{{Short description|Canadian writer (1889–1980)}} '''Beryl Mildred Cryer''' (1889–1980) was a Canadian writer about Indigenous cultures on [[Vancouver Island]].
== Biography == Beryl Mildred Cryer was born in England in 1889, and migrated to Canada with her family as a child. She lived in [[Chemainus]], BC for much of her life. She died in [[Welland, Ontario]] in 1980.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Littlefield|first=Lorraine|date=April 2003|title=Beryl Cryer and the stories she collected|url=https://www.nickdoe.ca/pdfs/Webp2142c.pdf|journal=SHALE: Journal of the Gabriola Historical & Museum Society|volume=6|pages=9–13.}}</ref>
== Work == An educated woman from a privileged background, and married to a businessman, Beryl Cryer was both a homemaker, and a journalist and newspaper columnist. She was introduced by her neighbour [[Mary Rice (Penelakut Elder)|Mary Rice]] (Tzea-Mntenaht) and also by [[Jennie Wyse]] (Tstass-Aya) and other Elders, to cultural traditions and narratives of the [[Halkomelem|Hul'qumi'num]] people and this connection was key, allowing her to receive the stories of places and people that feature in so much of her writing.
The stories that she gathered from Elders, mostly women, through her relationship with Mary Rice were the source of many newspaper articles about Indigenous life and history on Vancouver Island, including oral narrative stories published between 1929 and 1935 in the ''[[Times Colonist|Victoria Daily Colonist Sunday Magazine.]]''<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.goodminds.com/authors/cryer-beryl-mildred|title=Cryer, Beryl Mildred {{!}} GoodMinds.com|website=www.goodminds.com|access-date=2019-03-08}}</ref> She also published the book ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/411912658 Flying Canoe: Legends of the Cowichans]'' in 1949.
Highlighting the unique value of Cryer's work, scholar Sarah Morales reflects that Cryer didn't guide her interviewees, but rather listened carefully and recorded the stories of the Elders just as they were told to her, resulting in a richness and completeness not found in other [[Ethnography|ethnographic sources]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morales|first=Sarah|date=November 2013|title=[Review] Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand: Oral Traditions of the Hul'q'umi'num Coast Salish of Kuper Island and Vancouver Island|url=https://bcstudies.com/book_film_review/two-houses-half-buried-in-sand-oral-traditions-of-the-hulquminum-coast-salish-of-kuper-island-and-vancouver-island/|journal=BC Studies|volume=160|pages=133–134}}</ref>
== Legacy == Cryer's writings, and the stories passed on through her by many [[Halkomelem|Hul’qumi’num]] Elders, have been an important and unique resource both to Indigenous and settler communities, and to scholarship in the social life and history of [[Vancouver Island]]. These works include:
* Chris Arnett and Beryl Mildred Cryer. [http://worldcat.org/oclc/487184203 ''Two houses half-buried in sand: Oral traditions of the Hul'q'umi'num' Coast Salish of Kuper Island and Vancouver Island'']. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2007. * John Lutz, ''[http://worldcat.org/oclc/951203469 Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations].'' Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014. * The ''[https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/ethnographicmapping/projects/twohouses/index.php Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand Digital Map]'' which aims to revive the legacy of Beryl Cryer's Hul'qumi'num contributors, providing a visual, interactive interface that locates these stories in place and mobilizes Hul'qumi'num perspectives of ancestral landscapes and waters on and around Vancouver Island, the [[Gulf Islands]], the lower [[Fraser River]], and beyond.
Cryer's correspondence related to her research and writing is held by the [[British Columbia Archives|BC Archives]].<ref>British Columbia Archives. File GR-1738.39.15 - [https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/cryer-beryl Cryer, Beryl].</ref>
== Further reading == * Arnett, Chris, and Beryl Mildred Cryer. [http://worldcat.org/oclc/487184203 ''Two houses half-buried in sand: Oral traditions of the Hul'q'umi'num' Coast Salish of Kuper Island and Vancouver Island'']. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.straight.com/article-134729/two-houses-half-buried-in-sand |title=Discover the treasures of Hul’q’umi’num narrative literature in Two Houses Half-Buried In Sand |website=[[straight.com]] |first=Terry |last=Glavin |date=March 5, 2008 |access-date=May 6, 2020}}</ref> * [https://web.archive.org/web/20190924035654/http://www.britishcolonist.ca/ The British Colonist] (1858-1980) * Cryer, B.M. “1898, The Halhed Family.” In [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5112834 ''Memories of the Chemainus Valley: A history of people: Saltair, Chemainus, Westholme, Crofton, Thetis, Kuper and Reid Islands''], [Chemainus, B.C.] : Chemainus Valley Historical Society, 1978. pp:229-240. * Littlefield, Loraine. “Beryl Cryer and the stories she collected.” ''SHALE: Journal of the Gabriola Historical & Museum Society'' no. 6 (April 2003): 9-13. Retrieved from: https://www.nickdoe.ca/pdfs/Webp2142c.pdf * [[University of Victoria]], Anthropology, Ethnographic Mapping Lab. [https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/ethnographicmapping/projects/twohouses/index.php ''Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand: Reviving the Legacies of 1930s-era Hul'qumi'num story-tellers'']
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cryer, Beryl Mildred}} [[Category:1889 births]] [[Category:1980 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Canadian women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Canadian writers]] [[Category:British emigrants to Canada]]