The co-leads of Write to Read BC plan to travel to Daylu Dena’s new library in early November 2025. They will deliver books and computers.
The books will provide the indigenous focus that the community envisioned for its library.
The computers and high-speed Internet connection will allow the library to offer remote access to online courses and conferences. Librarians typically refer to this as a learning centre.
The Tsawwassen First Nation is in greater Vancouver, in BC’s lower mainland. Its name means “land facing the sea”. Traditionally, its lands covered a what is now Pitt Meadows, New Westminster, and several gulf islands off the mainland’s west coast. It has lands close to the south arm of the Fraser River, and just north of the border with the USA at Point Roberts.
Tsawassen First Nation has a youth centre on site that includes a gymnasium, weight room, art room, teen lounge, and teaching kitchen. It has areas for music, dance, and media that allow for scheduled and drop-in classes. There is after-school care for young children.
The centre also has a library.
Write to Read BC installed the library in partnership with the Tsawwassen First Nation Youth Centre.
Nisaika Kumtuks is an elementary school in Nanaimo. It opened its doors in September 2014 as is the first urban aboriginal public school on Vancouver Island. At its start, if offered children from Kindergarten to grade 4 an Aboriginal focused curriculum.
Nisaika Kumtuks means “ours to know” in the Chinook language.
The school started in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, BC, with additional support from Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre, Mid Island Métis Nation, School District 84.
Write to Read BC installed its 16th library for the students and their family members. Sponsors included the Rotary Clubs of Nanaimo and Lantzville.
Previously, students at Nanaimo’s Nisaika Kumtuks Elementary Centre walked to the public library for books. After the ribbon-cutting, they had a library in their school building.
The library offers tablets, computers, and video conferencing, the library has books for children and adults that students and their families can use.
Nooaitch First Nation is in the southern interior region of BC, with its reserve community and offices in Merritt. The main urban centre is in the Nicola Country region, between the Lower Mainland and Kamloops.
The Nooaitch First Nation reserve has a population of about 250 people.
Economically, forestry is important to this community. In response to pine beetle infestation, in 2007 the band agreed to harvest 20,000 m³ of timber annually over a 5 years, in its traditional territory.
Nooaitch First Nation’s vision for its library included video-conferencing. As a result, other partners donated computers and screens, to make that vision a reality. This library can offer remote participation in courses and conferences, in its learning centre. In partnership with the community, this was the 12th library Write to Read BC installed. Sponsors included Rotary Club of Merritt, and Britco Structures (now Boxx Modular).
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:
Write to Read BC installed a library in Gitanmaax, in collaboration and partnership with the community and council. The library is in the community school, and 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.
Near the village of Hazelton, Write to Read BC volunteers recently delivered custom shelving required for the community’s school library. The shelves will also display important cultural objects, in both enclosed and open displays.
The school’s plan is nearing completion. The shelves were built for the library by Nanaimo Correctional Centre.
This is the 23rd library the Write to Read BC project will install in isolated communities across BC, in partnership with the community.
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.
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.
