Chemainus, on Vancouver Island’s east shore, is a little town
snuggled in between a mountain range and the ocean, isolated
with a river cutting it off from the south and a major highway
to the north. A town that was born of the hands of labourers,
with its only industry failing, Chemainus showed the world its
true spirit and determination, and was to achieve fame through
the hands of artists. Such is the condensed recent history of
“The Little Town that Did.” Mining, fishing and forestry were
the original industries that gave work to many Chinese who
worked in “bull gangs” struggling to move huge lumber planks to
the ships in the late 1800′s, and who arrived to work on the
trans Canada Railroad later. Japanese, and later, east Indians
blended their cultures with Scots and Germans looking for riches
in the mines and staying to work in the forests and on fishing
boats. And the beautiful Cowichan Valley has been the home of
The Original First Nations peoples and their ancestors for
countless generations, whose h