Yale/Fraser Canyon – Any small historical society outside of the large markets like Vancouver and Victoria are always at a disadvantage. Fighting for funds to stay afloat is always a challenge.
Management always seems to be in flux and that seems to be the case at the Yale Historic Site.
In a media release, tinged with some bitterness:
After 40 years of service, the Provincial Heritage Branch has removed Yale & District Historical Society (YDHS) as managers of Yale Historic Site, in favour of a mysterious organization with no experience of managing heritage sites, located 220km from Yale. The “mystierous organization” referred to is the Forager Foundation, based in Gibsons, 220km from Yale, and the Provincial Heritage Branch have admitted in discussions that they had no pre-existing experience of managing heritage sites. The Heritage Branch commented that one of the strengths of Forager Foundation is their experience in social media management, yet their Instagram account has no posts and only 71 followers.
The release goes on to state:
Yale Historic Site was created by the people of Yale and area, and a number of years ago was sold to the Government of BC for $1, with a good faith agreement that YDHS would continue to manage it. Despite this, towards the end of 2022, YDHS was asked to re-tender for the contract to manage Yale Historic Site.
The application process was based on a scoring system that was weighted most heavily on experience, and so – having managed the site for 40 years, and owning 95% of the museum’s artifacts and historical information displays– YDHS felt it was in a strong position. Their application was also reviewed by a certified heritage professional prior to submission, who deemed it to be a strong application. YDHS submitted several letters of support, including from Yale First Nation, Fraser Valley Regional District and Tourism Hope. A few weeks after submission YDHS was informed by Heritage Branch that they had been unsuccessful in their application, and instead, the contract had been awarded to Forager Foundation, without any Indigenous consultation.
The Heritage Branch have also asked the Society to consider selling or leasing their collection of artifacts to Forager Foundation. The YDHS membership has voiced significant concern over the future of their site and artifacts. In particular, Chief James Hobart of Spuzzum Nation commented, “there was absolutely no Indigenous consultation, which is required for such transactions or transfers of historical data and artifacts. This doesn’t have to include only First Nation items as all of the information is part of our collective history as well.”
In the spirit of reconciliation, the Government has agreed that it should not be telling the story of First Nations. YDHS has First Nations members on its Board and among its membership, and holds First Nations artifacts in its collection.
YDHS has submitted a formal complaint to Assistant Deputy Minister, Nick Grant, regarding the administration and outcome of the tendering process.
Yale Historic Site website: https://historicyale.ca/
On Friday evening (April 21) a petition to return the site to the Society was posted on change.org and other social media:
