Spring 2008 Volume 22 - No. 1 - BC BookWorld

35 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008He went through 31 arrests andabout nine marriages before dying in anIndiana prison. My mother’s family frequentlyreminded me that I was “just likehim,” and refused to call me by my firstname, Jay, opting instead for my middlename Nathaniel. “It’s just like namingyour kid after Clifford Olson,” said oneaunt.I never knew him, he was in prisonbefore I was born. I only met him oncewhen I was 21. When I was a teenager Iresented any connection to him and almostwent through a legalname change.At the age of 26 I don’tfeel any closer to my fatherbut I do feel a deep affinitywith the name he chosefor himself. The nameChristopher is no longersomething that I inheritedfrom him. It’s the name onmy diplomas and degree.It’s my byline as a journalist.It’s a name I’ve mademy own. It’s an inseparablepart of my identity thatI’m not about to change. Sir Francis DrakeBritish Columbia is alsoa part of my identity. I’m a fifth-generationBritish Columbian on my mother’sside. We’ve had this name for 150 yearsand it’s known around the world. WhenI travel abroad nearly everyone I encounterhas either been to British Columbiaor has a family member who has. Theyassociate the name “British Columbia”with the people, land and history wechoose to present.Nathaniel ChristopherBurnabyNEW ALBION?Generating discussion about renamingBritish Columbia is an excellent idea.I happen to think that the name “BritishColumbia,” which Queen Victoriachose a century-and-a-half ago, hasserved us well, all things considered, butagree that it now sounds ‘veddy colonial’and old hat.It’s all very well for the provincial capital,Victoria, to have a newspaperquaintly called The Colonist, but let’s rememberthat Vancouver, besides beingthe only Canadian city mentioned inJames Joyce’s still futuristic Finnegan’sWake, is also the westernmost metropolisin the Western Hemisphere, hence apivotal point in the greater scheme ofthings.With these thoughts in mind I dohave a suggestion for a new name. Wecould do a lot worse than go back to thefirst recorded name possibly applied bya European to this territory (or, rather,its southwestern corner)—New Albion.After spending some six weeks duringthe summer of 1579 careening hisship, the Golden Hinde (which had itselfundergone a name-change uponentering the Pacific) preparatory to continuingon his epic voyage around theworld, which, unlike his predecessorMagellan, he was able to complete inperson, master-mariner Francis Drakebestowed the name New Albion on Pacificcoastal territory.Exactly where Drake applied thename remains open to dispute, but weknow from the Diary of the GoldenHinde’s chaplain, Francis Fletcher, thatDrake chose the name New Albion fortwo reasons: “the one in respect of thewhite bancks and cliffs which lie towardsthe sea; the other, that it might have someaffinity even in name also with or ownecountry, which was sometimes so called.”Drake’s men nailed a brass plate ontoa wooden post with an inscription mentioningNew Albion incised thereon anda round hole with an English sixpenceshowing through from the other side,to which it was soldered. (Albion, theeponymous name of a giantin ancient British mythology,comes from theLatin albus, meaningwhite.)Following two recentbooks—the second anaugmentation of thefirst—by Sam Bawlf concerningDrake’s “secretvoyage,” I am one of thosewho choose to believe thatNew Albion was, in allprobability, hereabouts.The Drake-Hondius mapof New Albion, in myopinion, matches BoundaryBay better than anywhere else alongthe Northwest Coast, and (to cite a lesswell-known piece of evidence that hasrecently come my way) since the fort “atthe foot of a hill” which Fletcher aversDrake and his men built upon their arrivalwould have to have been near freshwater,it was probably in the region ofwhat is now Crescent Beach at themouth of the Nicomekl River.The site might have impinged onnative fishing rights, and nearby hillyOcean Park has a street named IndianFort Road to commemorate the locationof a palisaded Indian fort, perhaps astructural descendant of Drake’s fort,and leaving ruins known to have beenthere within living memory.Albion eventually became a poeticalname for England found in the worksof (among others) Spenser, Shakespeareand William Blake. There is an ancillaryScottish legend about a giant named‘Albyn’ which may go back to the Albanians,who seem to have shared with theirCeltic counterparts a love of ruggedmountains, kilts and bagpipes, if not ofoatmeal. Myth tends to be timeless aswell as inclusive, at least this one does,and in Blake’s illuminated epic poem Jerusalem,Albion symbolized the fall andregeneration of mankind.Of course my new name suggestion,if adopted, would entail other changes.BC BookWorld would have to becomeNA BookWorld. And ICBC would becomeICNA—short for “I see NewAlbion,” another way of saying, “I seethe Promised Land.”Warren StevensonWhite RockLetters or emails contact:BC BookWorld,3516 W. 13th Ave.,Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3email: bookworld@telus.netLetters may be edited forclarity & length.STILLCOUNTINGTHE RINGSAn Autobiographyby W.G. “Gerry” BurchThis biography will amuse, educate, enlighten and even mildlyshock you.Still Counting the Rings provides a history of the growth ofthe forest industry in BC and views the development of forestpolicies through the eyes of one of Canada’s most recognizedforesters.Gerry’s recollections, antidotes, and descriptions of earlycruising in the late 1940’s is a must read and his opinions onsome notable characters in the industry are valuable reading.Special Price: $29.95 (plus $9.00 shipping)Available through Bjork PublishingTo order e-mail: bertosanderson@hotmail.comRECENT TITLES FROMcanada’s new independent publisherPetros SpathisFiction by ManolisA gripping story set in a country steepedin history, in an era when Greece wasgoverned by a military tyranny. This isan era that few outsiders knew muchabout, but that bore down hard on thosewho lived, loved and cared for theirprecious land.Prairie RootsMemoir by Michael ZrymiakIliarjukAn Inuit Memoir by Dracc DrequeWe pay double royalties to the year’sbest-selling author. To find out more visitA passionate accounting of the childhoodand teen years of one son of EasternEuropean immigrants who settled andbroke land in Saskatchewan. This life,like so many lives of the children of theGreat Plains, reveals a profound love offamily, of nature and of the prairies.This first-hand account of contemporarylife in a small Inuit community on BaffinIsland paints a raw, painful, disturbing,hilarious, lyrical, provocative andeye-opening picture that is a testimonyto the courage and sheer determinationof its author.