Barkerville
Barkerville is one of my favorite places to visit. It is easy to get lost in imagining day to day life in this gold rush town, with its rough and tumble colonies and the possibility of fame and fortune with the strike of a pick axe. The area itself is beautiful, which seems to lend itself to the atmoshere of days past as unspoiled territory. My enjoyment of this place inspired my rsearch topic, Colonial Perceptions on the Role of the Chinese During the Gold Rush in Barkerville. I chose to focus on the Chinese experience based on my passion for social justice issues, which I believe firmly applies to the treatement endured by this popukation in the colonies during the Gold Rush.
I am particularily drawn to the cemetaries in this area. They are peaceful, welcoming spaces that invite the imagination to wonder about the lives of those buried there. Who were they? Why did they die, and why so young? What heartache did their passing bring to their families and communities, and how did they cope with the loss? And of the unmarked graves, I take solace in knowing that many people have visited upon your place of rest.
My document analysis Doc analysis 2 – TPL was nearly a complete bust. I did manage to select a primary document, which in this case was an excerp from the Royal Commssion on the Chinese. However, for the essay, I used secondary documents in order to make sense of it, rather than use my own investigative skills and imagination to decipher the text from Matthew Begbie. Thankfully, I was able to redo the document analyses, and use the misapplied efforts towards my main research paper.
Belshaw makes a convincing argument that in taking any document at face value we risk a skewed perspective that may or may not serve to explain the relatively fragile ‘truth’ of past happenings in Canada, and how it informs the present. The author suggests that one must look at what primary and secondary sources were used to inform historical writing; primary sources may come directly from individuals from the past, whereas secondary sources are those that are produced in order to interpret primary sources (such as diaries, government documents, newspapers, etc). We are asked to consider what filter or lens has been applied in order to produce these interpretations, an in doing so, we are better equipped to critically think about other historical information we are presented with.
My research paper revealed to me that Canada has a long history of oppressive practices and attitudes, not just at the social level, but at all levels of governemnt. My social work degree has challenged my perceptions of history with regards to Indigenous and First Nations populations, and now I can see that other cultures and ‘races’ have suffered injustices as well. The Caribou Gold Rush was a hotbed of protectionist practices, aimed at safeguarding the success of white men over all others.