The Harmony Bell Project was a work more than two years in the making.  The mission for this project was to explore our community of Ashcroft and trace back the origins of each culture that became established here, how they came to be here, what they did when they got here, how their circumstances shaped their roles in our village and how their family lives look now more than 100 years hence.

This project was the brainchild of Marina Papais who has done similar projects in other communities "Our Salmon, Our Children, One Earth" such as in West Vancouver, Vancouver Proper, and the Tri-Cities in B.C.  She wanted to explore the families of existing community members to see the genesis of their lives here and how their circumstances have shaped their lives to this day.  In this exploration Marina discovered four main cultures who emerged from the time of the settlers: European Overlanders, First Nations who originated in this area, and Chinese and Japanese who came to build the railway for the European settlers, essentially. 

In identifying why people came, it seems that the First Nations were more or less not regarded in the decisions of the European settlers and the Chinese and Japanese were here in order to facilitate the Europeans in their desire to expand their new domain.  Already one easily cansee the hierarchy and it is interesting from this point of view to see where we have all come in this time of Truth and Reconciliation.

In asking the families of the four cultural groups to submit family pictures it became a study of humble beginnings, integration, love and acceptance of differences.  Original cultures seem to have lessened over the years, leaving people on more or less equal footings in our present state.  True, there are residuals of resentments and angers and in some cases these resentments run deeper than in others.  But what is evident from the onset is the intermarriages that took place.  One would be hard-pressed to find families that have not integrated between the races.  A natural Blending has taken place so that it is not uncommon here to have a blending of the races in most families that have been here over the past century or less.

The Harmony Project elucidates our similarities far more than it does our differences.

Marina spend more than two years compiling her drawings of the families she studied.  The pictures were brought in by so many family members who believed in the project.  Many pictures, especially the ones from the more distant past were provided by Kathy Paulos who curates our wonderful Ashcroft Museum, which is a wonderful source of history and information.  The Bittersweet Oasis is a history of the Ashcroft area 1885-2002 and is a good source of pictures and information.

Great Thanks to many people who made this project possible.  Although Marina and Daniel gave of all their time voluntarily, many others helped in many ways.  Thank you to Pache Denis and Bruce Walker and Josh Granito especially, but to so many others for helping make the structure for the Harmony Bell Project.  Thank you to the City of Ashcroft for donating a space in Heritage Park and also for creating the concrete and block patio on which the structure was engineered.  Thank you to the Village Workers for all their consideration and help.  Thank you to Michelle Allen for facilitating the building of the structure.

Thank you to all the families in Ashcroft that donated pictures and stories.  Without you this project would not have been possible. Thank you to Kathy Paulos for all your help and expertise on the history of our town.​

Thank you to Pathways to Gold Society for supplying the funding for the materials for the Harmony Bell Project and for believing in this community to deliver what we intended from the beginning.