Return to Paueru Gai: 50 Years of Powell Street Festival
Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, Burnaby, BC - To Sept 5
Like many large cities on the Canadian and US West Coast, Vancouver emerged from towns and villages linked by roads and bridges, or absorbed through municipal amalgamations, if not erased altogether by colonial settler forces. While Chinatown and Gastown survived, Japantown (Paueru Gai) was never the same after the internment of its residents and the expropriation of their property following Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Today, the name “Japantown” is usually only used by those with intimate knowledge of its past and present.
Located just north of Chinatown and just east of Gastown, Japantown comes alive during the Powell Street Festival on the first weekend of August each year. In honour of its 50th anniversary, curator, editor and long time festival volunteer Emiko Morita has put together a retrospective exhibition that “celebrates the art and activism of the Japanese Canadian community’s annual festival through photographs, videos and installations.” Published in conjunction with the exhibition is a full-colour publication that features photographs, archival facsimiles, a chronology and essays by cultural leaders.
Those familiar with the festival will know what it is to enter a crowded Oppenheimer Park from the corner of East Cordova and Dunlevy to see the many and vibrant clothing, pottery and gift-shop stalls that line the walk to the ticket-seller’s tent. At the centre of the park is a large stage featuring taiko drumming, singing, poetry readings and remembrances. At either end of the park, kiosks sell barbecued salmon and teriyaki-chicken dinners. All of this and more is held forever in the amber that is the film, video and photography thoughtfully presented in both this exhibition and its keepsake book.
