to Read BC volunteers left the village of Kyuquot satisfied the band has the skills and experience to take on The Big Project. The design response team prepared and published a draft design of a community centre that has a library with Internet connections for its learning centre, a kitchen, meeting rooms for elders and youth, a museum, a gymnasium, and a day care centre.
After it’s revised and agreed, the design will be handed to Write to Read BC’s construction response team and library response team for the next stages of the project.
