Tracing Histories in Oppenheimer Park: An Exercise in Cognitive Mapping

Abstract

The following is an exploration of personal memories and historical narratives in Oppenheimer Park, a highly politicized park in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Cognitive maps of Oppenheimer Park—maps drawn from memory by regular users of the Park—were collected via postcards in the summer of 2008. With attention to Fredric Jameson’s invitation to trace the relationship of individuals to broader social space, the purpose of this paper is to identify Downtown Eastside historical narratives—often marginalized or obscured in popular representations of Vancouver’s history—through the pathways, figures and landmarks indicated in the visual renderings of Oppenheimer Park, and to set those histories against broader processes of spatial reproduction. The interpretive analysis of the collected images brings to the surface the social histories embedded within the Park and postcards in a meaningful way without smoothing over or reconciling the conflicting, multiaccentual significations that refract the historical and social landscape.

Biopower, Disciplinary Power and Surveillance: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Lived Experience of People Who Use Drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

“…By way of background, in 2008, hundreds of people from Vancouver's homeless community arrived to protest the ticketing of homeless people sleeping in parks throughout the city. It was at this time that Oppenheimer Park became known as "tent city" (Aoki, 2011). Since then, the municipal government has continually attempted to relocate park dwellers into housing units.…”

Assembling “Japantown”? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada

“…This growing interest in culture and history emerged in tandem with the Asian Rights Movement in Canada, which in Vancouver was centred around Japanese Canadian student activism at the University of British Columbia, and Tonari Gumi, a social service organization and drop in centre on Powell Street where nisei and sansei worked to support aging issei seniors (Izumi, 2005). This combination of cultural affirmation and rights activism would in time inspire members of this group to lead a national effort calling for the federal government to redress the injustices of the uprooting, internment, and dispossession (Aoki, 2011;Miki, 2005). Publications such as the activist anthology Inalienable Rice and events like the Powell Street Festival celebrated the material and discursive return of Japanese Canadians to the heart of the lowincome DTES by communicating, showcasing, and celebrating history and culture while emphasizing the community's connectedness to the Powell Street area (Aoki, 2011;Izumi, 2005;Miki, 2005).…”

“…This combination of cultural affirmation and rights activism would in time inspire members of this group to lead a national effort calling for the federal government to redress the injustices of the uprooting, internment, and dispossession (Aoki, 2011;Miki, 2005). Publications such as the activist anthology Inalienable Rice and events like the Powell Street Festival celebrated the material and discursive return of Japanese Canadians to the heart of the lowincome DTES by communicating, showcasing, and celebrating history and culture while emphasizing the community's connectedness to the Powell Street area (Aoki, 2011;Izumi, 2005;Miki, 2005). Yet diverse motivations within the broader Japanese Canadian community became quickly apparent as the goals of activists also aligned well with new multicultural strategies within government (see Izumi, 2005).…”