Canada Hill

Here is a view of part of Canada Hill. That's right ... Canada Hill and it's not in Canada!

How did it get its name? It is said that in the early 20th century, many Canadians came from Alberta to work as drillers and engineers in the newly discovered oil well sites. Many died as well, due apparently to the mosquito-infested mangrove swamps of those days (None remain to this day) and unsanitary health conditions. Yards or meters away from the hill is a quiet churchyard, filled with graves of these poor unfortunate foreign workers who lost their valiant lives in this forgotten remote part of the world, far from their homeland.

A stroll amongst the lonely graves today will allow one to see that one of the early deaths was in 1910 and that was the year when oil was discovered in Miri. Unfortunately, as one strolls here, one could see that the ravages of time has taken a toll on the historic gravestones. Some are broken and others are scattered all about... Others remain in oblivion forever buried in piles of grassy mounds...

Anyway, one can still enjoy the sights and sounds of historic Canada Hill. An elderly Chinese sinseh (medicine man) once remarked to me that the hill "is a dragon that will bless Miri City eternally" but he also warned that "any action on any part of it will spell disaster for the city". That was way back in 1978, a time of pain for me after I got hit by an oil worker in a speeding Toyota that was leaving the SHELL offices downtown.

Canada Hill, of course, will be very special for my family. It was the very hill where my youngest son, Leximus was born enroute to the General Hospital ... and he came into our world at the back seat of my Proton Wira, meters away from the house of my close Canadian buddy, Mike of Calgary! Perhaps one day, I will change my kid's middle name to Canada Hill!

Frankly speaking though, our kids' names should in fact be a little Russian as we have evidence there is slavic blood in our distant family tree (This explains the fair complexions of some of us, including relatives) ... and that's another amazing story!


Pics from left to right: unusual bird constantly jabs on very old gravestone (My third time to witness this activity on three different occasions) & part of Canada Hill today.

A Death Omen

A strange but true story here...

One day, I had the sudden inspiration to paint the wall of an old building that was formerly used as a dreaded Kempeti (Military police) interrogation centre by the occupying Japanese army during World War 2. The building is located in a graveyard which holds the remains of many foreigners and locals. Most of the foreigners were Aussies, Britons and Canadians, unfortunate victims of rampant diseases as workers in the newly discovered oilfields. The area is close to Sarawak's Miri's most famous landmark, aptly called Canada Hill in honor of many Canadians coming from oil rich Alberta in Canada who had been hired as oil workers.

So back to my story... the walls of the building had been painted with a faded pink and there were black fungi patches all over it. The walls used to be painted in grim black.

I decided to paint sea creatures all over the wall to enliven everything a bit in view of the grim graves and a solitary war memorial that housed the remains of 28 innocent foreign and local civilians-including my granduncle- who were brutally tortured and executed by the barbaric WW2 Japs.

The result of the mural work was colorful sea creatures were randomly splashed everywhere, including the sting ray as shown in the pic.

It was an instant image in my mind that a sting-ray, which my friend and I had had an encounter with back in the late '70s (resulting in his emergency treatment) would serve as a scary warning of its potential devilish dangerous and harmful capabilities beneath its benign appearance ...

Not too long after this, the world would shockingly lose one of our courageous animal rights heroes, Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin when he had a rare careless encounter with a sting-ray in Australia .... Could this be a premonition of his death?

World War 2 & Miri (1)

Miri was a small fishing village by the South China Sea.

This was long before oil was discovered on top of a hill at Canada Hill.

The name Canada Hill is well-known as many oil-drilling Canadians lived in the area and died.

There were many of them who were struck down with fatal diseases.

Many of the deceased were buried in the graveyard close to northern Sarawak's oldest educational institution, St. Columba's Secondary School.

For them, it was death far from their families which were left behind in countries all over the world.