This weekend, I had two events in one to attend: the Pacific Northwest Labour History Association Conference and the Cumberland Miners’ Memorial Weekend. It has been a whirlwind of labour learning in a village that has become my favourite place on the Island. (Yesterday, I found myself wondering, “What’s the catch?” presuming it must be something like a Shirley Jackson style lottery.)
I arrived early and took in some guided tours of the museum and the town — Shawn and Kiddo joined me for the museum tour and lunch. The view above is a block and a half away from the museum with the beautiful mountains of Strathcona Park in the near distance.
I had virtually no knowledge of Cumberland’s past until this weekend so now my brain is swimming in new local history facts and new threads to follow up. At the centre of this weekend is mining history, and that history can’t be told without talking about Ginger Goodwin, “a worker’s friend.” He was integral to the two year long miners’ strike from 1912-1914 and was killed a few years later for being such a troublemaker.
Every year since 1986, the Cumberland Museum has organized the Miners’ Memorial which started as a day and grew into a weekend. All aspects of labour history are celebrated, with a special focus on “Songs of the Worker” along with a full graveside memorial at Ginger Goodwin’s grave. The memorial has grown to include “miners row” and ceremonies at the Japanese and Chinese cemeteries. So when I posted the photo below on social media this afternoon, one friend thought it was a “crazy party among the graves” and she wasn’t completely wrong.
There is a focus, among the speakers, on the inspiration we can draw from activists like Goodwin, and on the fights for workers rights and safe working conditions that continue to this day. More than one speaker mentioned the recent mining disaster in Turkey. There is also a celebration of solidarity. The event had representation from many unions and labour organizations — including a large number of IWW wobblies.
This year was the first time that the PNWLHA held its annual conference and meeting in Cumberland, and it was a challenge to find spaces and services for everyone but the village really pulled every possible string to make it happen. (At one point today there was a “perfect storm” of tech need — all five workshops needed digital projectors — and they managed!) The conference concludes tomorrow then I will return home… dreaming of the 1893 house just a block from the Village core that I fell in love with. It’s for sale, too….
