If you missed the ACAM Creative Showcase held on Jan. 29, 2016, check it out here:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6o7XE1VSY[/youtube]
If you missed the ACAM Creative Showcase held on Jan. 29, 2016, check it out here:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6o7XE1VSY[/youtube]
Jan. 11, 2016
The faculty, staff and students of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program are deeply saddened by the recent passing of Ted Harada on Dec. 22, 2015, who was one of the 76 Japanese Canadian students forcibly removed in 1942. We express our deepest condolences to the Harada family.
While Harada did not attend the 2012 convocation at UBC for the Japanese Canadian students of 1942, we are grateful to him for helping establish the ACAM program so that the injustices of the past would never be forgotten.
ACAM COMMUNITY PROJECT SHOWCASE
Are you interested in learning about some of the amazing research that ACAM students are doing? Do you want to see what collaboration looks like between students and Asian Canadian communities? Thinking of taking an ACAM course next term but not sure what kind of projects you can do? Join the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies faculty, staff, and students at the Community Project Showcase event where you can chat with ACAM students, community members, and profs and learn about current projects. This is your chance to see what kinds of research is happening!
—
PRESENTERS:
Dominique Bautista – ACAM Centennial Alumni Project: Retelling UBC’s History from an Asian Canadian Lens
Born and raised in Vancouver, Dominique proudly calls this city her home: a place with intersecting spaces that continuously challenge her to consider who she is and where she’s “really from”. As a cultural hybrid, she has always been intrigued by identity politics complicated by experiences of migration, largely based on her family’s narrative and ties to the transpacific. Growing up engulfed by diversity and difference have inspired her guiding passions and principles of learning from various communities and uncovering untold stories.
Dominique completed her undergrad from UBC in 2015 with a background in English Literature and Sociology to complement her ACAM degree. As she begins her journey as a humanities educator, she looks forward to continuing to engage with local and global communities. If not desperately seeking sunshine, she loves to share stories over a cup of tea! (Twitter: @_DBAUTISTA)
Christy Fong – “Save Chinatown, Support Chinese BBQ Meat Products”: Racialised Legislation, Community Activism, and Oral Histories in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Christy Fong is an English Literature Honours student in the last year of her undergraduate degree, which has been supplemented by the ACAM program. She works at the academic journal Canadian Literature as the web and communications assistant and at Arts ISIT as content editor and help desk staff. These experiences have increased her interest in digital humanities and new information technologies, which informs her research on social justice movements in Vancouver’s Chinatown. As a literature student, Christy is inspired by narrative medicine and embodied discourses, especially those centered around marginalised bodies and diasopric/migrant experiences.
Sloane Geddes – ‘Woven Together’ (documentary on material folklore)
Sloane Geddes is a 5th year undergraduate student in the department of Asian Studies. She and two other students—Taylor Sadler and Ozhen Amin—worked together on this documentary to tell the story of how cultural clothing weaves people together. In working on this project, Sloane discovered numerous parallels between the experiences of asian diasporic communities and her own cultural group—the ojibwe. She is currently working on a project looking at the intertwined histories of first nations people and members of the punjabi diaspora. The project focuses on coming to terms with cultural identity through the lens of her own family’s complicated history with the state, and the experiences of belonging to the punjabi second generation.
Eleanor Munk – The Pacific Canada Heritage Centre – Museum of Migration (PCHC – MoM) Society
Eleanor Munk is a recent graduate from Mount Allison University with a degree in Honours English Literature. In the years following her graduation, she has worked and volunteered with Pan-Pacific and Asian-Canadian communities and organizations such as Ricepaper Magazine and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. She is currently Marketing and Event Coordinator with the PCHC-MoM Society and Coordinator with the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society.
Nicole So – #ThisisChinatown campaign
Nicole So is a UBC alumni (2015) with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies. Her recent work and involvement in Chinatown began with making the video “4 Reasons Why You Should Care about Vancouver’s Chinatown” for class. Since the launch and positive receptions of the video, Nicole has committed her summer to working on the Hong Kong-Canada Crosscurrents Project with Dr. Henry Yu, helping Heritage BC organize workshops to assess the intangible heritage of Vancouver’s Chinatown, and interning at Hua Foundation, a non-profit start up organization for Chinese-Canadian youth. She is also a Chapman & Innovations Grant 2015 recipient, for co-founding and directing “Project Young and Classy” in partnership with Strathcona Community Centre. Nicole enjoys indulging in good films and travelling in her spare time, and is a self-proclaimed bubble tea connoisseur.
Joanna Yang – Canadians that Never Arrived: The Komagata Maru and Our Absent History (documentary film)
Joanna is a first-generation Canadian born Chinese settler on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish First Nations peoples. She graduated from the UBC Human Geography and Migration/Globalization Studies program in 2014 – just one year before the UBC ACAM program was approved. An aspiring visual storyteller, Joanna considers herself to be a life-long learner, constantly curating her storyboard.
+ more tba!!
—
*Where: Lillooet Room (301), Irving K Barber Learning Centre, UBC, unceded Musqueam territory
*When: Friday November 20, 2015, 12 – 1pm
*Registration: RSVP now to save your seat as there is limited capacity! http://acamcommunity.eventbrite.ca
*Accessibility info:
From East Mall, enter the Learning Centre through the main doors. Lillooet Room is on level 3 in The Chapman Learning Commons.
There are two good sized elevators on the lobby level (east mall entrance) that access all levels of the Learning Centre.
Washrooms are located on all levels near the elevators. Each washroom has a modified stall, although they are not labelled. The designated disabled washrooms on levels 3 and 4 can be accessed by contacting campus security (604-822-2222). The designated disabled washroom on level 2, which is equipped with a specialized lift and harness, can be accessed by contacting Access & Diversity.
*Lunch (meat and vegetarian options) will be provided for those who RSVP. Please let us know if you have any special dietary needs.
If you have any questions, please email acam.events@ubc.ca
We hope to see you there!
—
This event will be taking place on the traditional, unceded, ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation.
Cecile Docto reports on the PCHC-Mom storytelling and food event, A Banquet of Stories, that took place in Vancouver on September 26 at the Sunset Community Centre. Some ACAM folks are featured in this video!
Oct. 9, 2015
The faculty, staff and students of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program are deeply saddened by the passing of two important Japanese Canadian community members last month — Nori Nishio (1923-2015) and Roy Inouye (1931-2015). We express our deepest condolences to the Nishio and Inouye families.
Nori Nishio passed away peacefully at the age of 91 on September 4, 2015. Roy Inouye passed away on September 8, 2015 at the age of 83. Nori’s son, Don Nishio, said that one of the highlights of his father’s life was the 2012 convocation at UBC for the Japanese Canadian students of 1942. We are grateful to Nori and Roy for helping establish the ACAM program so that the injustices of the past would never be forgotten.
Is there such a thing as a “bad” Asian Canadian? Jen Sungshine will explore this philosophical question through personal storytelling and her decade-long flirtation with art + community activism.
Event highlights:
– a short film screening
– breakout discussions
—
Speaker bio: Jen Sung, Facilitator, artist-activist and co-conspirator at loveintersections.com
Jen Sungshine speaks for a living but lives for breathing life into unspoken situations in unusual places. As a queer, Taiwanese artist-activist based in Vancouver, BC, she is grateful to live, breathe, dance and work on the unceded, occupied and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish nations. She facilitates with creativity and social justice media to evolutionize and revolutionize QTIPOC visibility and community-based work through Our City of Colours, Love Intersections, Out in Schools and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her artistic practice involves unlearning while learning and learning while unlearning; and instead of calling you out, she wants to call you in – to make artful social change with her through the language of love and nerdy codes. She is very wordy.
—
*Where: Room 120, C.K. Choi Building for The Institute of Asian Research, UBC
*When: Friday October 23, 2015, 12 – 1pm
*Registration: RSVP now to save your seat as there is limited capacity!http://acamlunchoct.eventbrite.ca
*Accessibility info to come.
*Lunch (meat and vegetarian options) will be provided to those RSVP (please email us if you have any special dietary needs).
If you have any questions, please email acam.events@ubc.ca
We hope to see you there!
For more info about the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program, visithttps://acam.arts.ubc.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
—
This event will be taking place on the traditional, unceded, ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation.
ACAM’S WELCOME BACK LUNCH WITH SHIRLEY NAKATA
Join the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies faculty, staff, and students for a welcome back lunch and conversation with Shirley Nakata, UBC Vancouver’s first Ombudsperson for Students. What does it mean to be an Asian Canadian student at UBC? We hope to create an inclusive space for sharing common and different experiences across disciplines and backgrounds as we explore this question and others.
—
Speaker bio: Shirley Nakata, Ombudsperson for Students, UBC
Shirley was called to the B.C. Bar in 1989 after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree followed by her LL.B from the University of British Columbia. She practiced law at Russell & DuMoulin (now Fasken Martineau) before moving to the Canadian Human Rights Commission where she worked as a Human Rights Officer. From 1996 to 2009, she was the Director of Professional Conduct at the British Columbia College of Teachers, where she gained expertise in the area of administrative law and extensive experience particularly in the conduct of investigations and hearings.
She has been a frequent presenter on administrative law and professional regulatory issues in a variety of venues. Shirley has been a board member of the B.C. Council of Administrative Tribunals and member of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. She has also served on the board of West Coast LEAF.
In 2009 Shirley became the first Ombudsperson for Students at UBC and established the office on the Vancouver campus.
—
*Where: Lillooet Room (301), Irving K Barber Learning Centre, UBC, unceded Musqueam territory
*When: Friday September 25, 2015, 12 – 1pm
*Registration: RSVP now to save your seat as there is limited capacity!http://acamlunchsep.eventbrite.ca/
*Accessibility info to come.
*Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP (please let us know if you have any special dietary needs)
If you have any questions, please email acam.events@ubc.ca
We hope to see you there!
Group photo with ACAM faculty, Program staff, Ms. Mary Kitagawa, and ACAM students.
ACAM alumni Carolyn Nakawaga was recently interviewed by Norm Ibuki of the Discover Nikkei community website. Below are her thoughts about her Japanese Canadian heritage and her experience as a student in the ACAM program.
Norm Ibuki: What is it like to be a young Nikkei in BC these days?
Carolyn Nakagawa: You know, I’ve met a few other Japanese Canadians at UBC, just by chance, who mostly come from other parts of Canada, and to hear them talk about their families really drives home the importance of BC to our heritage – I’ve heard them say it’s like “returning to the homeland” – the homeland being Vancouver, not Japan. It’s momentous for a Japanese Canadian to move to the west coast of Canada. It’s momentous that I was born here.
So that’s one part of it. As someone who grew up without much direct connection to the community, it’s an exciting time to be getting acquainted with everything. There’s lots of important things going on under the Asian Canadian banner (UBC’s ACAM program not the least of this) that we get to be a part of. But also, most young Nikkei, in particular those whose families immigrated before WWII, are very Canadianized compared to many others who fall under the banner of “Asian Canadian community” – we speak English, our parents speak English, and in most cases we don’t speak our heritage language or really have much that connects us to a more “Asian” culture. Many of us, like me, are part Japanese and part Caucasian. All of this makes it easier for us to blend into the dominant European-derived culture than it is for a lot of other young people with Asian heritage, and most of us do, I think, if not all, then still a lot of the time. I don’t really think that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a truth with particular historical reasons and causes. It leads to a lot of ambivalent feelings for me, and for others that I’ve spoken to about it as well.
NI: How important is the cultural connection to modern Japan for young people like yourself?
CN: As for modern Japan, I lived there for ten months as an exchange student after I graduated from high school here. It was a very important experience for me, and I’m very grateful for many of the people I met there, especially my homestay family. But it’s a foreign country and a foreign culture for me. The things that have been passed down in my family are often not recognizable there, because things have changed so much (and also because some of it is very regionally specific), and of course a lot of that tradition was lost or translated differently through the generations. It bothers me a lot when people here exoticize Japan or Japanese culture, because I’ve lived there and known specific Japanese people whom I care about, not because I personally identify with it. My heritage is very specifically Japanese Canadian, which doesn’t directly have much at all to do with modern Japan. I’m more interested in our community’s Canadian history. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care at all about Japan, but it’s not exactly the homeland for Nikkei families who immigrated before the war like mine did – it’s probably more accurate to call Vancouver the homeland. The Japan connection is more tenuous and complicated, but it also very interesting.
For example, my grandmother’s sister was living in Japan during WWII, and she ended up getting married and staying there even though she was born in Canada. So there’s an entire branch of our family, my dad’s cousins and such, that are completely Japanese. We don’t know them well or have any regular contact with them (we’ve only met them once or twice, if that), and they’re culturally very different from us, but we’re still related, and we’ve visited them and they’ve visited us and we’ve shown each other around and been happy to meet. I don’t really know if I can or should say anything conclusive about that, but maybe it illustrates what I mean about the connection to modern Japan. It’s not that it’s not there, but it’s not a direct descendent kind of relationship. It’s like my relationship to my dad’s maternal cousins. We kind of wish we knew them better, but there’s a lot of things in the way of that, particularly language, cultural, and geographical differences. While the connection is still very much there, I don’t know if trying to travel back in time to our common origin point is the best way to move forward.
NI: What about your own association with Japanese history?
CN: Do you mean history of events and such in Japan? I took that class as an exchange student (in Japanese) and maybe took in about 0.5% of what was going on because there were all these names and places written in kanji that weren’t in my dictionary and even if they were, they were proper names. So I don’t know. Japanese Canadian history is huge for me because that’s my family’s story. It isn’t a huge community, so it feels like that narrative, in some version or another, really does fit everyone whose family was in Canada at the time. It’s a family narrative for all of us. Maybe that’s what happens when you take out imperial maneuvering or any other kind of formal political governance structure – what’s left is all community.
NI: What are some of the issues that you feel need to be addressed for the sake of your generation of Canadian Nikkei?
CN: I think our place in the Asian Canadian community as a whole needs to be invested in. Nikkei have a specific heritage which often puts us in a fairly privileged position, but we’re still seen as Asian, and we have similar histories.
If we’re going to do anything with our heritage and history, we can do a lot more by via ties with other communities, because the Nikkei community is very small. And I think we should have ties with other communities, because there’s a lot of work to be done in terms of social justice and anti-racism, and Nikkei have had a major victory with Redress. Hopefully we can pay it forward. I started off by talking about Asian Canadian coalitions, but working in solidarity with Indigenous communities is also extremely important right now, for similar reasons. I mean, if we talk about dispossession, what happened to Nikkei in World War II, as devastating as it was, is tiny compared to the effects of European colonialism on Indigenous peoples. They’re connected, too – it’s a question of precedent.
Overall, I think that most Nikkei in my generation are really eager to form these connections. One result of the dispersal of our community is that a lot of these connections already exist for us socially (for example, my best friend is Korean Canadian) rather than us being a fairly insular group. I think it is already starting to happen and will happen more, and that’s the most important work we can do right now, especially with Indigenous communities. I hope we can contribute something of value to the work being done and the conversations being had about Indigenous rights and wellbeing (cultural and individual), as well as challenges that other Asian diasporic communities (or the “Asian Canadian” community as a blanket label) are currently facing.
I also think it’s very important that we maintain connection with our elders, especially the survivors of internment who are becoming fewer and fewer in number. The work that’s been done and is still continuing to get their stories down is hugely valuable. The people who fought for the redress settlement also have a massively important story that we don’t want to lose consciousness of. We need to hold onto these stories and people so we can continue their legacy and share it with others.
NI: What can you tell us about the UBC program?
CN: First of all, the full name of the program is Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) – the Asian Migration part is so that the scope doesn’t have to be limited to just Canada. The Asian Studies department is a separate department that’s been around for decades (I think my aunt did Asian Studies at UBC in the ‘60s/’70s) and focusses on Asian languages and history/culture in Asia. While some Asian Studies faculty are involved in ACAM, they’re completely different programs – ACAM is about histories of migration and communities like the ones we have in Vancouver.
The program just completed its first year – it’s currently a minor in the Faculty of Arts at UBC. It’s a highly interdisciplinary program with a strong focus on media, especially filmmaking. ACAM doesn’t have its own courses at the moment: you can satisfy requirements for the minor with courses in English, Sociology, Asian Studies, First Nations Studies, History…it’s very broad, but it’s designed to encourage thinking across disciplinary borders and for students to design their own learning experience. Community involvement and community-based learning are also very important parts of the program: getting students out of the classroom, interacting with people who are living continuations of these histories, and thinking about what these things we’re learning about really mean in the city we live in.
NI: What kind of students were enrolled? Was it mostly Nikkei?
CN: Since the program is brand new, and the requirements fairly broad, I didn’t necessarily interact with a lot of ACAM students even in my “ACAM” classes. The first class of us to graduate with the minor was four people, including me, and I am the only Nikkei.
NI: Who are the instructors? What did the curriculum cover?
CN: ACAM has faculty in English, History, Theatre, Visual Art, Asian Studies, and probably other departments as well. Many of the instructors who have designed courses to fit with ACAM are very distinguished in their fields. I came to ACAM from the context of my heritage (as most students in the program do, I think), so I did quite a bit to do with Japanese language and JC history and culture, but that’s not necessarily the case for others, since it’s highly customizable based on each student’s interests.
NI: How much a part of JC migration was covered? What issues were specifically addressed?
CN: There’s a very strong JC community presence around ACAM, much of it because of Mary Kitagawa and all her work for the program and for the honourary degrees granted to the Nikkei students expelled from UBC in 1942. ACAM was established as part of the university’s commitment to acknowledging the injustice of the treatment of the students of ‘42. That’s a very important part of the program’s history. But it’s also much broader than that.
NI: Can you say something about your personal experience in the program? Any epiphanies about your own identity, etc.?
CN: It’s very humbling to be a student in the program for one year out of my degree, to come in and take these wonderful classes, which is one thing, but also to hear the people who have been fighting to establish this program for years talk about it. I’ve been put in the spotlight for ACAM, but I’m the tip of a very long, drawn-out iceberg. I can’t take credit for it – I’m a beneficiary of all of this.
Do you know if UBC plans to expand the Canadian Asian Migration program? I think there are plans to build the ACAM program more, although I’m not the one doing that kind of planning. There’s definitely a lot of potential to build on, and the people in charge of that are very passionate about it, so I think even more great things will be happening with it.
NI: What were the valuable learning experiences for you in that program?
CN: The whole thing has been too big for me to itemize into valuable experiences. It’s not just about size, either – my experience in ACAM blends into my experience in the community, with my family, with my classmates and peers. It’s been one of the guiding forces of a very important time in my life. It’s given me more tools to think about how I navigate the world (and to actually navigate it). That sounds very vague but I think listing specific details would be a long process and also a reductive one.
NI: For other young Nikkei, what kind of advice would you give them if they want to learn more about themselves as Japanese Canadians?
CN: Everyone is different. It can depend a lot on your family, who is or isn’t around for you to talk to. But there are a lot of books out there too – Roy Miki’s memoir, Redress, is wonderful. Books don’t necessarily reflect your own experience or your family’s exactly, but Redress is maybe a good one to start with because it gives context that I think is relevant for most if not all JCs, both with the historical background of immigration and internment, and because the fight for Redress is such a huge part of the Japanese Canadian legacy. Also, as a lit major I have to add that it’s beautifully written.
NI: Where does it all start?
CN: Getting involved in your local JC community (if there is one where you live) can be a way in. Taking a class about Japanese or Asian diaspora (if you go to UBC or another school that offers such classes) can be a way in. There are other ways in too, I’m sure – find something that makes sense for you and for your interests and other parts of your life. I’m an English major, so most of my ACAM classes were through the English department – diaspora literature and so on. It shouldn’t be compartmentalized away from the other things you’re interested in.
One important thing to remember: Japanese Canadian history/culture is NOT the same as Japanese history/culture. They’re related, but not the same. It’s not enough to study Japanese history, Japanese traditions, or even to learn Japanese, at least in my experience. You might try that and not really feel connected to it, or maybe you do, but either way don’t stop there. If you can, try to find out where your family went during internment, because everyone in the Nikkei community will ask you that, and also because it’ll give you something specific and personal to work from.
NI: What are your future study and career plans?
CN: For now, I’m going out into the wide world armed with my BA. There are several things I’m interested in – museums and archives, libraries, academia, to name a few, but I’ve also been heavily involved in theatre. I’m a poet and playwright. What that means in terms of “career” I don’t know, but it does play a huge role in the choices I make. For now, I want to learn outside of the context of formal schooling. I want to be involved in projects and initiatives I believe are important. I don’t know where that will take me just yet, but I guess I’ll find out.
NI: Any final words?
CN: Thanks for these thought-provoking questions, Norm. There’s certainly more to say but I feel like I’ve talked so much already.
* Author note: For more information about UBC’s 1942 Japanese Canadian students fund, please see: https://startanevolution.ubc.ca/projects/1942-japanese-canadian-ubc-students-fund/
© 2015 Norm Ibuki
Click here to view the interview on the Discover Nikkei website.
Check out our official ACAM 2015 video trailer featuring ACAM Director Dr. Chris Lee, ACAM graduate Dominique Bautista, and others! https://youtu.be/LphyfLyIj2Q