Like many West Coast kids, David Gray spent his childhood exploring local shorelines and collecting small artefacts of a time before him.
But unlike his curious counterparts, Gray would learn the pottery and glass bottles he recovered from Tod Inlet near Brentwood Bay belonged to a now-vanished immigrant community B次元官网网址� the inspiration behind years of research and a new documentary for the filmmaker.
Gray became fascinated with the history of Chinese and Sikh workers who once lived in the area now within Gowlland Tod Provincial Park, while labouring in a cement mill and limestone quarry where Butchart Gardens is located today.
B次元官网网址淥ver the years, I would often go out and explore in that same area and found all kinds of treasures: Chinese pottery, bottles and different kinds of remnants from this working manB次元官网网址檚 community,B次元官网网址� said Victoria-raised Gray, who hails from Ottawa. B次元官网网址淏ut I was never able to satisfy my curiosity of who these people were, where they came from and what happened to them when the mill closed.B次元官网网址�
Gray reveals answers through archival materials, photographs, new footage of the area and descendant interviews in his film, Beyond the GardensB次元官网网址� Wall, which premiers at the Victoria Film Festival Feb. 12. He found the harsh immigration restrictions placed on families who came to Canada in the early 1900s B次元官网网址� including the inability to vote, become citizens or own land B次元官网网址� forced many people out, while other families endured, including that of Alan Lowe, former mayor of Victoria.
B次元官网网址淧ioneer immigrants went through all of that, survived and persisted,B次元官网网址� Gray said. B次元官网网址淭hey stayed in Canada, adapted to the Canadian way of life, were eventually able to bring their families here and over the years have made quite a tremendous contribution to the economic life of Canada, the social life of Canada and the descendants of those workers are now an important part of Canadian society.B次元官网网址�
During the making of the film, Gray returned some of the artefacts he had collected B次元官网网址� before the region became designated parkland in 1994 B次元官网网址� to the descendant families located.
B次元官网网址淭he wonderful thing for me was being able to connect with people who had a vague idea where their grandfather or their father had worked and they had some information about this individual and his life out there B次元官网网址� I was able to make that reconnection of people and place and that was exciting.B次元官网网址�
Also a writer and arctic researcher, Gray became a filmmaker in 2007 after having used film as a research tool. Beyond the GardensB次元官网网址� Wall is a 30-minute film funded by the Community Historical Recognition Program of the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration, a program aimed at recognizing the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by historical wartime measures and immigration restrictions applied in Canada.
The piece is one of four completed films for Gray, a collection which includes last yearB次元官网网址檚 Searching for the Sikhs of Tod Inlet and Canadian Soldier Sikhs (2011).
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a very moving film about a community of people that was virtually lost,B次元官网网址� he added.
