One River, Two Cultures
A History of the Bella Coola Valley

Archival photographs
Contemporary images by Rick James
Published by Harbour Publishing

 

One River, Two Cultures is a re­mark­able story of hu­man en­dur­ance and of a people’s re­la­tion­ship with the raw, phys­ic­al land­scape around them.
Starting with the pre­his­tory of the Nuxalk First Nation, Paula doc­u­ments the ar­rival and im­pact of the valley’s first white in­hab­it­ants, and the rough and ready mix of “out­siders” who em­braced the chal­lenge of liv­ing in a re­mote wil­der­ness area on the Central Coast of British Columbia. This book will take you to a place that is both strik­ing in beauty and rich in culture.

Paula spent eight years trav­el­ling between her home in the Comox Valley to the Bella Coola Valley to re­search this book. “I met some quirky char­ac­ters and made some last­ing friend­ships,” she says. “That re­mote val­ley will al­ways have a spe­cial place in my heart.”

One River Two Cultures: A History of the Bella Coola Valley may be pur­chased at in­de­pend­ent book stores and through Amazon and Chapters. Paula is also happy to auto­graph and mail books. Email Paula for details.

A Vancouver Sun BC Bestseller

Canada Council grant to research First Nations ooligan fishery

Reviews:

“One River, Two Cultures is a thor­oughly re­searched, de­tail-rich and highly per­son­able piece of B.C. his­tory.” Jennifer Van Evra, Vancouver Review.

“One River steps up to the plate in a big way. The au­thor uses archiv­al pho­to­graphs and in­form­a­tion gleaned from loc­al res­id­ents and the com­munity archives, and sets a new bench mark for the region’s defin­it­ive his­tory.” Sage Birchwater, Coast Mountain News.