Course:ARST575K/LIBR539H/Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre located in Burnaby, BC, Canada is a cultural centre, a museum and an archives dealing specifically with the Japanese Canadian community

Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre
Exterior View
Opening	September 22, 2000
Address	6688 Southoaks Crescent Burnaby BC V5E 4M7
Phone	1-604-777-7000
Type	Cultural institution
Hours	Tuesday- Saturday 10am-5pm
Website	https://centre.nikkeiplace.org/

Organization

The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre opened its doors on September 22, 2000, and is located in Burnaby, BC, Canada. Its mandate is to "to promote a better understanding and appreciation by all Canadians of Japanese Canadian culture and heritage; and an awareness by all Canadians of the contribution of Japanese Canadians to Canadian society, through public programs, exhibits, services, publications, public use of the facilities and special events." Its mission is "to honour, preserve, and share Japanese culture and Japanese Canadian history and heritage for a better Canada." The Museum & Cultural Centre is part of the larger Nikkei Place, whose area also includes the Nikkei Seniors Health Care & Housing Society (Robert Nimi Nikkei Home) and the Nikkei Place Foundation. They are committed to working together and house a variety of businesses and organizations such as a market, restaurant, language school, and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association.

Archives, Materials, & Access

The Nikkei National Museum houses archival materials, art, and objects relating to Japanese Canadian heritage. Its website currently states that the extent of its collection is "2600+ objects, 41,000+ photographs, 38 meters of textual records, 650 oral history recordings, and 156 film reels of historically and culturally significant items." The archival materials available online are hosted at https://www.nikkeimuseum.org/. These materials are all available through open access.

The initial user search interface consists of two keyword search text fields named “collection” and “item.” It is not immediately apparent how a user could view the entirety of the database’s contents without first limiting a query. After entering each letter of the alphabet into the “collection” query in order to return as many results as possible, there are at least 521 fonds / collections in the database. There are 486 results for “collection” while there are only 59 results for “fonds.” The archival fonds contain the following (RAD-compliant and non) elements of archival description: title, general material designation, extent, date, scope and content, biography, number, organization, and access designation. Fonds are arranged hierarchically in descending order from fond to series to files to items. ”

The oral history collection is hosted online by Simon Fraser University Digital Collections and is open-access available. These collections contain individual audio files organized into in a grid view and are thus presented at the item level.

Not all of the organization’s materials are available for online access. The Moving Image Collection that contains 16mm, 8mm, Super 8 films, and VHS tapes are currently placed in long term storage within the museum’s repository.

Collections from the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, the New Denver Internment Memorial Centre, and the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Museum & Archives are also accessible from the organization’s “search the collection” page.

Programming

The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre primarily offers two different types of programming: cultural events and exhibits that exist both online and in person. Cultural programming includes events such as martial arts classes, sushi making classes, and teaching Japanese to children. These classes are sometimes taught through other organizations present at Nikkei Place. Currently, because of the Covid-19 pandemic there are not as many programs being offered as there are at other times. These programs seem to be like those that would occur in recreation centres; this institution is an interesting mix in-between cultural centre, a museum, and an archives.

There are a number of different types of exhibits and events that the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre takes part in. They have had an exhibit about the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, a earthenware exhibit and other exhibits related to the history of Japanese Canadians. They also interestingly enough have a number of online exhibitions that are especially useful when everyone is locked in a quarantine. A lot of the time these exhibits are placed online on separate websites and are often collaborations between different partner institutions. One example of online exhibits is the Hastings Park 1942 exhibit. This exhibit looks at a time when disposed Japanese Canadians were housed in Hasting Park in Vancouver. The website describes the awful conditions of this housing and is quite extensive in examining the history of this place and time.

Community Relationships

The Nikkei National Museum is very connected to the community it serves and in which it serves foremost in its organizational structure. Their board of directors is comprised predominantly of important community members from a variety of walks of life. The museum allows for a number of different jobs for volunteers to help to add to their community. As Flinn presented, it is important to be able to let individuals in the community tell their own stories to not not let people become a statistic . Also, the museum goal fits how Flinn discussed how community archives can represent the diversity of society beyond some traditional conceptions . In this instance, the community tells its stories not only through its archival materials but also through allowing them to be actively involved in the decision making and allowing other types of direct involvement.

  The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre's placement within Nikkei Place helps the museum connect more directly to the community by providing programs related to more than just historical content, including cooking, cultural events, and teaching the Japanese language to children.

  An important part of the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre’s  research is the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Many of their exhibits (especially their online exhibits) are related to the Japanese diaspora, which is represented in a variety of ways--including a specific internment camp. Caswell et. all present about how community archives can be created in order to address the marginalization of a specific community. Not much is available online about the history of this organization or the explicit intentions surrounding its creation, but it stands to reason that the inter-generational reality of this diaspora likely had a significant role in its establishment. Furthermore, Caswell et. all note that while mainstream archives can have these voices about tragedy, it is better for the community directly affected to represent their history on their own terms. This can have an impact in making their voices feel heard.

  In an analysis of the organization’s relationship to its surrounding community, it should be noted that the organization serves multiple, perhaps overlapping, communities. For example, in her discussion of the Japanese American National Museum’s Discover Nikkei project, Wong notes that there is the ethnic and cultural community of Nikkei, a community of interest that participates in learning about Nikkei experiences, and a public capable of contributing and donating materials in order to share stories in their words. The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre has similar ties to these communities compared to the Japanese American National Museum located in Los Angeles of Wong’s discussion.

Relationships With Other Archival Institutions

The interview files comprising the oral history collection were digitized and are currently hosted online by Simon Fraser University Digitized Collections.

Collections from the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, the New Denver Internment Memorial Centre, and the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Museum & Archives are accessible from the organization’s “search the collection” page.

This institution is a partner institution in the Landscapes of injustice project which investigates the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

They were a partner of the project “Asian Canadians on Vancouver Island: Race, Indigeneity, and the Transpacific.” This was a partnership between scholars and museums to gather items and stories related to Asian Canadians and Indigenous people who lived on or around Vancouver Island.

Conclusion

The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre is an example of community archives as intersectionality. It is physically a part of a larger complex whose components have joined together to provide a diverse array of services to its patrons; it is intellectually and infrastructurally attached to other repositories such as those of Simon Fraser University, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, the New Denver Internment Memorial Centre, and the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Museum & Archives; it embodies multiple aspects of the non-restrictive meanings of “community archives” through its representations of social and ethnic diversities, its empowering of the community to tell their own narratives on their own terms, and its creation through a need to address communal marginalization in mainstream spaces; and its services address many communities simultaneously including the ethnic and cultural community of the Nikkei, the community of interest about the Nikkei experience, and the interactive publics that create, produce, consume, and share the narratives and materials. Overall, the organizational focus is on Japanese / Japanese-Canadian history and culture but its services, materials, and contributions are in reality more multi-dimensional.

References

Caswell, Michelle, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci & Marika Cifor. “‘To Be Able to Imagine Otherwise’: Community Archives and the Importance of Representation.” Archives and Records 38 (2017): 5-26.

Flinn, Andrew. “Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of the Society of Archivists 28 (2007): 151-176.

Price, J., & O'Bonsawin, C. "Introduction." BC Studies 204 (2020): 15-19.

Wong, Amelia. "The Complexity of 'Community': Considering the Effects of Discourse on Museums' Social Media Practices." Museum & Society 13 (2015): 296-315.