Cadboro Bay
Cadboro Bay is located on the southernmost end of Vancouver Island, roughly eight kilometers from downtown Victoria. The Songhees First Nation calls the bay “Sungyaka”, which means snow patches, and it is a significant early village site, primarily used in the winter for fishing.1 The bay is traditional Songhees territory and is a part of the Douglas Treaties of the mid 1800's.2 The name Cadboro, also spelled as Cadborough, comes from the first regular HBC trading ship on the coast of British Columbia.3 Both the Chekonein and the Chilcowith are families within the Songhees Nation and occupied the area, but Douglas did not see this territory sharing as practical, and declared the Chekonein as the sole owners of Cadboro Bay.4 This site was used by settlers even before Fort Victoria was established.5
The Songhees lived in Cadboro Bay until 1843-44, when they left to the bank of Victoria Harbour in order to be closer to Fort Victoria, as the HBC were very influential trading partners.6 As the population of Fort Victoria grew larger, the Songhees were moved a number of times in order to accommodate settler land needs.7 In 1911, the government of British Columbia financially compensated the Songhees as part of the move to the New Songhees Reserve.8 Cadboro Bay is a part of B.C.'s modern treaty process: it is included in negotiations of the Te'mexw Treaty Association.9 The Songhees members of this particular treaty are former Douglas Treaty constituents.10
  • 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 98.
  • 2. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations, Songhees Nation, Province of British Columbia.
  • 3. Scott, Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names, 98.
  • 4. Wilson Duff, The Fort Victoria Treaties, BC Studies 3, (1969): 46.
  • 5. Ursula Jupp, Cadboro: A Sip, A Bay, A Sea-Monster (Victoria: Morriss Printing Company LTD, 1988), 19.
  • 6. John S. Lutz, Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-white Relations. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008), 73.
  • 7. Ibid.
  • 8. Ibid. 50.
  • 9. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations, Songhees Nation, Province of British Columbia.
  • 10. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations, Songhees Nation, Province of British Columbia.
Mentions of this place in the documents
People in this document

Douglas, James

Places in this document

British Columbia

Vancouver Island

Victoria

Victoria Harbour