The impressions of a community frozen in time is what inspired Guy Taylor to research the historical Finnish Settlement in Richmond known as Finn Slough. Winner of Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s 2023/2024 Robert Lemon Heritage Studies Prize, Taylor’s report showcases how the community’s development is intertwined with major aspects of B.C.’s history – immigration, labour rights, the fishing industry and, most importantly, the question of what defines a legitimate settlement.

“I personally find it a very beautiful, a very unique space,” says Taylor. “Culturally, in Vancouver, we have a real reputation of not thinking too much about the value of our history.”

Returning to the past

Taylor first came across the stilted houses of Finn Slough during long weekend walks with his family. Curious to discover its backstory, he embarked on a year-long research project, digging up newspaper and city archives as well as blogs and books on B.C.’s history. According to his research, Finn Slough’s inhabitants were part of the late 19th century and early 20th century trend of Finnish migration to North America following the Russification of Finland.

“There were a lot of really severe domestic policies that were imposed on Finland which made it very difficult to live and work there,” he explains.

According to Taylor, these immigrants were predominantly single men with fishing, forestry or mining experience. Because American working conditions were harsh, many decided to move up North. They first settled in Woodward’s Slough, along the Fraser River, before relocating to Finn Slough on the Fraser River’s south arm in Richmond.

“[There was] this understanding that, with the money you could make in America, you could come to Canada and get land and live a more agrarian approach – similar to what they had in Finland,” Taylor says.

While he intended to speak with the community’s members, his attempts to make contact were unanswered. For Taylor, the community’s self-sufficiency and isolation from the broader society is evident throughout its history.

Understanding land ownership

“There’s a real sense in slough of inclusion and trying to protect from attacks from the outside,” he says.

He notes that this ‘us versus the world’ narrative came about through the communities’ historic and modern challenges with land expropriation, real estate development and even language exclusion – the Canadian government labelled Finnish as an “enemy language” in 1918. Taylor also points to a 1912 court case actioned by one of Finn Slough’s residents against the government’s expropriation of his land to build city roads.

“The city was very much ‘this is an immigrant, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,’” he adds. “It speaks to a more general mentality that new immigrants would have found themselves subjected to if they weren’t English.”

Using translators, the Finn Slough resident eventually won the case and was awarded fair compensation for the land. Taylor notes that the community’s complex relationship with different levels of the government can be traced to the settlement’s architectural development. Because purchasing land from local surveyors was expensive and structures that were half on land and half on water may be recognized as being on Crown land, the settlers’ stilted houses evoke interesting questions about ownership. The story of Finn Slough embodies a broader discussion of what defines a settlement or a squatter community in B.C.’s history.

“Do you view landownership as I paid x amount of money and I hold a piece of paper that says this point to this point belongs to me,” he explains, noting the imperialist and colonial implications. “Or do you view landownership as I am on this land, I am using this land and I’m raising a family here?”

Taylor notes that the Finn Slough community is also vulnerable to climate change and aging demographics. He shares how recent reports have noted the local government’s refusal to provide the community with climate change protections – due to their status on Crown land.

“There is an understanding in the city’s eyes that this is a special area that has a lot of historical weight,” he says. “But at the same time, there is a reluctance to bring this site into the folds of the city of Richmond’s official heritage register.”

For more information, see www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/grants/robert-lemon-heritage-studies-prize