| Vanier Park | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Type | Public Park |
| Location | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Created | 1967 |
| Operated by | City of Vancouver |
| Website | covapp |
Vanier Park is a municipal park located in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, created in 1967. It is home to the Museum of Vancouver, the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the City of Vancouver Archives, and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. It is also the site of the ancestral Squamish settlement of Sen̓áḵw
The Squamish had an ancestral fishing ground on the site. [1] In the mid-1800s, they established a more permanent village site there named Sen̓áḵw. During the Royal Engineer’s Survey of 1869, it was designated as "Indian Reserve No. 6". [2] Sen̓áḵw encompassed 80 acres, and included Vanier Park. In 1877, chief August Jack Khatsahlano, after whom the Kitsilano neighbourhood was named, was born at Sen̓áḵw. [1]
The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Province and the City of Vancouver worked together to displace the Squamish inhabitants, with the City calling the settlement "a source of menace to the morals and health of the City". [2] In 1913, the BC Government under Richard McBride expropriated the site, paying the inhabitants a fraction of the land's value, [2] and giving them two days to leave before burning their homes to the ground. [3]
The transaction was soon cancelled by the Dominion Government as contravening the Indian Act on several grounds, that only it had the right to negotiate surrenders of land with Indians interested, and that the Reserve belonged in common to the entire Squamish Band. The land subsequently was expropriated by the Vancouver Harbour Commission, an agent of the Dominion government, in 1916. The Squamish were never allowed to reoccupy of the reserve and most of it remained undeveloped. Around the time of the second world war, the site was home to Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station, Number 2 Equipment Depot. On October 28, 1966, it was turned over to the Vancouver Park Board by the Federal Government. Named for former Governor General of Canada Georges Vanier, the park officially opened on May 30, 1967. The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and the Vancouver Museum complex opened in 1968, thanks to lumber baron MacMillan’s $1.5 million donation. [4]
Deputy Park Board Superintendent William Livingstone, famous for his landscape design for Queen Elizabeth Park and VanDusen Botanical Garden, increased the size of the original park site using tons of free fill from the excavation for the MacMillan Bloedel Building on Georgia Street. The fill added additional acres onto the park which was then landscaped by Livingstone and his crew. [5]
Vanier Park plays host to one of Vancouver’s biggest summer festivals, the Shakespearean Bard on the Beach and formerly the Vancouver International Children's Festival. It is the biggest and most famous of the fifteen parks in Kitsilano. [4]
Greektown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is an area in the Kitsilano neighborhood that was historically an enclave of Greek immigrants and their descendants. The term is an informal one, and Greektown's borders are not strictly defined; however, West Broadway around Trutch Street is generally considered the neighbourhood's heart, while Blenheim St to the west and MacDonald St to the east are approximately its outer limits. Vancouverites of Greek descent, who live in Kitsilano, nostalgically also call the area Ουέστ Μπροντουέι.
Kitsilano is a neighbourhood located in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Kitsilano is named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano, and the neighbourhood is located in Vancouver's West Side along the south shore of English Bay, between the neighbourhoods of West Point Grey and Fairview. The area is mostly residential with two main commercial areas, West 4th Avenue and West Broadway, known for their retail stores, restaurants and organic food markets.
The Burrard Peninsula is a peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, bounded by the Burrard Inlet to the north, the Georgia Strait to the west, the North Arm of Fraser River to the south, and the Pitt River and Douglas Island to the east. The City of Vancouver occupies almost all of the western half of the peninsula, and the Cities of Burnaby and New Westminster occupy more than half of the eastern half. At its northeastern end, the peninsula is connected to the Eagle Mountain and Mount Burke of the Coast Mountains via a small isthmus at the center of the Tri-Cities.
False Creek is a short narrow inlet in the heart of Vancouver, separating the Downtown and West End neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. It is one of the four main bodies of water bordering Vancouver, along with English Bay, Burrard Inlet, and the Fraser River. Granville Island is located within the inlet.
The Burrard Street Bridge is a four-lane, Art Deco style, steel truss bridge constructed in 1930–1932 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The high, five part bridge on four piers spans False Creek, connecting downtown Vancouver with Kitsilano via connections to Burrard Street on both ends. It is one of three bridges crossing False Creek. The other two bridges are the Granville Bridge, three blocks or 0.5 km (0.31 mi) to the southeast, and the Cambie Street Bridge, about 11 blocks or 2 km (1.2 mi) to the east. In addition to the vehicle deck, the Burrard Bridge has 2.6 m wide sidewalks and a dedicated cycling lanes on both sides.
Kitsilano Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Vancouver, especially in the warm summer months. Located at the north edge of the Kitsilano neighbourhood, the beach faces out onto English Bay.
The Musqueam Indian Band is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundaries of the City of Vancouver.
The history of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one that extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. With its location on the western coast of Canada near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries, Vancouver has – for thousands of years – been a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
West Point Grey is a neighbourhood in the northwest of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is on Point Grey and bordered by 16th Avenue to the south, Alma Street to the east, English Bay to the north, and Blanca Street to the west. Notable beaches within West Point Grey include Spanish Banks, Locarno and Jericho. Immediately to the south is Pacific Spirit Regional Park and to the east is Kitsilano.
The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, is an astronomy museum located at Vanier Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. The museum was opened on October 28, 1968, containing a Planetarium Star Theatre. Today the museum includes an exhibit gallery and demonstration theatre where public lectures and events are hosted. The museum shares the building with the Museum of Vancouver. Next to the building is the Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory.
The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is a civic history museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. The MOV is the largest civic museum in Canada and the oldest museum in Vancouver. The museum was founded in 1894 and went through a number of iterations before being rebranded as the Museum of Vancouver in 2009. It creates Vancouver-focused exhibitions and programs that encourage conversations about what was, is, and can be Vancouver. It shares an entrance and foyer with the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre but the MOV is much larger and occupies the vast majority of the space in the building complex where both organisations sit as well as separate collections storage facilities in another building.
Deadman Island is a 3.8 ha island to the south of Stanley Park in Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia. The indigenous Squamish name is "skwtsa7s", meaning simply "island." Officially designated Deadman Island by the Geographical Names Board of Canada in 1937, it is commonly referred to as Deadman's Island. In its long history, it has been a battle site, a native tree-burial cemetery, and a smallpox and squatter settlement. Today it is the site of Vancouver's Naval Reserve Division, HMCS Discovery.
X̱wemelch'stn, usually anglicized as Homulchesan, is a large community within the Squamish Nation of the Squamish people, who are a part of the Coast Salish ethnic and linguistic group. The name X̱wemelch'stn, translates to "Fast Moving Water of Fish", relating to the Capilano River. The village is one of the oldest and major villages of the Squamish and continues to be so, being the Squamish Nation's most populated reserve. The community is also known as the Capilano Indian Reserve, formally Capilano Indian Reserve No. 5, and is named like the adjacent Capilano River after the Capilano chieftaincy, the best-known Joe Capilano. The name Kiapila'noq means "people of Kiap", and was the title of the supreme chief of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh in the area of English Bay. Chief George Capilano was the chief who met Captain Vancouver at X̱wemelch'stn in 1792, and had met Captain Cook in 1782.
The Squamish people are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Archaeological evidence shows they have lived in the area for more than a thousand years. In 2012, there was population of 3,893 band members registered with the Squamish Nation. Their language is the Squamish language or Sḵwx̱wú7mesh snichim, considered a part of the Coast Salish languages, and is categorized as nearly extinct with just 10 fluent speakers as of 2010. The traditional territory is in the area now in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, and covers Point Grey as the southern border. From here, it continues northward to Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast, up the Howe Sound. The northern part includes the Squamish, Cheakamus, Elaho and Mamquam rivers. Up the Cheakamus River it includes land past Whistler, British Columbia. The southern and eastern part of their territory includes Indian Arm, along Burrard Inlet, through False Creek then English Bay and Point Grey. Today the Squamish people live mostly in seven communities, located in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and within and nearby to the District of Squamish.
August Jack was an Indigenous/Aboriginal chief of the Squamish people. He was born in the village of Xwayxway or Chaythoos on the peninsula that is now Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the son of Supple Jack "Khay- Tulk" of Chaythoos and Sally "Owhaywat" from the Yekwaupsum Reserve north of Squamish, British Columbia. His grandfather was Chief Khahtsahlano of Senakw who had migrated from his home at Toktakanmic on the Squamish River to Chaythoos, and the man from whom he inherited his name. The suffix "lan-ogh" in their name means "man".
Sen̓áḵw or sən̓aʔqʷ, rendered in English as Snawk, Snawq, Sneawq, or Snawkw, is a village site of the Indigenous Squamish people, located near what is now known as the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 1869 the Colonial Government set aside land around the village, and in 1877 the Joint Reserve Commission established by the Provincial and Federal Governments to deal with land allotments to indigenous people in B.C., expanded the area set aside to approximately 80 acres (32 ha) as False Creek Indian Reserve No. 6 or more popularly the Kitsilano Indian Reserve. The village site was home for many Squamish, but after further settlement began in the Vancouver area, the inhabitants were forced to relocate to other nearby villages. This village was also the home of August Jack Khatsahlano, a prominent chief of the Squamish and a notable Vancouver historian on local Indigenous history.
Ustlawn is a Squamish village community located on the shores of North Vancouver. The Squamish name Eslhá7an translates as head bay, denoted what used to be the farthest out reaching bay enclave in the Burrard Inlet. Its origin as a primary village goes back to the earliest missionaries in British Columbia with the St. Paul's Catholic Church being the oldest extant church in British Columbia, and a National Historic Site of Canada. It is also home to the Eslha7an Training Center, the Stitsma Employment Center, and the So-Sah-Latch Health and Family Centre. On the shores of the village is the Mosquito Creek Marina. The official name of the Indian reserve it is situated on is Mission Indian Reserve No. 1.
Squamish history is the series of past events, both passed on through oral tradition and recent history, of the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), a people indigenous to the southwestern part of British Columbia, Canada. Prior to colonization, they recorded their history orally as a way to transmit stories, law, and knowledge across generations. No writing system was ever created until the 1970s and was based on the Latin alphabet. Most of their history was passed down from one generation to the next. It was considered the responsibility of knowledgeable elders, and also considered very respectable to do so.
Khelsilem Tl’aḵwasiḵ̓an Sxwchálten, also known as Dustin Rivers, is an Indigenous Canadian politician and First Nations leader in British Columbia. He is serving his first term as councillor for the Squamish Nation Council. The youngest Councillor elected in the 2017 election, he topped the polls with the most votes and was appointed as one of two Official Spokespersons for the Squamish Nation Council. He serves on numerous Council committees including Finance & Audit, Governance, Human Resources, and chair the Planning & Capital Projects Committee, and deputy chair for the Rights & Title Committee and Climate Action Task Force.
