[BCMA] Stories from the Graveyard of the Pacific at Sooke Region Museum

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

For Immediate Release:
Stories From the Graveyard of the Pacific at the Sooke Region Museum
Author Talk by Coll Thrush, Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific, University of Washington Press, 2025
Poetry reading, Wreck of the SS Valencia, Doni Eve, Sooke Writers Collective
120 years ago a tragic, historic, event occurred on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The SS Valencia was a 252-foot, iron hulled passenger steamer ship built in Philadelphia in 1882 and was owned by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. The ship was inspected on 6 January 1906 and had the capacity to carry 286 passengers, 7 lifeboats, 368 life preservers, all of which was found to be in good working order. The SS Valencia departed San Franciso on 20 January 1906, bound for Victoria, BC and Seattle, Washington. Due to the deteriorating weather with rain, fog, and strong winds, they missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and ran aground just south of Cape Beale on 22 January 1906. There were only 37 survivors and 136 lives were lost.
This event marked history because so many lives were lost so close to shore and the government of Canada was compelled to make major improvements to its West Coast Marine service. This included new lighthouses, detailed charting, improved rescue facilities, and better land and sea communications. But this shipwreck was only one of so many that happened in this place that has come to be known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.
The evening will begin at 7pm with a reading of her original poem, Wreck of the SS Valencia by Doni Eve.  DK Eve is an award-winning poet and author, and part of the Sooke Writers’ Collective. The author talk will follow the poetry reading.
In his new book, Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific, author Coll Thrush retells shipwreck stories to include colonial ambitions and Indigenous perspectives, using stories of maritime misfortune to consider larger themes of history in this place.  In Wrecked, Thrush uses the tides as a metaphor for the comings and goings of empire, ending with “Is the tide still coming in, or is it going out?” as a way to think about what might come after the interruption of settler colonialism.
Wrecked was recently selected as a winner in the 2026 Pacific Northwest Book Awards. The awards committee noted  ‘Meticulously researched, these stories tell of seafaring settlers and the personalized aftermath of disaster, exposing territorial ambitions and a shaping of the truth that the spoils may go to the victors. This is a groundbreaking and compassionate work and a valuable contribution to the historical canon of the Pacific Northwest’.
Coll Thrush is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia and founding co-editor of the Indigenous Confluences<https://uwapress.uw.edu/search-results/?series=indigenous-confluences> book series at the University of Washington Press. He is the author of Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place, a 2008 Washington State Book Award winner, and Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire.
The Museum Gift Shop & Visitor Centre will be open 9:30am to 7pm on Thursday 22 January, prior to the event that will take place fireside in the Events Pavilion.
Thank you to Woodside Farm for sponsoring this event and to BC Community Gaming and BC Arts Council for funding support.
Author Talks - Sooke Region Museum<https://sookeregionmuseum.ca/author-talks/>
Images:
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Attached, inserted images:
Coll Thrush
cover, Wrecked: Unsetting Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific, University of Washington Press



Michelle Richard

Executive Director
Sooke Region Museum & Visitor Centre

Mailing: PO Box 774, Sooke, BC V9Z 1H7

Street: 2070 Phillips Rd., Sooke, BC V9Z 0Y3

t. 250-642-6351  |  c. 778-922-6424
sookeregionmuseum.ca<https://sookeregionmuseum.ca/>



The Sooke Region Museum operates in the territories of the T’Sou-ke, Sc'ianew, and Pacheedaht peoples, who have inhabited this land since time immemorial.

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