BC Heritage Sites
The purpose of this program is to assist local communities in British Columbia in promoting public awareness of pre-war and wartime Japanese Canadian history through interpretive heritage projects at sites of their ancestral communities and other places of historical significance. Projects to commemorate such places will have an enduring value. This fund is intended to help make some of these now mostly invisible sites visible to new generations of British Columbians so that they may learn to appreciate the lasting legacy of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia. These legacies include state-sanctioned racism that led to unjust treatment before, during and after the war. Initiatives may include projects that promote memorialization, conservation and/or education of Japanese Canadian history tailored to a region within the province of British Columbia.
For Japanese Canadians, it is important to our community, and to our collective healing, that we preserve these stories and acknowledge the places that, prior to uprooting, the Japanese Canadian community called home – the places where we flourished and raised our families and built our businesses, and the places where we experienced and overcame adversity. Commemorating and celebrating our historic places — most of which remain under-recognized and underserved — is long overdue. It is at the heart of our community’s work to reclaim our history and rebuild connections to our heritage in British Columbia.
Background
The first recorded immigrants from Japan arrived in British Columbia in the late 19th century. Over several decades, Canadians of Japanese ancestry established communities, homes and livelihoods throughout the province. Resource-based jobs, retail/mercantile enterprises, lodging houses, language schools, churches and temples once underpinned the vibrant economic life and culture of Japanese Canadians in this province. There were thriving farms on the coastal islands, the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan Interior and elsewhere. Steveston was a well-known fishing/boat-building/canning centre, yet it was only one of many coastal communities of Japanese Canadians, including Prince Rupert and communities even further north. In 1942 there was the forced dispossession, expulsion, incarceration, internment, banishment and/or deportation of more than 22,000 individuals. A second uprooting, postwar, erased Japanese Canadians almost entirely from the province, exiling almost 4,000 Japanese Canadians to Japan in 1946. Mass dispossession continued for a decade into the early 1950s.
Most internment camps of the 1940s were razed, leaving almost no evidence of their existence today. Little physical evidence of ordinary Japanese Canadian lives throughout the province remains. Much of this history remains invisible to British Columbians today and, in particular, histories tied to lesser-known or non-urban sites that have been overshadowed by larger hubs of pre-war Japanese Canadian activity such as Pauerugai (Powell Street) in Vancouver, Steveston, and later the internment sites in British Columbia’s interior.
Categories of Funding
There are two categories of funding under the BC Heritage Sites Program, both of which have a pre-approval mechanism:
Category 1
Category 1 grants are for Predetermined BC Heritage Sites, intended to assist in the development and implementation of earmarked BC Heritage Site capital projects in Maple Ridge, Surrey, Nanaimo, Chemainus, Cumberland/Comox Valley, Prince Rupert, Tashme, Ucluelet and the Gulf Islands (Gabriola, Galiano, Mayne and Salt Spring islands) as well as Miyazaki House (Lillooet), Hastings Park and Powell Street (Vancouver) and the Vancouver Japanese Language School. There must be an interpretive education plan built into the planning of Category 1 projects.
The list of sites is subject to review and change.
Category 2
Category 2 grants will assist with Regional Heritage Projects that create, refurbish, recognize or protect Japanese Canadian heritage resources.
Dates (Subject to Change)
This funding is now closed
Guidelines available August 1, 2023
Applications available September 1, 2023
Deadline for applications on or before March 1, 2024. Late applications will only be accepted on a prearranged and per case basis with the approval of the BC Heritage Sites Program Coordinators and CEO.
NOTE: Approved proposals will move forward once completed applications are processed.
Projects, including final report, must be completed by March 1, 2027.
Glossary
BC Heritage Site or Japanese Canadian Heritage Site
A structure, building, group of buildings, district, landscape or other place in British Columbia of historical significance to Japanese Canadians either pre-war or during the internment era. A heritage site could also include a legally protected community heritage resource, an area where pre-war Japanese Canadian populations were concentrated, an internment camp site, etc.
Capital Purchase
Any single purchase of $5,000 or more of goods or equipment that have a useful life beyond one year. Capital purchases must also be individual, stand-alone, movable, tangible items or intangible assets.
Conservation
All actions or processes that are aimed at safeguarding the character-defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life. This may involve preservation and restoration; or a combination of these actions or processes.
- Preservation The action or process of protecting, maintaining and/or stabilizing the existing materials, form and integrity of a heritage resource.
- Restoration The action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a heritage resource as it appeared at a particular period of history. (See Heritage B.C. (2022). Heritage Legacy Fund Program Guidelines & Policies 2022, pp. 20-21.)
Heritage Awareness (re Assessment Criteria below)
Activities or projects that are aimed at raising the awareness and understanding of Japanese Canadian history.
Heritage Resources
Both human and natural resources created by activities from the past that remain to inform present and future societies of that past. This may include heritage buildings, structures, sites, cemeteries, districts and cultural landscapes, or intangible heritage such as language and customs.
Internment Era
The years 1942 to 1949.
Japanese Canadian (JC)
A Canadian citizen of Japanese ancestry, or a person of Japanese ancestry who has permanent residency or landed immigrant status in Canada.
Japanese Canadian History
The study of past events connected with persons of Japanese descent in Canada, with particular emphasis on the Internment Era in British Columbia.
Memorialization or Commemoration
Activities or projects that aim to preserve and honour Japanese Canadian history.
Municipality
A municipality can be either a town, village, district, township or city.
Organization
A not-for-profit organization that has an established constitution and by-laws and has been incorporated for at least two years. An organization can also be incorporated under a BC corporations Act without the distinction of a not-for-profit designation.
Partnership with a Municipality
Partnership with a Municipality refers to a formal agreement between an Organization and a municipality to develop and complete a BC Heritage Site.
Recognition of Assistance
In recognition of funding, the support of the JCLS must be acknowledged in all promotional materials, both print and online where appropriate. Further details of recognition will be provided to successful applicants.
Amendment of Guidelines
These guidelines may be amended by the JCLS from time to time, and applicants should ensure that their applications comply with the most recent version of the guidelines.
THIS VERSION OF THE GUIDELINES IS DATED JANUARY 1, 2024.
Contact Information
If you have any questions after reading the Program Application Guidelines and the Frequently Asked Questions, please contact the JCLS Project Office at info@jclegacies.com.
Reference
Heritage B.C. (2022). Heritage Legacy Fund Program Guidelines & Policies 2022. www.heritagebc.ca.