Bunkhouses

Photo of a bunkhouse and cookhouse, Youbou, BC for the South Asian labourers.

Newspaper clipping titled, A task for the union, published in The B. C. Lumber Worker.

Creator: Gold, Wilmer

Group photo 66 lumber mill workers from the British Columbia Forest Products community in Youbou, B.C. The workers are posed in 4 haphazard rows amidst the sawmill equipment and piles of lumber at a log deck[?].

Creator: Gold, Wilmer

Photo of a bunkhouse and cookhouse for the South Asian labourers at Industrial Timber Mills Ltd, Youbou, B.C.

Creator: Banga, Nand Singh

Interview with Mr. Nand Singh Banga. Mr Nand Singh Banga moved to Canada in 1906 when he was 14 years old with his father. His father used to work as green chain lumber sorters. Nand Singh used to pick up cordwood waste so it would not be in the way. He used to work for fifteen cents per hour in the year 1920. Around that time, there was a minimum of 100 men in the Sikh community. Nand Singh describes a time when the cars were driven on the left side of the road. In the building they lived in, 56 people lived in the one building, all of whom did all their chores. After the families came to Canada, they then started living in the house that was bought by the lumber company. Nand Singh returned to India in 1924 for his wedding to Dan Kaur then returned to Canada in same year. This is a full length interview which was recorded on January 4th, 1994. Nand Singh Banga is speaking in Punjabi and his son is acting as an interpreter between the interviewer and Nand Singh.