Linda Dorricott and Deidre Cullon are researchers and writers with academic backgrounds in anthropology. Throughout their careers they have worked with more than twenty Vancouver Island First Nations. Their research supports treaty negotiations, aboriginal land and resource use, archaeology, the development of First Nation libraries and legal actions. The editors work as much as possible with primary sources. They believe a story is best told by the person who lived it, and that the careful reading of a handwritten manuscript, almost an anomaly in our era, may be the closest we come to hearing the past spoken. The editors were raised on Vancouver Island and live in Nanaimo. They have a special interest in the Island’s colonial history and how colonial and aboriginal cultures interacted, understood and misunderstood each other. Captain Richards’ journal richly illustrates such an interaction.
The journal was obtained during a research trip to England in 2006 and its publication was made possible with the authorization and assistance of the owner, Donal Channer.