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Interview with Toki Miyashita by Rod Fowler February 27, 1990 - Track 10
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory525
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1989-1990
- Length
- 00:06:41
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita’s description of how Toko Nuburi and his son [Shusei] worked to create the pole carvings in 1989. She also relates that seeing Toko, a man of the north of Japan, explains her own physical characteristics
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about Toki Miyashita’s description of how Toko Nuburi and his son [Shusei] worked to create the pole carvings in 1989. She also relates that seeing Toko, a man of the north of Japan, explains her own physical characteristics
- Date Range
- 1989-1990
- Length
- 00:06:41
- Subjects
- Celebrations - Centennial
- Ceremonial Artifacts - Totem Poles
- Woodworking Tools and Equipment
- Geographic Access
- Burnaby Mountain Conservation 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
- 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 ten of interview with Toki Miyashita
Track ten of interview with Toki Miyashita
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/MSS187-017/MSS187-017_Track_10.mp3
Event photographs
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription98421
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1973-1999
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Description Level
- File
- Physical Description
- 267 photographs : col. ; 18 cm x 13 cm and smaller
- Scope and Content
- File contains photographs of various events, meetings, and other activities hosted by the Burnaby Historical Society as well as events and ceremonies attended by Society members.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1973-1999
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Series
- Administration series
- Physical Description
- 267 photographs : col. ; 18 cm x 13 cm and smaller
- Description Level
- File
- Record No.
- 633-003
- Access Restriction
- No restrictions
- Reproduction Restriction
- No restrictions
- Accession Number
- 2020-06
- Scope and Content
- File contains photographs of various events, meetings, and other activities hosted by the Burnaby Historical Society as well as events and ceremonies attended by Society members.
- Subjects
- Events
- Media Type
- Photograph
- Notes
- Title based on contents of file
- Photographs were originally contained in a photograph album and removed by Archives staff for preservation purposes. Original order of photographs within the album is maintained.
- Most photographs in file have handwritten notes on verso identifying the individuals and events depicted in the photographs.
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-1:633-003-10 reads: "BHS field trip to Yale 1973"
- Identification key for 633-003-15 available in accession file
- Identification key for 633-003-22 available in accession file
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-23:633-003-35 reads: "Christmas Party at the Home of Violet and Blythe Eagles"
- Identification key for 633-003-36 available in accession file
- 633-003-37:633-003-42 depict a presentation of the publication "Windows to Burnaby's Past"
- Labels on sleeves housing 633-003-43:633-003-50 reads: "1992 Conference BC Historical Federation / May 7, 8, 9, 1992 at Burnaby BC / Held at Sheraton Villa"
- Sticky noted adhered to verso of 633-003-54 read: 'Honorary life member Margaret Stoneberg with Past President John Spittle"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-59:633-003-74 reads: "Luncheon at Hart House May 7 1 pm".
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-68 reads: "Honorary Life Member, Margaret Stoneberg - May 8, 1992"
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-69 reads: "Lunch at Hart House - Anne Yandle and Francis Wellwood in foreground"
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-74 reads: "Ilma Dunn (Whiterock) Nancy Peter (Burnaby) Ernest Harris (Vancouver) Naomi Miller (Wasa)"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-75:633-003-85 reads: "Tour of Burnaby Village Museum 2pm"
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-78 reads: "The visitors at Burnaby Village Museum - May 8, 1992"
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-81 reads: "History Revisited! Don Sale at the teacher's desk in Seaforth School, Burnaby Village. Don took his practice teaching in this school!"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-86:633-003-91 reads: "May 9th Burnaby Mountain Park"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-92:633-003-103 reads: "Tour of Simon Fraser University"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-104:633-003-109 reads: "Lunch at SFU"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-110:633-003-144 reads: "Awards Banquet - Burnaby Lake Pavilion"
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-144 reads: "Four Burnaby Ladies / Joan Bellinger, Florence Hart Godwin, Helen Brown and Winn Roff relax before the Awards Banquet"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-145:633-003-151 reads: "Hart House Tea June 17/92"
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-152:633-003-154 reads: "Discovery Day 1994"
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-155:633-003-158 reads: "BHS receives first Burnaby Heritage Award 1993"
- Identification key for 633-003-155 available in accession file
- Sticky note adhered to 633-003-158 reads: "front row (l to r) Hazel L'Estrange, Mary Coe, Kay Moore / 2nd row (l to r) Una Carlson, Helen Street / 3rd row (l to r) Margaret Matorich, Pixie McGeachie"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-159:633-003-178 reads: "Official opening of the garden and restored Jubilee Arch Central Park 1994"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-180:633-003-235 reads: "Burnaby Historical Society June 25, 1997 40th Anniversary"
- Letter from the Beckleys, photographers of 633-003-236:633-003-239 available in accession file. Identification key for 633-003-237:633-003-238 available in accession file. Identification key for 633-003-239 available in accession file. Photographs depict 1989 sod turning ceremony for administration building at Burnaby Village Museum.
- Note accompanying 633-003-240 available in accession file
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-241:633-003-242 reads: "Burnaby Discovery Day Shadbolt Centre 1998"
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-243:633-033-246 reads: "BHS field trip to Kilby General Store and Farm June, 1998"
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-247:633-003-249 reads: "Fraser Wilson Room Archives"
- Identification key for 633-003-252 available in accession file
- Label on sleeves housing 633-003-253:633-003-257 reads: "Heritage Award"
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-258:633-003-261 reads: "BCHF Conference May, 1999 Merritt, B.C."
- Label on sleeve housing 633-003-262:633-003-264 reads: "Burnaby "Hero" 2002"
- 633-003-267 is annotated: "Catherine Rees 90th Birthday Party". Photo is an inkjet print on paper.
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