UBC Press

📢 The WINNER of the BC Historical Federation Historical Writing Competition is George M. Abbott for “Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now”! 🏆

🎊 Congratulations George, on this incredible milestone and your recent appointment as Chief Commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission. What a full circle moment!

📙 “In British Columbia, land acknowledgements often refer to “unceded territory.” Yet many people remain uncertain about the history behind these words or their implications for the future of the province.

Unceded reveals the BC government’s history of injustice toward First Nations, providing the context for understanding the province’s current reconciliation efforts, including modern treaty negotiations. Treaty commissioner George M. Abbott combines archival research with a former cabinet minister’s insider perspective on government to chronicle over 150 years of BC-Indigenous relations. Abbott’s account details how early government officials refused to negotiate treaties and instead coerced First Nations onto small and scattered reserves while granting settlers access to vast tracts of land. Despite sustained Indigenous resistance, the situation only worsened as non-Indigenous demands for land and natural resources increased in the decades that followed.

It was only after several Supreme Court decisions affirmed Indigenous land rights that BC sat down at the negotiating table. More recently, the province has taken notable steps toward reconciliation, concluding modern treaties and passing legislation that acknowledges Indigenous rights. As Abbott shows, overcoming the legacy of colonialism is no small task, but achieving justice is worth the effort it takes.

This book is for readers of BC history, those who follow provincial politics, or anyone invested in the future of British Columbia. It is essential reading for elected officials and policy makers and will also appeal to scholars and students of Canadian history, political science, and Indigenous-settler relations.”

A Purich Books (UBC Press) publication.

📢 The results from the 2026 BC Historical Federation Writing Awards competition are in! Thank you to all the authors and publishers who submitted their historical works this year. Our adjudication committee was highly impressed.

To start off the book award announcements, we're delighted to share that three Honourable Mentions were granted:

⭐️ Larry Grant and Scott Steedman for Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong (ECW Press)
⭐️ Patricia E. Roy for John Hart: A Businessman in British Columbia Politics (UBC Press)
⭐️ Jim Wolf for Craigdarroch Reconstruction: The Story of the Castle’s Design and Construction (Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society)

🎊 Larry, Scott, Jim, and representatives from UBC Press (on Patricia’s behalf) accepted their certificates in person at the BCHF Awards Gala in Vancouver on May 30th.

📚 Learn more about these wonderful publications below:

• “Reconciling” is a personal and historical story of identity, place, and belonging from a Musqueam-Chinese Elder caught between cultures. Through a series of conversations between Larry and writer Scott Steedman as they visit pivotal geographical places together, Larry tells the story of his life, including his thoughts on reconciliation and the path forward for First Nations and Canada. His life echoes the barely known story of Vancouver and spans key events of the last two centuries.

• Diplomacy works better than bluster, as John Hart knew well. Hart, an Irish immigrant with a talent for compromise and a famously winning smile, was at the heart of BC politics during the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on government records, politicians’ papers, and newspaper reports, “John Hart” illuminates his remarkable achievements.

• “Craigdarroch Reconstructed” delves into the mysteries surrounding the design and construction of the Castle and its estate. It uses the stories of its owners, architects, contractors, and suppliers to piece together Craigdarroch's lost history.

Congratulations to Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross! “Challenging Exile” was awarded the W. Wesley Pue Book Prize by the Canadian Law and Society Association! 🥳

From the awards committee:

“Relying on original primary research, as well as interviews, Adams and Stanger-Ross develop a richly textured legal history that illuminates the immense scale of the policies under discussion, as well as their tangible impacts on individual people and families… ‘Challenging Exile’ is sophisticated, compelling, accessible, and important.”

About the book: https://www.ubcpress.ca/challenging-exile

Congratulations to George M. Abbott! “Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now” is a finalist for the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence. Congratulations and good luck to all the shortlisted authors and publishers. 🎉

Finalists will be featured at an event during the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts.

The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts is pleased to announce the finalists for the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence! You can learn about these fine books and meet the shortlisted authors--George Abbott, Sage Birchwater and Sarah Louise Butler--on Friday, August 14, at 2:00 pm at our BC Books Showcase event, moderated by Kathryn Gretsinger (Event #4).

We are incredibly honoured to have been chosen by Eurithe Purdy to be the administrator for this new literary award, which celebrates an outstanding BC-published and BC-authored book each year. For more information, visit https://writersfestival.ca/2026/shortlist-announced-for-the-inaugural-al-and-eurithe-purdy-bc-award-for-excellence/