The Sikh community stuck together. They provided each other with company, assisted each other in finding employment, and supported each other in many other ways. When newcomers arrived, those already here helped them find jobs at local mills. Some found work on farms or in fisheries, and many old-timers in Maillardville remember the Sikh men who delivered their firewood.
Image: A Sikh man drives a buggy on Austin Avenue, n.d. City of Coquitlam Archives, item #C6.942
“The old-timers were always there for one another. If someone got a bad letter from India, everyone laid their paycheques on the table. If they were in trouble and needed money or someone in their family got hurt or damage to crops happened back home, we all helped. We’d say pay us back when you can, just send the money now.”
A Sikh man unloads salmon for BC Canneries, 1913. Vancouver Public Library, accession #2052, public domain.