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Interview with Toki Miyashita by Rod Fowler February 27, 1990 - Track 3

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory518

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date Range: 1969-1990

Length: 00:04:54

Summary: This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita and her family’s move to Burnaby in 1969 to an apartment near Brentwood Mall. She tells about continuing to demonstrate origami in schools and teach Ikebana in the community.

1 audio

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Summary: This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita and her family’s move to Burnaby in 1969 to an apartment near Brentwood Mall. She tells about continuing to demonstrate origami in schools and teach Ikebana in the community.

Date Range: 1969-1990

Length: 00:04:54

Subjects: Persons - Volunteers; Arts

Historic Neighbourhood: Vancouver Heights (Historic Neighbourhood)

Planning Study Area: Brentwood Area

Interviewer: Fowler, Rod

Interview Date: February 27, 1990

Scope and Content: Recording is of an interview with Toki Miyashita, conducted by Rod Fowler. Toki Miyashita was one of eleven participants interviewed as part of the SFU/Burnaby Centennial Committee's oral history series titled, "Voices of Burnaby". The interview is about Toki Miyashita’s family’s internment during WWII, her awakening interest in Japanese culture after the war, her subsequent interest in teaching others about Japanese crafts and arts, and becoming a helpful intermediary between Burnaby and visitors from Japan. The interview explores her interest in the Ainu of Japan and their possible link to the aboriginals of BC, her impressions of the Ainu carver Nuburi Toko, and her involvement in the events surrounding the creation of the sculpture “Playground of the Gods” for Burnaby Mountain. The interview also contains interesting details about the art of Japanese flower-arranging. To view “Narrow By” terms for each track expand this description and see “Notes”.

Biographical Notes: Toki Miyashita was born in Richmond B.C., ca. 1935, at the Nelson Brothers “fishery”, a second generation Canadian descended from the Oikawa family who settled on Don and Lion Islands (Oikawa-shima). In 1942 the Japanese Canadians in BC were forcibly moved from the coast and their belongings confiscated. Toki Miyashita, her parents, two brothers, and grandparents were first taken to Hastings Park where her father was separated from the family to work in road camps, and the rest of the family were interned in New Denver. Her resourceful grandmother moved the family to land outside the internment camp, growing a large garden from seeds brought with her. In 1946 the family moved to Kamloops and in 1958, after finishing high school, Toki Miyashita moved to Montreal to be with relatives and a small Japanese community. At this time she became interested in Japanese culture and took a Japanese language course at age 22. She learned about Japanese flower-arranging (Ikebana), paper folding (Origami), silk doll making (from a Russian Jew), and how to wear a kimono. She began demonstrating these arts in schools and to other groups, which she continued doing when she, her husband and two young children moved to Burnaby in 1969. Toki Miyashita has been called an unpaid “ambassador” of Japanese culture to the Lower Mainland. She has acted as liaison between Burnaby and her sister city Kushiro in Japan, which involved her in the creation of the Ainu sculpture “Playground of the Gods” on Burnaby Mountain for Burnaby’s Centennial. Toki Miyashita is a recognized Master in Ikebana Sogetsu, a school of flower-arranging, and has served on the board of the Vancouver Ikebana Association. She also served on Burnaby’s Family Court in the 1980s.

Total Tracks: 11

Total Length: 01:34:10

Interviewee Name: Miyashita, Toki

Interviewer Bio: Rod Fowler returned to university as a mature student in the 1980s after working about twenty years in the field of economics and computerization in business in England, Europe and Western Canada. He graduated with a BA from SFU in both History and Sociology in 1987, his MA degree in Geography in 1989, and his PhD in Cultural Geography at SFU. He taught courses in Geography, Sociology, History and Canadian Studies at several Lower Mainland colleges, before becoming a full time member of the Geography Department at Kwantlen University College.

Collection/Fonds: SFU/Burnaby Centennial Committee fonds

Series: Centennial Oral History project series

Transcript Available: Transcript available

Media Type: Sound Recording

Web Notes: Interviews were digitized in 2015 allowing them to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council.

Audio Tracks

Track three of interview with Toki Miyashita

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/MSS187-017/MSS187-017_Track_3.mp3

Interview with Tom Mark by Eric Damer October 12, 2012 - Track 2

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory364

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date Range: 1946-1965

Length: 0:08:24

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Thomas "Tom" Mark's memories of his activities outside of work. He discusses his garden and aviary filled with birds, he and his wife's volunteerism, and his memories of how the Fraser Valley flood of 1948 affected Burnaby.

1 audio

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Thomas "Tom" Mark's memories of his activities outside of work. He discusses his garden and aviary filled with birds, he and his wife's volunteerism, and his memories of how the Fraser Valley flood of 1948 affected Burnaby.

Date Range: 1946-1965

Length: 0:08:24

Subjects: Persons - Volunteers

Interviewer: Damer, Eric

Interview Date: October 12, 2012

Scope and Content: Recording is an interview with Thomas "Tom" Mark conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, October 12, 2012. Major theme discussed: being a volunteer.

Biographical Notes: Thomas "Tom" Mark was born in 1923 and grew up in New Westminster. In 1937 his family moved to Victoria, British Columbia where he finished his schooling and worked for a year in the shipyard before enlisting in the air force. He was stationed in England during the war, and in 1946 he bought a small house in East Burnaby for his English bride and himself. For three years Tom drove a heating fuel truck for Shell Oil and then became the agent for a Shell marine service station on the Fraser River, near the Patullo Bridge. His aviary garnered him the nickname “birdman of Burnaby.” His son attended St. Thomas Moore High School and then Simon Fraser University when it opened in 1965. In 1995 Tom Mark was awarded the Kushiro Cup for Outstanding Citizen of the Year for his volunteer work with the Burnaby Health Department.

Total Tracks: 4

Total Length: 0:32:43

Interviewee Name: Mark, Thomas "Tom"

Interview Location: Burnaby Village Museum

Interviewer Bio: Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.

Collection/Fonds: Community Heritage Commission Special Projects fonds

Series: Burna-Boom Oral History Project series

Transcript Available: None

Media Type: Sound Recording

Audio Tracks

Track two of recording of interview with Tom Mark

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/MSS171-018/MSS171-018_Track_2.mp3

Interview with Tom Mark by Eric Damer October 12, 2012 - Track 4

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory366

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date Range: 1930-1995

Length: 0:05:40

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Thomas "Tom" Mark's experiences as a care giver for his wife as well as a volunteer at the Burnaby Health Department. He mentions being awarded Burnaby's Kushiro Cup Citizen of the Year Award in 1995. Tom finishes his interview with a childhood story involv…

1 audio

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Thomas "Tom" Mark's experiences as a care giver for his wife as well as a volunteer at the Burnaby Health Department. He mentions being awarded Burnaby's Kushiro Cup Citizen of the Year Award in 1995. Tom finishes his interview with a childhood story involving his uncle's roadster.

Date Range: 1930-1995

Length: 0:05:40

Subjects: Persons - Volunteers

Interviewer: Damer, Eric

Interview Date: October 12, 2012

Scope and Content: Recording is an interview with Thomas "Tom" Mark conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, October 12, 2012. Major theme discussed: being a volunteer.

Biographical Notes: Thomas "Tom" Mark was born in 1923 and grew up in New Westminster. In 1937 his family moved to Victoria, British Columbia where he finished his schooling and worked for a year in the shipyard before enlisting in the air force. He was stationed in England during the war, and in 1946 he bought a small house in East Burnaby for his English bride and himself. For three years Tom drove a heating fuel truck for Shell Oil and then became the agent for a Shell marine service station on the Fraser River, near the Patullo Bridge. His aviary garnered him the nickname “birdman of Burnaby.” His son attended St. Thomas Moore High School and then Simon Fraser University when it opened in 1965. In 1995 Tom Mark was awarded the Kushiro Cup for Outstanding Citizen of the Year for his volunteer work with the Burnaby Health Department.

Total Tracks: 4

Total Length: 0:32:43

Interviewee Name: Mark, Thomas "Tom"

Interview Location: Burnaby Village Museum

Interviewer Bio: Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.