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.
Lower Nicola Indian Band, is one of the interior Salish first peoples in the south-central interior of BC. Its community and offices are located at Shulus, also known as Lower Nicola, just west of Merritt, BC, between BC’s lower mainland and Kamloops.
Write to Read BC placed its 17th library in Rocky Pines, or Lower Nicola Indian Band. It was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Richmond Sunrise.
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.
Ahousaht First Nation is a coastal community on Vancouver Island in BC. It includes much of Clayoquot Sound, and is the largest First Nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island by population. It has 2,400 members.
Ahousaht First Nation’s core values are to respect one another, teach one another, care for one another, and help one another, and to know that everything is one—everything is interconnected. The community also publishes a dictionary of Ahousaht words.
Write to Read BC’s 15th library was installed here. Its sponsors included the Rotary Club of Vancouver Arbutus, and the Rotary Club of Steveston.
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).
Lax Kw’alaams is an Indigenous village community in BC, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. It is located on Port Simpson Indian Reserve No. 1.
In the community, the Coast Tsimshian Academy provides classrooms for 26 kindergarten students and 156 students in Grades 1 to 12. The school is a beautiful, two-storey, building of 2,000 m², tailored to the needs of the community. With a large, state-of-the art kitchen, and well-thought-out design and layout, the school is also a place for large groups of people to gather.
The school has spaces to learn home economics, industrial arts, and cultural activities. All classrooms have taken into account the needs of learners today, including electronic and spatial needs, as well as the relationship between teacher and student. There are also central gathering spaces connected to other common social areas, and quiet spaces to allow for more intimate learning opportunities.
The school is designed so it could be expanded to meet long-term projections of 175 to 200 students. As economic development projects in the area get underway, community members living elsewhere could return to Lax Kw’alaams. The school welcomes their children and youth to the community with its successful model for educating.
Write to Read BC installed its 11th library here by partnering with Academy of Lax Kw’alaams to expand its library offerings. The Rotary Club of Mission Sunrise was its sponsor.
The Tsilhqot’in National Government represents Tl’etinqox (Anaham), Tsi Deldel (Redstone), Yunesit’in Government (Stone), Xeni Gwet’in First Nation Government (Nemiah), Esdilagh (Alexandria), and Tl’esqox (Toosey).
The Toosey First Nation (or Tl’esqox First Nation) is a Tsilhqot’in First Nation in the Fraser Canyon region of BC. It is 50 km west of Williams Lake. Its Indian Reserves include:
The reserves are about 40 km south of Williams Lake. Many run and work on farms and cattle ranches, or work in trapping or logging. The band has a woodlot license.
Elders provided information about Tŝilhqot’in land use, language, history, traditions, and laws, which played and will play an important role in legal decisions about Title for the Tŝilhqot’in Nation. This information helps protect important sites from logging and mining operations. It also has a purpose in education about Tŝilhqot’in culture, history, laws, and language.
This was the first library that Write to Read BC installed. Sponsors included Rotary Club of Williams Lake Daybreak, Rotary Club of Langley Central, 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.
