NIMC INTERFACE PROJECT.

The project will create an interface between the NIMC and the Japanese Canadian survivors, their descendants, and extended families who visit the site. Currently, there is a need to offer more information for visitors. The majority of New Denver residents currently have no memory of the Japanese Canadians who were detained here during the second uprooting until 1957, more than 10 years after the end of the war. The NIMC museum assistants (primarily students) often have no connection to the traumatic events that were experienced by people of Japanese heritage in Canada and the training they receive is very basic as that is only what is available.

The interface project will provide important information about the Japanese Canadian internment and Second Uprooting the information will be provided to staff through scripts, manuals and formal training environment. In turn, staff will transfer that knowledge to visitors.

Through scripts, manuals and training, staff will be empowered to address the challenges of providing the visitor with complex history. This project will provide the seasonal staff with the tools to engage with the visitor as well as offer a healthy and supportive environment through which ongoing exploration and healing might occur for visitors (survivors and non-survivors).

Without contact and context through the staff, the site is currently more of a curiosity than a safe place where the generational effects of the injustice can be considered, questioned, and shared.

Project phases:
Phase 1 – Content Development: January-April 2022: Writing/developing initial scripts

Phase 2: May-September 2022:

• Initial implementation of scripts staff training, tours, editing
• Staff training – 2-day training. Staff will be empowered with language needed to provide a safe and supported environment through which someone who directly experienced the internment feels a connection to the interpretation of that experience in a public space.
• Create a manual that connects the staff with the nuanced significance of certain artifacts, the Kyowakai Hall, the 1941 and 1957 shack, and the garden. The information could be a resource for a larger project designed for the general public.

Phase 3 – September-December 2022:

• Final Phase – Consists of finalized tour scripts for the staff, staff manual with photographs of the artifacts and sites and their links; and a final project report.

• Listing ID: 1556
• Primary Applicant: Village of New Denver
• Event or Completion Date: Saturday, December 31, 2022
• Approved Amount: $4,000
• Location: New Denver, BC