Haley Healey, a former education student at VIU, will read a chapter from On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island on Emma Stark, the first African-Canadian school teacher on Vancouver Island in 1874, in recognition of Black Histories and Futures Month.
According to the BC Black History Awareness Society, Emma Stark arrived on Salt Spring Island from California with her family who eventually moved to Cedar. Ms Stark survived all the hardships of bitter winters, smallpox, and the break-up of her family, attending a log cabin classroom before moving to Nanaimo for high school. At the age of 18, in August 1874, she was hired to teach in a 1-room school in the Cedar District. Her salary was $40.00 per month. She stayed in the cabin that was provided for the teacher and the children who lived a long way from the school boarded with her. On weekends she rode home to Nanaimo on horseback and in winter rode in a home-made sleigh pulled by oxen. She married 4 years later, but died in 1890 at the age of 33 from an undetermined illness. A photo of her grave is in the Nanaimo archives and a plaque in recognition of her teaching career is at 331 Wesley Street in Nanaimo where she lived.
Haley Healey attended Laurentian University for a BA in Physical and Health Education, VIU for a teaching degree, and did a Master's degree from York University in Counselling Psychology. She is now a high school counsellor at John Barsby Community School, a registered clinical counsellor, and the bestselling author of of books for all ages about extraordinary women of history. Her books include the Trailblazing Canadians series; Her Courage Rises (a finalist for the 2023 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize); On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island; and Flourishing and Free: More Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island, and So She Went Ahead: 50 Trailblazing Women of the Canadian Prairies. Subsequent titles include four works for 4-8-year-olds in the Trailblazing Canadians series -- Kimiko Murakami, Lilian Bland, Elizabeth Quocksister, Jennie Butchart -- and the picture book Huxley’s Island Adventure as well as a self-published historical novel for teens Immortal Grit.
We will have three student readers open the evening with short excerpts from works of nonfiction.
Deanne Whenham is a fourth-year Creative Writing Major with a minor in Marketing. Her photo was published in Portal 2025.
Tebby Olatetse is a third-year Accounting student at VIU. She is a reporter for The Navigator telling stories that connect people beyond the classroom and reflect the campus community.
Annette Crosby is an English major and a Creative Writing minor in her fourth year at VIU. “Good Bones” is her first published piece and in the 2026 issue of Portal. This year, she won a story slam contest and hopes to step into a professional writing career.
