The Timeline of Deadman's Island (Skwtsa7s)

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Located in Coal Harbour just south of Stanley Park,
 is the 3.8 hectare isle known as Deadman's 
island. Initially this site was used as a traditional Indigenous burial ground where customary tree burials would take place. This practice involved placing the deceased body on wooden scaffolding or shelves built into a tall tree, roughly 2.5 meters high. Their body would be wrapped in cloth and animal hide and placed in a coffin before being put into the tree. Gifts and other treasured possessions would be left on the scaffolding by the family as a way to honor the dead. The body would remain in the tree for around a year, and eventually the body, as well as the wooden coffin, would decompose, resulting in the remains falling to the base of the tree. At this point an earth burial would be performed, normally at village cemetery. Despite this being a traditional custom, meant as a way to both honor the deceased and allow their family to figuratively spend more time with them, this ceremony is rarely still practiced today. 


View of Deadman's Island and Stanley Park from a distance
1895 before it was logged

When early European settlers arrived, they too began to use the island as a burial place for their dead. Calling the land, Deadman's Island, as they knew it was the place where the Indigenous peoples buried their deceased. Decades later, in 1892, the island became a place of quarantine, as hospitals were constructed to hold victims of the small pox epidemic during the 1890s. 



However, due to the occurrence of World War II, Deadman's Island was separated from Stanley Park, and claimed by the military. To this day the island is still used as a navel reserve and is off-limits to the public. 


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