St. John’s College is honoured to welcome Ms. Margaretta James as the College Visiting Scholar-in-Residence for 2023/24.
Photo: Margaretta James taken at the Founders’ Formal Dinner in November 2022
Biography
A mother, grandmother and great grandmother of Filipino and Stl’atl’imx roots, Margaretta James has lived with the Mowachaht/Muchalaht nation of the Nuu-chah-nulth people for the past several decades in Yuquot (colonially known as Friendly Cove or Nootka Sound). Margaretta’s community work includes Indigenous education, heritage preservation and cultural interpretation. She formerly served as Band Manager for the Mowachaht Band Council, and as the President of the Land of Maquinna Cultural Society for over twenty years; her work has included Canadian historic site awareness, repatriation and global cultural tourism. In addition, she also has been working on the Yuquot Centennial 2023, Summer Youth tour training program, the community garden and advocating for Elder and intergenerational community wellness.
While Ms. James continues to reside at Tsaxana on British Columbia’s West Coast, she is currently enrolled in the Master’s program with the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at UBC, which will focus on bringing together Margaretta’s existing and ongoing body of work with academic study to explore the relationship between Indigeneity and Asian Migrations to the west coast of North America. Ms. James will be staying at the College several times a month during her studies.
Published:
“My Transpacific Life” has appeared in Unsettling the Islands: Race, Indigeneity and the Transpacific. Special Issue of BC Studies 204 (Winter 2019/2020): 139-150.
Margaretta is involved in current talks to repatriate the Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine that is in possession of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine
