Nikkei National Museum, Burnaby, BC
This 1500–2500 square foot traveling exhibition is one outcome of the Landscapes of Injustice project – along with curriculum materials and education kits, online resources, and publications – based on years of research and scholarship into extensive archival records of the dispossession of Japanese Canadians. It brings these archives to life through personal reflections, interactive graphics and touchscreens, and contemporary oral history audio.
Handleable graphic replicas of the narrators’ government Case Files draw on personal images and annotated archival records, revealing the extent of elaborate bureaucratic machinery, and the personal impacts of what was lost.
Further records are brought to life through touchscreen apps, providing further portraits of impacted Japanese Canadians through their images and personal recollections, annotated and interpreted reproductions of their letters of protest written to government officials, and largely form letter responses.
The exhibition reveals the contemporary legacies of historical injustices, following historic characters and their descendants to understand intergenerational impacts. It invites visitors to consider these historic events in relation to contemporary issues of race, citizenship, and social justice, and how we can offer a just home for all in our
communities today.
Full service exhibition design, with Kiko Communication Design and Resolve Design Inc.
Exhibition e-catalogue available:
centre.nikkeiplace.org/exhibits/broken-promises/