On February 19th, at Coastal Church, the City of Vancouver will give the Heritage Award of Honour jointly to the Joy Kogawa House Committee and The Land Conservancy of BC.
Joy Kogawa House was the childhood home of award winning author Joy Kogawa, which she was forced to leave in 1942, at age six, when Japanese-Canadians were “evacuated” from the BC Coast and sent to internment camps during World War 2. The Canadian government subsequently confiscated all their remaining property and auctioned it off, supposedly to help pay for the cost of internment.
She and her mother always dreamed of returning to the house, but their family was sent to live in Alberta as part of the Japanese Canadian dispersal program, in an effort to keep Japanese Canadians from returning to the Coast, and trying to reclaim their confiscated property.
Obasan (1981), is the award winning book that is a fictional memoir about the internment of the Japanese-Canadians. It is considered one of Canada’s most important 100 books ever written according to the Literary Review of Canada. It is the second most studied book in Canadian schools and universities.
I am one of the committee members for the Joy Kogawa House committee along with Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Anton Wagner, Ellen Crowe-Swords, Richard Hopkins, Jen Kato, Joan Young and Sabina Harpe. We have all put in incredible hours of volunteer work to help realize this project.
It was only 17 short months ago, when Ann-Marie Metten contacted me for help when she learned that a demolition inquiry for 1450 West 64th Ave. was being made. In the months to come, we would be asked why it was important to save the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. We would also be told that there was little chance to save it.
The 3rd week of September 2005, was a roller coaster for Joy Kogawa. She learned of the demolition plans in the same week that saw: 1) excerpts from the Naomi’s Road opera performed at Vancouver Arts Awards; 2) she received the Community Builder’s Award from Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop; and 3) the final event of One Book One Vancouver “Obasan” program where she gave a reading at Word On The Street book and magazine festival.
In December 2005, The Land Conservancy of BC stepped in to become a joint partner in our project to save the house. They became the chief fundraiser and eventually purchased the house in full in May 2006.
We are ecstatic and honoured to receive the Award of Honour, for projects demonstrating an outstanding contribution to heritage conservation.
Nominations were accepted for:
- Restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive re-use or continued maintenance of a heritage building, a significant interior of a heritage building, or characteristic features of a heritage building;
- Use of innovative engineering techniques or restoration/conservation methods in upgrading a heritage building which may include seismic upgrading;
- Preservation of a heritage landscape;
- Heritage advocacy of a group or individual in the preservation of a heritage site or increasing public awareness of heritage issues;
- Publication, education or exhibit that promotes heritage conservation;
- Efforts in community or neighbourhood revitalization.