The project we just completed, was all about learning how we could create a meaningful public memory. The driving question for the project was, How can we create a public memory of past wrongs so they are not repeated today? This wasn’t a simple thing to answer, and took lots of work. Not just reading papers kind of work, as a class, we went out in the world to look at different examples of it. In total we went on 6 trips to various places. Our focus was on three events in Canadian history, the Komagata Maru, Chinese oppression, and Japanese oppression. 

The field studies we went on really impacted how much I learnt. I don’t think I realized this until I was actually presenting at the winter exhibition. I was able to talk and engage in conversation of what happened during these events. The more hands on learning with the trips helps me remember the storyline of each event. I like being able to have a memory to tie into the historical event I’m learning about, it helps me recall facts quicker by thinking about what I was experiencing, then what I was learning in the moment.

During this project we did a lot of listening and learning, for me it can sometimes be hard to take in all this information and remember it. This was something I struggled with during this project, remembering all the dates and events we learned, specifically the ones about the Chinese oppression. During our trips to Chinatown, in Vancouver BC, kids in my class would all be able to give answers on the different acts that were put in place against Chinese immigration, while I would be there finding it hard to remember what each one was. Memorization is something I’ve had a hard time with before, over the years I have found different ways to help myself get better at it. However, it is still a skill I know I need to get better at. I find writing things out by hand helps me remember, or of course spending a lot of time learning something, which isn’t always an option. For this project I think I really started to remember everything when I fully understood it. I had heard different people talk about each event, and I learned about each event more than once, giving me a better understanding of everything.

The event I came to know and understand the most was the Komagata Maru. This was because when we broke off into groups, my group focused on this event. My group consisted of me, Logan, and Nathan. Together our goal was to work together to create a memorial for the komagata Maru event. We wanted to do something different that would catch peoples eye, something that could get a younger generation involved and keep them aware of their past as time goes on. Pretty quickly we had the idea of doing some kind of art with a red and blue concept. We didn’t know what we wanted to draw, or if we wanted it to be a sculpture or not. I think this took our group the longest time. We spent a lot of time bouncing ideas off of each other, actually a couple days. In the end I think it really worked out how we communicated, we were able to build off of each other and create our final product.  

By the time the exhibition had come around we had actually managed to create all that needed to be done. Now I say “actually” because we were given a very short amount of class time to prepare or all of this, and as much as I would love to say I believed in my group the whole time, I couldn’t help but doubt a little. We had created many different ways to show our audience our proposed memorial for the Komagata Maru event. There were maps, photoshop images of the memorial where it would go, the actual memorial, and plaques we had written up. All this work was divided in our group which is how we got a lot of it done in time. 

I think one of the things I’m most proud of with this project was actually how we pitched it. Our pitch wasn’t something we rehearsed or even really talked much about before presenting, but I felt it worked out really well. We all got in a rhythm of who was going to say what and how we were going to engage with the audience. It didn’t  even take long for this to happen, because we all worked on different things, we all had a little bit better understanding of certain aspects of our memorial. I felt this really helped our pitch flow, we each had main points we were good at talking about and could pass it on to each other at any point. One thing I would add to our pitch was explaining how our memorial would be a great addition to the existing one, and how it would benefit the community and the viewers that go to look at it. I would want to explain more about how it would help add to the public memory of this event, and why we chose to create a mural instead of the more common statue.

Like always I learned a lot from this project, and for me that learning usually happens after the project has finished and I’ve sat down to reflect about it. I found I also learned a lot during the exhibition, when I really got to showcase my learning. One of the main things I learned about creating a memorial was keeping in mind the target audience, and making something that will create a lasting public memory. For it to be ;asking you need to consider gyration and what will be lasting for them, what will keep and bring awareness to this event in a way that passes on and keeps that public memory alive.