photo: Dag Goering
Harmonious Sointula
Established as a Finnish utopia, this historical village on Malcolm Island retains a simple authenticity.
It’s been 20 years since my first visit to Malcolm Island. As the ferry pulls into Sointula, the island’s main settlement, I think, Nothing has changed. There along the beach are the same old net sheds on pilings and wood-sided cottages with brightly coloured roofs. The 1909 co-op store anchors the tiny “downtown.” There are no condos in sight, no new housing sprawl, no traffic lights, and hardly any traffic. I’ve returned, it seems, to a place suspended in time.
If you’re looking for a taste of authentic coastal life, without the usual tourist trappings, there’s no better place than Malcolm Island. For centuries, this was a seasonal base for the Kwakwaka’wakw people, who harvested the island’s plentiful berries, clams, and fish. In the late 1880s, the first European settlers who tried to make a life here were defeated by the isolation and ferocious winter storms. In 1901, however, a group of hardy Finnish émigrés set up a thriving utopian community based on socialist principles. Following charismatic leader Matti Kurikka, they founded Sointula, their “place of harmony,” cleared forests, and established homesteads.
Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine
