Ujjal Dosanjh supports the preservation of Kogawa House
This morning the Save Kogawa House committee met with federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh who is MP for Vancouver South which includes the child hood home of Joy Kogawa at 1450 West 64th Avenue.
Both Minister Dosanjh and Mrs. Dosanjh were very warm and welcoming to our committee. The Save Kogawa House Committee was represented by co-ordinators Ann-Marie Metten and Todd Wong (me), Ellen Crowe-Swords, and Steve Turnbull. Joy Kogawa also accompanied us, and former City Councillor Ellen Woodsworth accompanied us as an advocate.
Our background information gave him the importance of preserving this house, as he was unaware that not only was the 1915 house one of the last remaining original Marpole homes, it is the only identified house in Vancouver that had been confiscated by the Canadian government due to the internment of Japanese Canadians in 1942.
Minister Dosanjh was very supportive of our efforts to save and preserve Kogawa House, but was cautious of what he could commit to because of the uncertainty whether he would be re-elected or re-instated in cabinet.
In our discussions, we talked about how previous 2003 efforts by the Kogawa House committee to obtain Canada Parks heritage status had been turned down, because the person in questin being honoured must have been dead for 30 years. Dosanjh agreed that the 1942 Japanese Canadian internment would qualify as an event to be recognized and commemorated.
We were very specific that we were not asking for further redress for the Japanese Canadian internment, but to recognize Joy Kogawa's achivements as an important Canadian author and literary figure. He did share to having purchased a copy of "Obasan" a number of years ago, but also admitted to not having finished reading the book.
We told him about the Vancouver Opera's production of Naomi's Road, currently touring schools in British Columbia, and volunteered to find him a performance at a school in his Vancouver Riding for him to see in the new Year. Dosanjh listened attentively when we shared with him, how the opera has become a catalyst for healing in both the Japanese Canadian and Canadian communities, as so many audience members have been emotionally moved by it's performances.
As well, we shared with the Minister that the January 22, 2006, Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner will share fundraising proceeds with the Save Kogawa House campaign, and invited him to the spectacular multicultural event. I pointed out that my opera soprano friend Veera devi Khare had performed at the 2005 dinner, and that I had helped recommend and arrange for Veera to perform at his 2004 fundraiser event.
And we invited him to listen to CBC Radio Sounds Like Canada on Dec. 26th, as Shelagh Rogers (2006 GHFC co-host) will interview Joy about the Save Kogawa House campaign, and her literary career.
Minister Dosanjh was clearly moved by our presentation, committment to multiculturalism, and enthusiasm for turning Kogawa House into a writing centre for the benefit of all Canadians, while simultaneouly paying respect to an important time in our history. He next spoke about how Western Canada has been short-changed in Canada Council grants for the arts. He said he was shocked at the statistics, when he discovered that BC and the Maritimes were under-represented, as most Canada Council grants went to Ontario and Quebec. He vowed to help us in whatever ways possible given the constraints of the present election season, and noting that after the election on Jan 23, we would only have about 60 days left to save Kogawa House from demolition.
We left the meeting feeling that while we had Dosanjh's ear, clearly he is in election mode. But he gave us some good directions to move towards, particularly that he would put in a word for us with Carole Taylor, the MLA for the Marpole neighborhood, and coincidently the Finance Minister of the provincial Liberal government.
We were therefore thrilled to later learn that Minister Dosanjh would like to have a quick and timely follow up meeting with us on Wednesday. Since it will be on December 21st, Winter solstice, we are hoping our meeting will be a turning point for the Save Kogawa House campaign as we are presently trying to secure government funding for the project.
