Kamloops students help clean up Chinese cemetery after learning about atrocities by Canadian government in 1800s

KAMLOOPS — In the 1880s, construction of the the Canadian Pacific Railway began, an essential piece to connecting the country. Much of the work on the Yale-Kamloops line was done on the backs of about 17,000 Chinese people, who were shipped in from Hong Kong.

They faced treacherous working conditions, but never received the recognition they deserved.

It’s a history lesson Mrs. CJ’s Grade 4/5 class from the Kamloops School of the Arts has been taking in, but they wanted to do more than just learn it in a textbook — they wanted to go out in the field.

“We tried to look at some local heritage that was connected to that, so we came to the Chinese cemetery,” said Mrs. CJ, also known as Claire Covington. “The students looked around and say ‘Hey, I think we could do something here.’”

On Wednesday, the students spent the morning re-painting the symbols in front of the burial sites, as well as landscaping to make the cemetary look nice.

The students wanted to put their learning into practice after hearing about the atrocities against the Chinese people.

“We learned a lot about the Canadian Pacific Railway and how many people died and what the Chinese workers went through,” said students Owen Obington and Theo Strome, who did a heritage project specifically on the Chinese railroad workers. “Whites got paid two times as much, they were injured and got to go to the hospital, but the exact opposite with the Chinese.”

There are roughly 250 Chinese Canadians buried at the Kamloops Chinese Cemetery. While they are not family members of anyone currently living in the city, their burial sites are still important to the Chinese community.

“These are the ones that are the Chinese group in Kamloops, so still counted as our ancestors,” said President of the Kamloops Chinese Freemason Association Elsie Cheung. “They have done a lot, devoted so much time for Canada and the Chinese.”

Chinese men came to B.C. to help build the railroad. They were often put in more dangerous situations, dealing with the dynamite, while also being paid less — $1 a day versus up to $2.50 a day for the Caucasian labourers.

After the railroad was finished, the men, who didn’t have much money to go back home, settled in B.C. and eventually died here. At the time, Chinese people were not permitted to be buried on civic land.

However, in the 1880s, George Bower, a local rancher who had Chinese labourers, wanted them to have a proper burial site. He donated the land on which the cemetery current sits, creating a space to honour the Chinese people who made great sacrifices for Canada.

The students from KSA honoured them further with Wednesday’s clean-up. For the Kamloops Chinese Freemason Association and the Kamloops Chinese Cultural Association, the efforts by the students are very much appreciated.

“The two groups have been looking after the cemetary for years, so when Claire from the arts school contacted me, it was so nice to have the kids be involved with this heritage project,” said Cheung.

Covington plans to carry the clean-up project forward every day for her future classes.