Utopian Sointula

Sointula is synonymous with utopias in British Columbia. The future commune’s charismatic leader, Matti Kurikka, was invited to Vancouver Island by a group of “culturally and politically active” Finns, including Matti Halminen, who worked in the Extension coal mines near Nanaimo.1 The miners had read Kurikka’s writings and hoped he could form a self-sustaining Finnish farming colony based on equality for men and women, fair treatment of workers, equal distribution of wealth, and communal property. Kalevan Kansa Colonization Company In 1900, the miners paid for Kurikka’s passage to Vancouver Island and began fundraising and recruiting settlers for the colony.2 Matti Kurikka became the president of the Kalevan Kansa Colonization Company, which leased land from the provincial government in Kwakwaka’wakw territory on Malcolm Island, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.…