Contained within a reasonably small vestibule on the 6th floor of the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch was a picture archive. It was an index of images known as the Picture File, a collection of visual anecdotes obsessively and systematically categorized into 30 filing cabinets over the course of eighty years. The Picture File was a seemingly arbitrary and incomplete archive with a variation of moiré patterns amalgamated into a compilation of creases and folds. Every picture contained its own evidence. Ink smudges and fingerprint markings traced back to the many visitors that touched the paper over time. Every picture was unique, with differing shapes, weights, textures and printing processes.

The UK and France are commonly perceived as the former dominant colonial powers in Africa, retaining commercial interests in their former colonial territories. In the last few years an emerging discourse has emerged in the West about China’s involvement in Africa. Yet the reality is that Canadian mining corporations continue to dominate mining activities in Africa.