We have all heard the saying those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it, but why only learn it? In this project we learned about the wrongs of the past, committed by the Canadian government, in BC. We then took that knowledge and created a memorial to commemorate and apologize for the events that occurred. This project was serious and at times it was hard to learn about Canada’s racist past. But we need to learn these things. We need to learn that Japanese Canadians were put in internment camps, that Chinese people coming into canada had to pay a fine of up to $500 and how the Komagata Maru was not allowed entry into Vancouver. All of these events and actions make up the BC we know today and it is ever so important we not only learn about them, but we learn from them so they are never repeated.

Without actions to back it up an apology means nothing. Saying your apology is one thing but after that you need to show the person or people that you truly mean it. In this project we focused on the idea of keeping an apology alive through memorials. These are small actions we can take to back up the words of an apology. If only in a small way we are able to allow those apologies to live on. 

We started this project by learning about 3 injustices from the past. Japanese internment camps, Chinese head tax and the Komagata Maru. We then chose a specific event to research into further. I chose Japanese internment. I created a smart brevity note which highlighted the key ideas of Japanese internment. This smart brevity allowed me to gather a deeper understanding of what happened and the impact it had on Japanese Canadians. With this knowledge I was able to create stronger symbolism in my memorial. 

Smart brevity note

When creating the memorial with my group we really wanted to showcase the impact that internment had on Japanese Canadians. We were intentional with everything we put onto out memorial and everything had a symbol. I really enjoyed the creative freedom we had when creating our memorials. We were able to make them unique to us. I further developed my teamwork and leadership skills. I worked well with my group and we effectively used each others strengths. Check out the final result below!

Our memorial

Want to know what it means? Click here to discover the symbolism in our memorial!

This project allowed us to do our part in keeping these apologies alive. We created thoughtful memorials to acknowledge the wrongdoings of the past. These memorials show that the first step is learning but after that, take action. Do your part to apologize and keep existing apologies alive. That is exactly what we did in this project. 

Syddy Giddy out ✌️