Rice Lake, North Vancouver, BC, Canada
This week I was reflecting on the importance of place and changes in place over time. The location that we are focusing on in front of the Irving K Barber Library is an important location at UBC which cannot be separated from the past communities which have shaped and inhabited the area.
This inquiry was inspired by current events which have recently occurred and caused me to think about how communities change over time, and how this history is represented/underrepresented in current communities. I believe that to teach about the community and the land it is important to note the long history of the land. This connects to recognizing the traditional indigenous territory on which the place is situated but also connects to events which have occurred on that land. The ground on which UBC sits including our inquiry spot was once a Musqueam village which was removed in favour of the colonial structure of UBC. I believe that is important to acknowledge the crimes that were committed by colonial powers instead of offering a rosy picture of the past so that students can understand that discrimination and racism have played a large role in determining certain community power structures to this day.
The other location which I connected to in my inquiry of understanding past communities and place was Rice Lake in North Vancouver on the unceded territory of the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. While reflecting on the thick fog of Rice Lake I began to think about an article I had read in the North Shore News about a former Japanese Village in the area which had been set up and likely abandoned due to racism and the internment policies of the 2nd World War. As educators when we are teaching about place and the community connections to place I believe that it is important that we acknowledge the past history of the place and the communities that once inhabited that place so that students can understand the full history of a region, not just the colonial history and understand how that has affected the communities which are present today.
Richter, Brent. North Shore News, 2017, https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/lost-japanese-logging-camp-in-north-vancouver-backcountry-commemorated-3050145