BC Heritage Sites Videos

In May, openings in Maple Ridge, Galiano Island, and Port Edward, BC celebrated the first three of 29 BC Heritage Sites to reach completion, highlighting the breadth and diversity of the prewar communities that existed up and down the west coast.

Thank you to everyone who joined us from far and wide. Short videos documenting the CEED Centre in Maple Ridge, the refurbished Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln on Galiano Island, and the renovated triplexes at the North Pacific Cannery are available on the JCLS YouTube Channel at the link below. As part of knowledge mobilization JCLS has created these videos to share the work with community who were unable to travel to these places. We look forward to sharing other work of JC Legacies with you.

BC Heritage Sites

BC Heritage Sites is a key program of Japanese Canadian Legacies, developed to assist local communities in British Columbia in promoting public awareness of pre-war and wartime Japanese Canadian history through interpretive heritage projects at sites of ancestral communities and other places of historical significance including sites of wartime incarceration.

This work is at the heart of our community’s efforts to rebuild connections to our heritage in British Columbia.

CEED Centre in Maple Ridge

The CEED Centre Neighbourhood House building was part of the Haney Nokai complex that served as a social centre for the Maple Ridge farming community in the pre-War era. This project turns the building into a permanent interpretive exhibit that tells the tale of a once-thriving community that was reduced by the Internment of Japanese Canadians and all but disappeared from view until now. The walls and ceilings portray life on the 230 Japanese Canadian farms and a Japanese style rock garden and signs on the exterior help to tell the tale and remind us of this history.

The opening was held on Saturday May 3.

North Pacific Cannery in Port Edward

In 2023, the North Pacific Cannery Triplex restoration project was undertaken by the Port Edward Historical Society, with funding by Japanese Canadian Legacies, to honour the pre- and post-war Japanese Canadians who contributed so much to British Columbia’s fishing industry.

The opening ceremony was held on Saturday, May 24.

Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln on Galiano Island

There are five known charcoal pit kilns on Galiano Island. These mostly teardrop-shaped, stone-lined kilns are silent evidence of a thriving early 20th Century charcoal-making industry by Japanese settlers mostly from that Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture. One such pit kiln has been excavated & restored in Bluffs Park. This important site highlights the history of Japanese Canadians in BC.

The opening of the restored Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln was held on Saturday May, 10.