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.
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.
