27 September 2016, Tuesday
Our day begins with delicious apple-cinnamon-walnut-maple cream cheese pancakes at Jam Restaurant. Followed by laundry. Followed by a trip to Victoria’s MEC. We also go on a pie acquisition expedition and find the Victoria Pie Shop. We order a small apricot-apple pie to be shared on the ferry back to Washington, and a large apple-blueberry pie to be shared later with S and K. Said pies to be picked up Wednesday afternoon.
By now it is almost 3 pm. We decide to buy tickets for the Royal BC Museum, even though we only have two hours to explore. The second floor of the museum is devoted to the natural history of British Columbia, much of it information we have seen elsewhere. The third floor is devoted to the aboriginal peoples of British Columbia and particularly to the importance of their languages and the efforts being made to pass these languages on to younger generations. We learn again what an unfathomable tragedy the native peoples have experienced through the efforts of the British and later the Canadian governments to wipe out their language and culture. It was not until 1996 that the last “Indian school” was closed, despite the fact that the mortality rate of the children torn from home, culture and family was 40%! (First Nations parents in the US won the right to keep their children out of Indian Schools in 1978, very recently indeed!) Fluent speakers of native languages for many of these peoples now number less than 5% of the population, and in many cases only 1-2% of the remaining people. And yet, the struggle continues to pass on to future generations the richness of their culture, language and spiritual approach to the world.
From the museum we walk to Spinnaker Gastro Pub and Brewery for some fine food and beer. On our return trip we watch a beautiful sunset over Victoria’s Harbour and then, of course, stop at Choco Fan for another round of ice cream and chocolate ganache.
