| Finnish/Canadian
Community History
Community
Partners:
Sointula Recreation Society and Sointula Museum
Web
Site:
http;//www.island.net/~soinmuse/
Project
Directors:
Tom Roper, Sointula Museum
E-mail: troper@island.net
Dr. Ian MacPherson, Department of History, University of Victoria
E-mail: cluny@uvvm.uvic.ca
Dr. Astri Wright, Department of History in Art, University of
Victoria
E-mail: astri@finearts.uvic.ca
University
of Victoria Researchers:
Dr. Ana-Maria Peredo, Faculty of Business
Kathleen Gabelmann, Research Director, British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies
Student
Researchers:
Directed Studies: Angela Andersen, graduate student, History in
Art
HRDC
Summer Career Placement: Laura Imrie, Sointula Secondary School;
Pauliina Saarinen, Linguistics
Youth Community Action Program: Sauli Yli-Kahila, Computer Science
UVic Work Study: Marla Stevenson, History in Art
UVic Arts & Writing Co-op: Kevin Wilson, graduate student,
History
Collaborators:
Henry Lahti, Vancouver Finnish Community volunteer
Emily Hawkins, Victoria Finnish Speaker
Sointula is a community of about 800 people on Malcolm Island,
off the East coast of northern Vancouver Island. It is known locally,
nationally and internationally as a community founded by Finnish
Utopian socialists in the beginning of the 20th century, and as
a fishing and logging community that founded and continues to
this day the oldest cooperative store in Western Canada.
The Sointula Museum Project is a multi-dimensional project that
aims at three main outcomes:
-
An exhibition of photos and art representing the history of
Sointula since its founding in 1901/02. This exhibit has been
on display at the brand new museum extension during the Centennial
Celebrations in May 2002 and will be made available for
local travel during 2003.
-
The development of a computerized museum database with entries
for the museum's objects, documents, old publications and photographs.
- A
public-access museum website with images and curatorial data
from the exhibition displayed, along with more visual and narrative
material, developed as part of the database.
On Sointula, Tom Roper has been working with a group of volunteers
who formed the 'Photogroup': Dave Siider, Lenny Pohto, Loretta
Rhitamo, Kay Kennedy, Diane Carley, and Kelly Edwards. Community
members of three generations have approached friends, family and
neighbours for photos of historical interest in their personal
or family archives and stories that accompany them. Numerous photos
have been collected and along with those in the museum collection
have been scanned for the museum database. Oral histories related
to the people in the photographs are being collected and transcribed.
In Victoria, faculty at UVic are coordinating a research team
of students and volunteers from the Finnish communities in Victoria
and Vancouver. The researchers are looking at photographs as well
as Sointula art and architecture in the context of the history
of the founding and development of Malcolm Island.
The
project will continue with the development of a museum web exhibit
and publications that document the results of all the research.
Other researchers from the British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies are exploring the history of co-operatives and other civil society institutions and traditions in Sointula. There objectives are to prepare brief histories of the various co-operatives in Sointula’s history and to prepare a book that summarizes that history and explores the development of three new co-operatives recently formed on Malcolm Island.
|
