Dave Flawse Dives Deeply into Vancouver Island History on His New Blog

Dave Flawse is a freelance journalist living in Union Bay, a graduate of Vancouver Island University and its Creative Writing program in 2021, he received the Rhonda Bailey Award in Publishing, the Pat Bevan Award for Fiction, and the Meadowlark Award for Fiction.

Raven Country News interviewed him yesterday about his new blog documenting Vancouver Island’s fascinating historical stories. He told us about the various other types of news stories he puts together,

“One is local interest, the other is the “Flying Dutchman” series, I get to do Indigenous platform, Island History, and book reviews! So within that I’ll be running new stories each month.”

You can find articles on his blog such as the tale of our own “Flying Dutchman”, an infamous pirate known for ravaging the coast of Vancouver Island, murdering a police officer in Union Bay (right near where dave lives), and eventually being hung in Nanaimo for his crimes.

“Cause you don’t even know, I drive up by that place everyday and there was a police officer murdered there! These stories are a little bit hidden unless you investigate”

Flawse profiles local historians, museum curators, and Indigenous knowledge keepers hoping to gather and feature history most locals might not even be aware of.

He discussed how historical investigation can have practical, legal purposes, such as when trying to determine historical land use for Indigenous land claims.

“Ill be reviewing Barry Goughs possessing Meares Island. He was a historian that was hired in the 1980’s to research the history of this island off of Tofino which was about to be logged. The Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council wanted to preserve it, so he had to go back through the complete history of this island to try to figure out if they had claim to it or if it was the property of the Government.”

Flawes most recently posted story, featured in Compass Magazine, features Wade Charlie, a ‘Nakwaxd'xw person and grandson of a Hereditary Chief, speaking about traditional fishing, harvesting, and food culture in his nation.

Which features a story of him returning seagull eggs, a traditional form of sustenance, back to his community.

“He brought a bunch of eggs back to the community, and the Elders told him ‘Oh we haven’t had seagull eggs since 1961!’ Since they were forced from their traditional homelands.”

We will be speaking with Dave Flawse on a regular basis to keep you in the loop on his investigations into Vancouver Islands deep history, thank you so much to him for the interview.

You can find the rest of his writing on his website DaveFlawse.com, or in the various publications that feature his work.