Local filmmaker Mia Golden will be premiering her latest project this February at the Victoria Film Festival.
Her latest project is called African Rifles, which is a documentary about Victoria’s first militia comprised of all Black refugees who sought asylum in Canada during a tumultuous time in the United States.
African Rifles explores the creation of the militia group and the challenges they faced as they simply tried to engage in protecting their new homeland.
The idea for this project first came to Golden while she was working on another piece, when a colleague told her about a police force in Victoria made up of all Black folks.
She was intrigued by this having never heard of it and decided to do some digging.
“I soon realized it wasn’t police, it was this militia,” Golden told Victoria Buzz.
“I started doing some more digging and I applied for a grant with [Telus] STORYHIVE and was successful.”
She brought on a long-time collaborator, Kelly Conlin, and the person who initially told her about the militia, Tarak Kjartanson, and together they all started digging further into what this militia was, how they came to be and why they disbanded.
The militia was called the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps, and it was made up of around 80 people at its peak during its active years, between 1860 and 1864.
Golden says their research revealed that in 1858, around 800 Black pioneers came to the city. Most began farming and working the land, but some of these newcomers wanted to form a group that could help protect their new home.
“What happened was they came from San Francisco because of concerns around slavery and freedom and all of that,” explained Golden.
She added that Sir James Douglas, who was biracial himself, was concerned about how vulnerable the newly-formed Fort Victoria was to annexation from the United States because of its location.
Sir Douglas ended up allowing the Pioneer Rifle Corps to form, but those who joined still faced hardships, regardless of the governor’s blessings.
Prior to the militia forming, some members tried to join the local fire brigade, but the white men who made up the brigade said they could not join because they were Black.
Through the four years the Pioneer Rifles were active, they had to navigate numerous obstacles because they were Black and they eventually disbanded because Sir Douglas’ successor as governor would not allow them to be a militia group.
“Initially, I thought the story was going to be about how welcoming Canada was compared to the US—you know we didn’t have slavery, but you quickly saw that there was racism and it was pretty significant,” explained Golden.
“I’m the type of person who always likes to think positively and I’m always looking for the good in people and I think that’s still primarily how people are, but at the same time, when you see these kinds of stories you realize that there is still a lot to be done.”
Golden and her colleagues in the African Rifles project found much of their research and the images that appear in the documentary through the Royal BC Museum, but also through the Saanich Pioneer Society Archives, located in Central Saanich.
There, a unique history that often goes untold in schools has been curated that tells the stories of many of the Black pioneers who immigrated to Victoria from San Francisco.
Golden says that the main challenge she faced while making this film was staying focussed on the Pioneer Rifle Corps as the subject of the film because all the stories she uncovered about the Black pioneers were so intriguing.
“It made me realize how many stories there are out there and how many I would like to do future stories on,” said Golden.
African Rifles is premiering at the Victoria Film Festival on February 12th and 16th. Its runtime is about 36 minutes and will be available online sometime in the near future.
