Living in
Oliver, BC

The area known today as Oliver lies on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. In the nsyilxcen language, the area is called N̓k̓mip (pronounced “in-ka-meep”). The Syilx people followed seasonal food sources throughout this vast territory — fishing, hunting, and gathering on the shores of the lakes and glacial benches for thousands of years. Their presence in the South Okanagan is estimated at over 10,000 years.

Non-Indigenous settlement began in earnest after World War I, when BC Premier “Honest John” Oliver — for whom the town is named — envisioned transforming the arid benchlands into farmable land for returning veterans. The South Okanagan Lands Project began construction of a concrete irrigation canal in 1919, with the townsite surveyed in 1921 and the canal completed by 1923. Over 23 miles of concrete channel that turned desert into orchard.

The early community drew waves of immigrants — British veterans in the 1920s, followed by Germans, Hungarians, and Portuguese settlers who went on to own most of the area’s wineries and orchards. More recently, a large Punjabi Sikh community has taken deep roots in Oliver. By 2017, Sikh-Canadian families owned approximately 70% of the region’s orchards and vineyards — a remarkable cultural evolution in a town of 5,000.

Oliver was incorporated as a village in 1945 and upgraded to a town in 1990. The community celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021. Today, Oliver carries its official designation as Canada’s Wine Capital with quiet pride — producing 50% of BC’s wine grapes while remaining deeply connected to its agricultural roots.