Leaders of Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, educators, and Write to Read BC volunteers have discussed the community’s vision for an indigenous-led library. A library offers support for programs that interest the community.
Also, the library’s collection will represent Indigenous communities.
The Lheidli T’enneh Band, previously the Fort George Indian Band, are Dakelh and Carrier people who lived where the Nechako River joins the Fraser River, and traditionally included the city of Prince George, BC. Lheidli T’enneh means “The People from the Confluence of the Two Rivers.
The band used temporary and seasonal settlements across their territory, and archeological evidence shows fishing camps along the Nechako and Fraser rivers as well as in the Beaverly area. The Lheidli T’enneh did not have permanent settlements in what is modern day Prince George until the 1820s arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company post, Fort George, after which they also began keeping gardens.
The band government focuses on:
The community also has an Elders society whose purpose is to protect and encourage Lheidli T’enneh traditions, language, and culture through access and education.
In a partnership, Write to Read BC and the Lheidli T’enneh Band are designing a library. As the project continues, the library may be installed in 2025 or 2026.
Gitanmaax opened its library in the Hazelton First Nations Resource Centre in the fall of 2024. The community and council did this in collaboration and partnership with Write to Read BC.
This Indigenous-led library has a collection of books about Indigenous cultures and lands. Its tables and seating, for working and meeting, are also available for community groups to use.
The library includes display cases for important cultural objects, wooden models of traditional Indigenous housing.
Along one wall, the library has computers and screens, which allow remote attendance at online courses and conferences. This connects Gitanmaax to communities across BC and the world.
The Gitanmaax Band are Gitxsan people live where the Skeena and Bulkley rivers meet, in north-western BC near Hazelton. Gitanmaax was the name of the winter village, which became the current reserve. Gitanmaax means People who Fish by Torchlight.
The Gitanmaax Band currently has about 800 members living in the community, and about twice as many more living elsewhere.
Every 2 years, members elect a Chief and 12 council members. Each council member is appointed a portfolio of services that the band administration delivers to the community:
Gitanmaax installed a library in its Hazelton First Nation Resource Centre. The community and council did this in collaboration and partnership with Write to Read BC. The library includes display cases for important cultural objects, wooden models of traditional Indigenous housing, and books about a range of Indigenous cultures and lands.
The library has tables and seating for working and meeting. Along one wall, it has computers and screens to allow remote attendance at online courses and conferences, in its learning centre.
When Gitsegukla elementary school principal Louise Ormerod talks about her school’s journey from failure to success—not just for the Kindergarten to Grade 7 students, but also for adult learners in the community—Write to Read BC gets part of the credit.
In 2018 the BC Ministry of Education assessed the school. It failed. The ministry said the school would be closed if it didn’t resolve the 21 violations ministry auditors found. The community also knew the school was poor. Some families left the community so their children could get an education. New teachers quickly left.
But two years later, when auditors returned, they found a vast improvement. The school was “teaching to the curriculum” and meeting BC Ministry of Education standards. Auditors observed the school had found the resources every elementary school needs. Literacy rates increased 400%. Teachers stayed.
Ministry auditors told Ormerod that hers was the only audited school that did not have a single violation that year. Ormerod credits her staff and the community’s commitment to saving education in their community. She says Write to Read BC not only played a role, but made it easy, by being prpared and by knowing who to call to solve various problems. As for the library Write to Read BC installed, Ormerod says, “we had the best library and learning centre we could have ever asked for to support that learning.”
In this 9½-minute video of an online talk, Ormerod tells the story of her school’s journey.
Ormerod also gives advice to other schools who want to develop a library of their own:
Ormerod credits the expertise and connections of Write to Read BC’s volunteers, and the fundraising efforts of the Rotary Club for helping to make success possible for Gitsegukla Elementary and the whole community.
The community, the school, and Write to Read BC installed a library while complying with COVID-19 restrictions. The shelving, furniture, books, and computer equipment were installed during a school holiday, because students were offsite then. Obviously, the out-of-town volunteers could not socialise or stay with community members.
Daylu Dena, or Lower Post, are Kaska Dena, a tribal council of people in northern BC, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories. Lower Post is on the Alaska Highway, at the northern border of BC and the Yukon, near Watson Lake. About 300 people live in Lower Post. Daylu Dena are a matriarchal society with interrelated families.
Traditionally, Kaska Dena were a nomadic nation travelling across 100,000 km² of traditional territory to hunt and trap, and trade with neighbouring Nations. In some ways the nomadic life continues as community members continue to follow the seasons, and hunt and gather. Environmental protection is a focus, as is economic development.
The Daylu Dena Council runs a company that provides a broad range of construction services and heavy-equipment rental across the Yukon and northern BC, ranging from roadworks and earthworks to residential construction, and from labour procurement to environmental remediation.
The community completed a cultural and administrative centre in spring 2024—a building intended as offices for the council, and Services BC. It has a gymnasium, coffee shop, kitchen, library, and more.
The library that Write to Read BC installed in Daylu Dena’s civic building focuses on Indigenous books. The library opened in the spring of 2024.
Write to Read BC’s co-leads met to plan the installation of books and equipment in the Daylu Dena civic building by the end of the year.
The building was completed a year ago, and the community and Write to Read BC are both eager to see the library installed.
Since the library was built as part of a larger contract, it came fully finished with shelving and furniture. Write to Read library response team only needed to provide the books and computers, including a monitor. This reduced the need for financial input from Write to Read BC.
This month, Write to Read BC’s design response team visited Daylu Dena, just south of Watson Lake, BC. Visitors included lead architect Scott Kemp and Ryan Arsenault.
The community is constructing a cultural and administrative building that will be completed in 2024. The building will have:
Of course, the Daylu Dena civic building will also have a Write to Read BC library, the first to be stocked only with Indigenous books.
The library is planned for the top floor, overlooking the foyer. Its glass wall will admit lots of light.
There team will return in 2024 to help plan the library with the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, widely recognised in 2020, several public health measures were adopted. This included lockdowns and limitations on travel and of access to public spaces, such as libraries and community hubs.
As reported in 2020 and 2021, Indigenous communities used wholistic knowledge of health and previous pandemics to quickly protect vulnerable community members and reduce the spread of the virus. Nonetheless, health researchers reported in 2023 that the impact of COVID-19 was disproportionately higher among some—but not all—Indigenous communities.
Understandably, many Write to Read BC’s partners in isolated BC communities continue to take a cautious approach to visitors. This affects Write to Read BC projects. Before the pandemic, previous consultation and collaboration happened face to face. In time, when the partnering communities are ready, this work can continue. When invited, Write to Read BC volunteers will be ready to actively continue our partnerships across BC.
