short excerpt from Unceded about its authour, George Abbott

Mr Abbott writes in his Prologue:

After leaving elected office in 2013, I further explored British Columbia history of Indigenous relations during doctoral studies in political science at the University of Victoria. I enjoy archival research, and what I learned from the documents in the Royal BC Museum and Archives, Library and Archives Canada, and elsewhere underscored the persistence of colonial policies and prejudice throughout our history. My archival research led to the publication of an article in 2017 in the journal BC Studies, which now stands as a vital foundation for Unceded.

...

In the pages ahead, I aim to better acquaint British Columbians and Canadians, particularly my fellow settlers, with how and why our province's history of Indigenous relations unfolded as it did. Unceded examines the persistence of colonial policies and prejudices from the 1850s until today, and it focuses on two key features of that history. The first is British Columbia's insistence, both as a colony and later as a province, on the creation of very small Indigenous reserves in comparison to those established by Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. "Postage stamp" was the apt phrase used by Chief Gosnel to characterize British Columbia's reserves.

The second key feature, closely linked to British Columbia's small and scattered reserves, is the near absence of treaties, or even treaty discussions, during the latter years of colonial governance and the first 120 years of provincehood. Consequently, much of British Columbia remains - as it is often recognized during land acknowledgements - unceded territory, land never formally exchanged between First Nations and the Crown as part of treaty negotiations.

It did not have to be this way. A more constructive path was followed during the early colonial years under Governor James Douglas, but his approach crashed up against settler resistance, ushering in the brutal racism of Joseph Truch and William Smithe and innumerable injustices in the century of darkness that followed.