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While celebrations of culture continue across the province for Asian Heritage Month, the Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba is balancing revelry with reflection on the struggles and lessons of the past to continue to work towards a more equitable future. The organization will be “Honouring Resilience, Uplifting Stories” with a lecture-conversation of the same name taking place this week in association with the Seven Oaks School Division and the Writers’ Union of Canada.
The conversation will be led by the Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba’s founder, Art Miki. A pivotal figure in Asian Canadian history, Miki was instrumental in ensuring redress compensation for Japanese Canadians after thousands were interned across the country during the Second World War. Miki has continued to work to educate people of all ages on this experience, which is something that he endured firsthand as a child when his family was interned in Vancouver and relocated just outside of Ste. Agathe.
Listen to Art Miki's full conversation with Nolan Kehler on Morning Light here:
Even though he has lived experience, Miki did not appreciate the concept of internment until much later in his life. “I learned about that when I was a little bit older,” he says, “and had never known known what my parents had gone through. I knew we ended up on the sugar beet farm, no knowledge of why, but as a kid of five years old, you don’t ask those questions. And so, as I got older, I realized that this is a story that needs to be told and one that’s not found in the history books.”
In addition to advocating for his community, Miki worked for many years in the education system including as an elementary school principal. He finds that children are more receptive to hearing the stories of interned Japanese Canadians than those who learned the history of this country through an older, narrower lens.
“I think kids realize that yes, those things could possibly happen. It did happen at one time,” Miki explains, “but we do have things in place today that [rights are] protected such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
“They can relate to the fact that if they were forcibly removed from their home, you know, what would they do?”
Even though the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people in his community, Miki is still mindful of the rising racism against Asian Canadians in recent years. In the face of this, he still holds that storytelling and dialogue, not financial compensation, are the most important parts of fighting racism.
“The interesting part [is] when you talk to people, you find out that they’re really no different from you,” he says. “And I think it’s that understanding that really helps shape. So, we need to keep trying to encourage people to get together and talk to each other.”
“Honouring Resilience, Uplifting Stories” takes place at 5:30 p.m. on May 27 at the Amber Trails Community School in its entrance commons. Registration is encouraged ahead of time and can be done at the Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba’s website.
