As D'Arcy Davis-Case unloaded her armload of things onto the table at the Gumboot Café, a photo of a nude hippie wearing nothing but a strategically placed giant cauliflower landed face up.
"Oops, better turn that over," she laughed.
Four volunteers are paying homage to the unique history of Roberts Creek by interviewing residents and scanning photographs and archival material for a permanent collection, with the help of funding from a provincial tourism grant through the Sunshine Coast Regional District.
Serena Eades, whose great-grandparents came to the Creek in the early 1930s and built the house where Eades was raised in the '80s, said the essence of the community has changed a lot - and not at all - over the decades.
"Change happens more cautiously here than in Sechelt or Gibsons," Eades said. "But it's always been about people getting together for a common cause."
Davis-Case, who has lived on the Coast for three years, said: "This is a community of free thinkers who live outside the norm. They are a smart and highly educated bunch trying to create something different. You have to really work at it to be considered eccentric here," she said.
Eades said, "It's ironic that it started with logging and grew to be quite an anti-logging community, but it's important to remember."
Eades and Davis-Case told stories about protests, work parties and the forming of the Roberts Creek Nation. They spoke about pioneering days when men went to work in the Britannia mine near Squamish or on the docks in Vancouver during the week and how the women would take care of one another through various organizations until the "daddy boat" arrived at the dock, the Union Steamship vessel that brought the fathers home for time off.
"Not everything about the history of a community is good," Eades said. She said there have been murders that took place years ago that people still won't talk about. There were draft dodgers from the United States from various wars who do not want to talk, and some of the old folks just think the past should be left in the past.
"We're trying to triangulate stories to protect identities. If we can get the same stories from three people then we can talk about it," Davis-Case said about off the record interviews.
"I'm not sure how you talk about what no one wants to talk about," Eades said, referring to marijuana growing in the community.
Eades said there are a handful of licensed, medicinal growers who are willing to have their stories be part of the history collection, but she still isn't sure how to broach the subject of pot being a long-running component of the culture and history of Roberts Creek without jeopardizing peoples' way of life who also won't talk on record.
The group is looking to include the history of the Roberts Creek area from the first peoples who occupied the region before white settlers arrived right up to including contemporary stories.
"I see the community changing. The demographics are different," Eades said, referring to the number of relatively new monstrous summer homes that she sees on her beach walks in the Creek.
"It's important to acknowledge when you move into a new space that there's a lot of history that's relevant to the present," she said.
If you have a story to tell or photo to share, call Serena Eades at 604-741-2935 or D'Arcy Davis-Case at 604-886-5999.
The official showing for the history project is Nov. 8 and 9 at the Roberts Creek Hall.
