Beginnings of Sointula: The First Five Years

The Kalevan Kansa Company was granted the land on Malcolm Island by the government with a set of conditions, ignoring existing claims on the land by the Kwakiutl. The rights to the land would be granted in seven years’ time if the colony’s population grew to 350, if farms and roads were built, and if children were educated in English. The first settlers arrived on the island in 1901, calling the settlement Sointula, meaning “chord” or “harmony” in Finnish. The aim was to create a self-sustaining community with values of respect and equality – a contrast to the exploitative atmosphere of the coal mines.

The Finnish journalist Matti Kurikka helped lead the colony and was joined by the socialist Augustin Mäkelä (anglicised to Austin McKela), also a major figure in the founding of Sointula. Kurikka wrote about ideas progressive for their time, like an 8-hour work day and equality between men and women, in the community’s newspaper Aika (time in Finnish). In Sointula, women were seen as essential to the workforce, so all children were sent to a communal daycare allowing them to work. There were cultural offerings like a choir, a library, plays and poetry readings.

However, settlers had not been able to establish farms and struggled to earn money from logging and fishing. The quality of housing failed to keep people warm during the icy winter of 1902. In January 1903, a fire killed 11 people, destroying the communal hall and vital supplies. In 1904, Kurikka bitterly left Sointula after disagreeing with McKela over economic issues, and due to controversy surrounding Kurikka’s advocacy for free love over marriage.

Despite this, a few settlers remained on Malcolm Island and carried on the co-operative, self-sufficient ethos of the community that Kurikka had advocated for. A few of the people living in Sointula today are descendants of the original Finnish settlers.