Heritage Inventory and Stories Collection

The Bowen Island Municipal Heritage Commission is pleased to announce the establishment of the Bowen Island Community Heritage Register, adopted by Municipal Council on January 11, 2021. This Register was developed in cooperation with the Bowen Island Heritage Preservation Association and the Bowen Island Museum and Archives, along with community members who provided feedback through this platform.

We are now seeking suggestions to build our heritage inventory, a list of places to consider as additions to the Register.

Please contribute your ideas, personal stories, and images to places suggested for the inventory (by commenting on an idea) and even suggest a place to go on the inventory (by posting a new idea). Your input is a vital part of the process of creating our Heritage Strategic Plan.

What is a heritage inventory?

A heritage Inventory is a list of places and practices that have heritage value, for information only. It does not have any legal ramifications, nor does it require action by Council to create or alter.

What belongs on a heritage inventory?

Something (such as a place, behaviour, event, or activity) with heritage values can be recognized in an inventory. It can include tangible (e.g., a building or landscape) and intangible (e.g., identity, continuity) heritage elements. A tangible heritage example could be the old cottage structures, whereas an intangible example could be the baseball leagues and associated games. An inventory is unlike a Heritage Register which only includes tangible places.

“Heritage consists of both landscape and the human imprint upon it. For the community, heritage means a sense of place and a sense of continuity, providing identity through connection with the past. Heritage is stewardship and is not only a gift to us, but is something that, when valued by the community, we are obliged to pass on. Bowen's heritage evolves from its archaeological values, especially from its native and marine heritage; its historic buildings and sites, and its natural and cultural landscape.”

– Bowen Island Official Community Plan, Section 9.1

Heritage values could be:

• Aesthetic – this place is aesthetically distinctive in some way considered significant and valuable
• Cultural – this place bears or bore cultural significance
• Spiritual – this place has some kind of spiritual importance
• Symbolic – this place bears symbolic importance
• Historic – something significant happened here, someone significant lived here
• Scientific – an important or representative scientific work took place here
• Industrial – an important industrial process happened here
• Community – memorable or important community activities took place here
• Architectural – this place reflects the built heritage of the past

Significance could reside in a place being:

• Representative – an example of something of which there are, or were, many examples
• Unique or rare – the only example of something
• Seminal – the first example of something
• Influential – important because it inspired, witnessed or marked change