In the mid 1840s, 50 years after first contact with Europeans, the Songhees people amalgamated on a reserve across the harbour from the newly built Fort Victoria. Grant Keddie tells the story of the old Songhees Reserve through the eyes of outsiders, expressed in newspaper reports and private journals, and depicted in sketches, paintings and photographs. Songhees Pictorial offers a rich visual history of the old Songhees Reserve, the people who lived there and the city that grew up around them.

This book features almost 200 archival images, many published for the first time, documenting Songhees history since first contact with Europeans. From watercolour paintings to sweeping panoramic photographs, these images show the changing architecture of the reserve and the city that engulfed it, they highlight potlatches and other events on the reserve, and they capture aspects of the everyday lives of residents and visitors. The author complements the visuals with a variety of quotations from newspapers, government documents and personal letters, and gives context to the whole story with his own lively narrative.

Grant Keddie has been curator of archaeology at the Royal BC Museum for more than 35 years, and has undertaken archaeological excavations in many parts of the province. He has a broad interest in the cultures of First Nations in BC, and has published numerous articles on ethnohistory and archaeology. Songhees Pictorial is his first book.

Grant Keddie's profile page