Richmond teacher, Musqueam relations director urge more teaching about Garry Point longhouse history

The Story

W.D. Ferris Elementary teacher Tanya Blumel and Mary Point, director of Indigenous relations at YVR with the Musqueam Nation, are calling for greater public education about Indigenous history at Garry Point Park as Truth and Reconciliation Day is marked Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Blumel said she noticed there was rarely anything in the park area, including around Scotch Pond, that tells visitors Musqueam families once lived there. She said she had learned about the longhouses that housed Musqueam families in Garry Point, but realized there was a major gap in local knowledge when she was walking there with a 25-year-old Richmond resident who had attended public schools without learning of the longhouse history. Blumel said the issue begins with the fact that it was always unceded territory where Musqueam families lived.

She added that while Steveston’s cannery and fishing heritage is widely covered, she believes less is shared about Musqueam and First Nations as “the river’s first fishers,” and she said students and visitors should learn the history of the place they grow up in and explore. Blumel said her class each year begins by learning about Turtle Island and pre-contact history and then moves to Orange Shirt Day, with students becoming eager to ask questions about residential schools, racism, and why such events were allowed to happen.

Point said Garry Point is family history for her community. She said her family primarily lived at the Musqueam village of q̓ʷeyaʔχʷ on the land now called Garry Point, and that under colonial rule the family’s identity was rewritten, including becoming known as “the Indians from the Point” after Garry Point replaced the original place name. Point said when her family was required to take a legal surname, it became Point.

Point said part of her family’s story is told at Point House in the Britannia Shipyards, next to the Chinese bunkhouse where photographs of her great-grandfather are on display. She described feeling connected to the place through seeing images her ancestors would have recognized, and said she considers colonization’s impacts through her father and his siblings being taken to St. Paul’s Residential School and separated from her grandparents. She said her perspective on her grandchildren’s lives today is shaped by that history, and she described walking the shoreline with them while learning plant names and some of the language that was banned for her father.

Point said she welcomes the opportunity to see what could be done to honour Garry Point’s Indigenous heritage. Blumel said it would be nice to see more educational signage or event structures, along with public information throughout the park about its history as q̓ʷeyaʔχʷ, a formal recognition for a sacred burial site near Scotch Pond, and the rebuilding of a traditional longhouse as a living cultural and educational landmark. She said some Musqueam sites are “deliberately left unmarked” to prevent vandalism.

In her remarks, Blumel said a longhouse rebuilding initiative could serve as an educational resource for Richmond students, residents and visitors while fulfilling responsibility to honour the enduring history and legacy of Indigenous peoples in the community. Point said hearing about the suggestions made her happy, and she said a reminder of where longhouses once stood, along with a museum exhibit showing how her people lived, would be meaningful.

For Richmond students, Point said, “I think our spirit is still here in the land, in the earth, in the water. We've always been here, but we're here together. It's all part of this place we collectively call our home,” adding, “(Truth and Reconciliation Day) is a time to share culture with one another, to remember that there was a time when we were all living here happily, and then newcomers came and wanted to change everything. But we’re still here and we’re still true to who we are.”