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.
For our visit in late 2023, the Daylu Dena civic building was a winter construction site.
The community is constructing a cultural and administrative building that will be completed in 2024. The building will have:
a Service BC office for driver’s licensing and other government business.
administration offices and a council chamber for Daylu Dene community business.
an adjoining room for the judge’s chamber, so the council chamber can be used as a court room.
a large gym.
a commercial kitchen and a coffee shop.
a recording studio, and language room.
An Indigenous library
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.
Write to Read BC volunteers inside the construction site, looking up at the future location of the library.
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.
The Nlaka’pamux Nation has many bands, whose traditional territory includes parts of the Thomson River, Fraser Canyon in BC and south into the North Cascades region of the USA. The Nation is constructing a multipurpose community centre in Kumsheen, or Lytton.
The centre will include spaces for childcare, youth programming, cultural gatherings and celebrations, and for knowledge exchange and language revitalization. This project will also include a commercial teaching kitchen, a community café, and an Elders lounge. The building is designed with a strong focus on sustainability, cultural preservation, and climate resilience.
About the library
In 2027, Write to Read BC plans to install a reading room in partnership with the Nlaka’pamux Nation.
Write to Read BC volunteer Margaret Fletcher will speak to the Community-Led interest group of BC Library Association, or BCLA. Fletcher will discuss how Write to Read BC partners on projects in isolated communities across BC. She’ll also talk about the impact these projects have on social barriers and reinforcing community culture. This includes the installation of Internet-connected computers that provide remote access to courses and conferences through these learning centres.
The association’s interest group meets quarterly, with its next meeting in December.
The BCLA Community-Led interest group is about a community-led service approach, which consists of community consultation, needs assessments, metrics, and ongoing monitoring of services and programs. The interest group’s members want to connect and collaborate with community members to better support their needs.
At its core, the community-led model is about reducing or eliminating barriers to library services and programs. Another key factor to the community-led approach is staff training and development within the communities.
Write to Read BC has been selected to participate in a panel discussion at the conference for Libraries, Archives and Museums Nova Scotia (LAMNS). The panel will discuss its partnerships with isolated BC communities to install indigenous-led libraries.
The panel takes place on Friday, October 22, and includes our co-lead Bob Blacker, co-lead Dr Shirley-Pat Gale, and volunteers Louise Ormerod, Sarah Dupont, and Gordon Yusko.
The conference theme is Moving Forward Together: Collaboration and innovation to meet changing needs. The theme highlights the resilience of the three sectors—libraries, archives, and museums—as they developed ways to collaborate with communities from a distance due to Covid-19.
Several members of isolated BC communities attended a virtual conference about Indigenous communities. The conference, sponsored by Libraries, Archives and Museums Nova Scotia, included breakout sessions.
During the breakout sessions, members discussed their experience with Write to Read BC, and made new connections with people from Indigenous communities in other provinces.
Virtual conferences don’t just give remote attendees access to people in other communities. They expose attendees to other ideas and perspectives, and to a broad body of knowledge and potential for collaboration.
Usborne Books at Home is funding $1,000 each for Write to Read BC’s current library projects. A discussion over the summer led to Usborne’s support for the libraries of Gitsegukla, Tsideldel, and Heiltsuk first nations.
With each $1,000 order, Usborne will also provide free shipping and a 25% credit for additional purchases. This helps Write to Read BC make cash donations go even further. Our volunteer team thanks Usborne and its local representative, Louise Toews, for their generosity.
Write to read BC volunteer Wendy Brundage visited Gitsegukla in early September, and will follow up with the Elementary School’s principal Louise Ormerod to consult on the school’s book choices.
Usborne is based in southern Ontario, and has been in business for over 50 years. It’s a past winner of Children’s Book Publisher of the Year. Its mission is to help spread a love of literacy to kids and their families across Canada.
The Lax Kw’alaams library, part of the Write to Read BC project, was featured in a Vancouver Sun article. It describes community reactions to the arrival of new library books.
Excerpt from Vancouver Sun, March 20, 2021.
By Douglas Todd
“Please bring us more books” First Nation librarians ask.
Naomi White still remembers her delight when she saw a barge full of books moving across the inlet to her village of Lax Kw’alaams, north of Prince Rupert.
“It was amazing,” the First Nation librarian said.
Six volunteers from Metro Vancouver helped haul in 14 pallets of books and library furniture so that about 150 school-age children in the small village, 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver, would get the chance to enhance their literacy.
“If you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to do anything,” White said, explaining how literacy is the key to more First Nation people advancing into higher education and holding down jobs in the trades, businesses and professions.
“We’re just so isolated here, especially during COVID. Now we’re better able to foster the love of learning. And to pass on that reading is power. The more you know the better off you are,” said White, describing how many young people in the village are keen to learn about the larger world through the library.
After a long drive from Prince George, the installation team arrived in Gitsegukla at 2:45pm on a Tuesday, ready to install a library for the school and community.
The installation took 3 days, while the school was closed for holidays. To comply with COVID-19 restrictions, the out-of-town volunteers obviously could not socialise or stay with community members. The efforts of the volunteers, including members of Write to Read BC’s library response team, were planned from start to finish.
A literacy-focused addition to the community.
On arrival, the library response team swung into action, with the school staff and principal Louise Ormerod. Once the furniture was unloaded, the library response team started organizing the layout of the learning centre, with its internet connection that allows remote attendance at courses and conferences..
Volunteers unloading a delivery of library books.
Fetching sponsors
On Day 1, the team started early and progressed well. Total Support Services Chief executive officer Chris Gillen made a “quick” 3-hour return trip to Terrace to fetch more shelving tabs and an HDMI cable for the TV.
Chris Gillen of Total Support helps troubleshoot the learning centre’s computers at no cost.
How Total Support Services joined Write to Read BC
For a Victoria-Harbourside Rotary Club meeting a few weeks before the Gitsegukla library were installed, Write to Read BC co-lead Bob Blacker gave a presentation about the program, by video call. One of the audience members mentioned that her son-in-law was working with First Nations to provide computers, IT solutions, and training. A few days later Bob received a call from Chris at Total Support, expressing interest. As a result of this connection, Write to Read BC now has a supplier of computers and related hardware needed for learning centres. In addition, Total Support will, at no cost to the libraries—provide online support for any computer problems that surface. This has been huge for Write to Read BC, as support for computers has always been a concern; now we do not have to worry about that.
After 3 days of hard work, the Write to Read BC team, along with principal Ormerod and her staff, completed Write to Read’s very first “version 3” learning centre.
We had some hiccups over the three days, which is to be expected, but we were able to prevail. The new library and resource centre looks great.
Masks off for the group photo: The satisfied team that installed the library and learning centre.
Preceded by planning and design
The team leads recalled the process that led to the installation of this library.
The Write to Read BC team met with Chief Willie and three council members, overlooking Princess Lake. This meeting allowed members of the team to chat with key members of the community. The evening ended with a handshake between Chief Willie and Write to Read BC team co-lead, Bob Blacker, cementing the agreement and the blossoming friendship and trust with Gitsegukla.
As one of the team members said: “This is what makes it all worth it.”
An earlier imagineering session: What does the community’ envision next?
The evening was topped off with an imagineering session, lead by design response team member, Scott Kemp. This was also a new experience for the Write to Read BC team.
Key components of the learning centre: a large screen and a computer table.At this point still a warehouse of books, this room will soon be a classroom.
Over the next few months, we’ll be installing furniture and books at five locations, ranging from Vancouver to BC’s interior. Most of these libraries are linked to a community school or preschool, including in Squamish Nation, Tsideldel First Nation, Williams Lake First nation, and Aboriginal Mothers Care Centre.
Gitsegukla, in the Skeena region of west central BC, on the southeast side of the Skeena River adjacent to the Kitseguecla River mouth, near New Hazleton, BC.
Learning Centre at Tsideldel First Nation, located in the Chilcotin region of BC’s western central interior.
Littlest People Elementary School, a Homulchesan school in the Squamish Nation, next to the mouth of the Capilano River, in Greater Vancouver.
Aboriginal Mothers Care Centre in Vancouver’s downtown eastside neighbourhood. It’s a place where Aboriginal mothers, babies, and children can come to be together as a family.
Little Chiefs Elementary School library in Williams Lake First Nation, which is located in the Cariboo region of BC’s central interior, at Williams Lake.
Need to brighten up your cloudy day? Stop by our Bella Bella library/office and check out this beautiful new mural by Thomas Kero! Photos don’t do it justice. There are so many hidden creatures and special features nestled into the summertime foliage.
A mural painted on the Bella Bella library. Kero wants the town to be as beautiful as the surrounding landscape.
