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The first Hawaiian to reach British Columbia was Winée, the personal servant of 18-year-old Frances Barkley, usually credited as the first European woman to see the West Coast of Canada. Winée and Frances Barkley arrived at Nootka Sound in 1787 on the Imperial Eagle under the command of Captain Charles Barkley. Winée was the forerunner of hundreds of Sandwich Islanders who were dubbed Kanakas upon their arrival in the gold fields of B.C.
[Also, ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA: Kanaka Bar First Nation is a First Nations government located at Kanaka Bar, British Columbia, Canada, between the towns of Boston Bar and Lytton in the Fraser Canyon region. It is a member of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration, one of three tribal councils of the Nlaka'pamux people. Other members of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration are the Spuzzum, Skuppah and Nicomen First Nations (the Nicomen First Nation is also a member of the Nicola Tribal Association). . Other Nlaka'pamux governments belong either to the Nicola Tribal Association or the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council. "Kanaka" is the old Chinook Jargon trade language term for a Hawaiian, many of whom were in the employ of the Fraser Canyon. The presence of many Hawaiians, known in their own language also as kanaka (local guy) on the gold workings on the Fraser in this area conferred the name Kanaka Bar on a certain gold-rich sandbar on the Fraser below.]
Hawaiian workers also settled at Kanaka Creek, behind Fort Langley. Newcastle Island off Nanaimo has a Kanaka Bay. The Empress Hotel in Victoria is situated on the ruins of a shantytown that was called Kanaka Row. A few Hawaiian families lived at the "Kanaka Ranch"; at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver, site of the Bayshore Inn. Sawmill workers in North Vancouver lived at Moodyville's Kanaka Row, the second-largest Hawaiian settlement in B.C. after Salt Spring Island. Ganges on Salt Spring has a Kanaka Road.
In 1995, Salt Spring Islander Tom Koppel published Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest (Whitecap). B.C.'s most active historian, Jean Barman, has now prepared a family portrait of the half-Hawaiian matron Maria Mahoi, born outside of Victoria, around 1857, probably in Esquimalt. She had an Hawaiian father and an unknown mother who is thought to have died in childbirth.
Maria (pronounced Mariah) had 13 children by various 'newcomer men' while living mainly on Salt Spring and nearby Russell Island (off Fulford Harbour). She died in the late 1930s. Mahoi's turn-of-the-century home is a pivot point for a new Gulf Islands National Park. Parks Canada sponsored a reunion of her descendants last August. Barman talked to Mahoi's kin and produced a manuscript for New Star Books that will soon appear within its Transmontanus series, edited by Terry Glavin.
[SUMMER 2003 BCBW]
[Also, ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA: Kanaka Bar First Nation is a First Nations government located at Kanaka Bar, British Columbia, Canada, between the towns of Boston Bar and Lytton in the Fraser Canyon region. It is a member of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration, one of three tribal councils of the Nlaka'pamux people. Other members of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration are the Spuzzum, Skuppah and Nicomen First Nations (the Nicomen First Nation is also a member of the Nicola Tribal Association). . Other Nlaka'pamux governments belong either to the Nicola Tribal Association or the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council. "Kanaka" is the old Chinook Jargon trade language term for a Hawaiian, many of whom were in the employ of the Fraser Canyon. The presence of many Hawaiians, known in their own language also as kanaka (local guy) on the gold workings on the Fraser in this area conferred the name Kanaka Bar on a certain gold-rich sandbar on the Fraser below.]
Hawaiian workers also settled at Kanaka Creek, behind Fort Langley. Newcastle Island off Nanaimo has a Kanaka Bay. The Empress Hotel in Victoria is situated on the ruins of a shantytown that was called Kanaka Row. A few Hawaiian families lived at the "Kanaka Ranch"; at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver, site of the Bayshore Inn. Sawmill workers in North Vancouver lived at Moodyville's Kanaka Row, the second-largest Hawaiian settlement in B.C. after Salt Spring Island. Ganges on Salt Spring has a Kanaka Road.
In 1995, Salt Spring Islander Tom Koppel published Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest (Whitecap). B.C.'s most active historian, Jean Barman, has now prepared a family portrait of the half-Hawaiian matron Maria Mahoi, born outside of Victoria, around 1857, probably in Esquimalt. She had an Hawaiian father and an unknown mother who is thought to have died in childbirth.
Maria (pronounced Mariah) had 13 children by various 'newcomer men' while living mainly on Salt Spring and nearby Russell Island (off Fulford Harbour). She died in the late 1930s. Mahoi's turn-of-the-century home is a pivot point for a new Gulf Islands National Park. Parks Canada sponsored a reunion of her descendants last August. Barman talked to Mahoi's kin and produced a manuscript for New Star Books that will soon appear within its Transmontanus series, edited by Terry Glavin.
[SUMMER 2003 BCBW]
Submitted on June 2, 2003 in By David.
