Gertrude Lawson House exhibit

THE OPENING of the
Cannery Days exhibit at West
Vancouver’s museum. and
“archives felt like a reunion.

By Maureen Curtis
Contributing Writer

Staff at Gertrude Lawson House
were happy “to see people who
--hadn’t seen each other in decades
- laugh ‘and reminisce about the days

when they labored together at one .

of West Vancouver's first industries.
J Municipal and museum staffers.
“volunteers and politicians joined
Canadians of Japanese and First
“Nations ancestry, who, had a strong
“interest in the early days of British
Columbia's: fishing and canning
industry.
Many. of : them “worked, were

sraised, or were born at’ West’ ”
ator of the main Cannery Days
“exhibit and.a -fourth-generation

“.Mancouver’s Great _ Northern

Cannery,

The. “walled city” had existed’.
on the coast near Sandy Cove since

the 1800s.

None of the. cannery buildings, /
remain on the site.

The land was purchased by the
Department of Fisheries and
Oceans for research in 1968. By
that time, many came to view with
disdain the hodgepodge of industri-
al buildings in the midst’ of what
had become a residential West
Vancouver area. i

And yet the camnery dated to
1885 and exemplified “British
Columbia’s early history of
resource extraction and export of
ray natural resources.

Fish’ was .exported from the
province in thé 1830s. The industry
prompted the establishment of can-
neries (some mobile) on the coast.

The work, which was seasonal
even then, atiracted native workers,
mainly women..

According to Pam Brown, cre-

See Plant page 18°

Wedinesday, Decembar 19,

© WORKERS AT the Great t Northern Cannery in West

celebrate the e sale of Victory bonds In 1944. .

Now aecak b December 24, Lynn Valley Centre will ting with the sound of
Yuletide choirs and Classic Christmas catols. Come i in today and sample our

i “service begins
«December 2 at . soe

Vancouver

1995 - -Nofth 8 re News - 47

L Your Naropa: A
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