On Kwikwetlem territory, a new vision for Riverview
The Riverview Lands, on the slope above the Coquitlam River, were known as a storied place.
Settlers will remember the area most for its mental health facility, which the province began work on in 1904. It had an extensive garden and was near the Colony Farm, where patient labourers once produced up to 700 tonnes of crops and 20,000 gallons of milk per year.
Chief Ed Hall of the Kwikwetlem First Nation says his mother, now 75, has a lot of memories of the Riverview community from a convenience store she used to visit to the grounds she explored with her friends.
But for the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm people, their relationship with the site dwarfs colonization by about 9,000 years. Before the site became part of the City of Coquitlam, they knew it as a lush spot for food, medicine, ceremony and, due to its high elevation, a refuge during floods and raids by other communities, said Hall.
After the Riverview Hospital officially closed in 2012, the province and Kwikwetlem First Nation, with help from the public, worked on envisioning the site’s future.
Some major announcements for the site came last month: a new name in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the downriver dialect of the Salishan language Halkomelem, and some land returned to the nation’s hands after more than a century.
Taiwanese man s iPhone returned one year after it fell into lake
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A Taiwanese man surnamed Chen said his iPhone still works after spending a year at the bottom of Sun Moon Lake. Photo by aixklusiv/Pixabay.com
April 7 (UPI) A Taiwanese man who dropped his iPhone into a lake while paddleboarding said the phone was recovered when a drought caused the water to recede a year later and it still works.
The phone s owner, a man with the surname Chen, posted in the Bao Fei 1 Commune group on Facebook that he dropped his iPhone 11 Pro Max into Sun Moon Lake while he was paddleboarding on March 15, 2020.
“While the site is being used to provide healing services for people, it has the potential to touch many more lives through delivery of more mental health services, recognition and preservation of natural features, opening safe and affordable housing and developing a complete community,” said David Eby, Attorney General and the BC Minister Responsible for Housing, in a statement.
“We look forward to working with the Kwikwetlem First Nation to create a plan with the community for the site’s future.”
Riverview Hospital (Sumiqwuelu) in Coquitlam. (BC Housing)
To kick off the planning process, the lands have gained the name of Sumiqwuelu, meaning “the place of the great blue heron” in the traditional language of the Kwikwetlem people. The site was previously a roosting ground for the great blue heron due to its proximity to what was previously the Coquitlam River floodplain.
iPhone returns to B.C. owner after eight months of seafaring from mainland to Gulf Islands Hunter Hoffman lost his phone last July when the dingy he was in capsized on Coquitlam River; it washed up on a Mayne Island beach eight months later.
Author of the article: Gordon McIntyre
Publishing date: Mar 09, 2021 • March 11, 2021 • 3 minute read • Hunter Hoffman shows a photograph of his lost phone on his replacement phone at his home in Port Coquitlam. Lost while he was rafting on Coquitlam River, it washed ashore on Mayne Island eight month later. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG
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When their raft flipped and threw its three occupants into the Coquitlam River last July, the kids were battered a bit by the turbulence and rocks, but they were OK.