A SERIES OF FIRSTS
Markham Museum displaying immigrants’ experiences from Confederation to today
Markham exhibit captures immigrants’ experiences,
A series of “firsts” has marked every newcomer’s arrival in Canada, regardless of era or country of origin.
Perhaps the first plane trip, the first winter, the first sight of Canada arriving at a port in Halifax, the first encounter with a countryman from the same homeland, the first English class, the first time of realizing, “I belong.”
There are also the stories of the first job landed, the first home, the first taste of freedom, the first day of official citizenship and even the first confrontation with racism and discrimination.
These experiences and impressions, told through the recollections of immigrants, are vividly captured in a travelling exhibit, Canada: Day 1, presented by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, on display at the Markham Museumuntil June.
“Day one in Canada is an official and personal rite of passage for immigrants. It is something that everybody can relate to quickly and opens the doorways for different insights into all the big issues on immigration,” said Dan Conlin, the exhibit’s curator.
“We have the audios and videos of immigrants sharing their powerful stories. There are a lot of funny and touching moments, but they are not all happy stories. There are also many challenging aspects to their experiences.”
Housed in a 15,000-square-foot exhibit area at the museum, just northwest of 16th Ave. and Markham Rd., the multimedia exhibition is divided into four sections: Arrivals, Encounters, Finding Your Way and Reflections.
With a $500,000 gift from the RBC Foundation, the national immigration museum has collected personal stories from more than 1,000 immi- grants across Canada through its oral history program.
It also commissioned original artworks and collected immigration-related archival images for the exhibition, which covers the period from Confederation to today.
Entering the show, patrons are greeted with a mosaic of images of confused, excited and anxious immigrants arriving at ports, airports and land borders. Not all of the images are happy: they include a group of Indian migrants aboard the ship Komagata Maru, which was turned away by Canada in1914, and a holding centre at Pier 21 once used to detain new arrivals.
Also displayed are items — or exact replicas of items — immigrants interviewed for this project carried in their luggage to Canada, including beans from Italy, instant noodle soups from Hong Kong, family photo albums, jewelry, books and even stuffed animals.
“These items really evoke memories and stories. That’s the power of this exhibit. It connects with people in a very personal way,” Conlin said during a recent preview for the Star.
The Encounters section documents newcomers’ dealings with Canadian officials, their new neighbours and compatriots from their home countries.
There are stories of inclusion, for instance when Canada went out of its way to pay for the passage of British war brides, as well as tales of exclusion, as when Chinese railroad workers were forbidden to bring their families here.
One highlight is the paper tags that Canadian immigration officials, until the 1960s, put around the neck of each immigrant at ports of entry to indicate which domestic train and destination the person was scheduled for.
“They look like luggage tags. It’s humiliating, though they used them for practical reasons because many of the arriving immigrants from Europe did not speak English or French,” said Conlin, adding that one Holocaust orphan interviewed for the project had refused to wear the tag because of his war experiences.
The Finding Your Way section explores the challenges faced by immigrants, such as the struggle to get a job and integrate into Canada’s multicultural fabric.
Brazilian native Vanessa Martins recalled her experience securing her first job as a cashier in a grocery store after moving to Montreal in 2006.
“It had been about three hours since we had gotten off the plane,” she recalled in a video clip. “My heart was beating (fast), because I knew nothing. First off, the accent being so different . . . I knew none of the products because back then I didn’t eat the same things, and clients would ask me, ‘Eh, where is the Cheez Whiz?’ ‘Cheez what?’ ”
One of the commissioned artworks is by Camilo Gomez-Duran, who photographed newcomers at their kitchen tables and the breakfast they made. Conlin says the work highlights the universal significance of food and family for immigrants.
A complementary exhibit curated by Markham Museum staff features authentic artifacts loaned by the city’s own immigrants, including an Italian passport dated 1967 and an old-fashioned English-Chinese electronic dictionary that a Hong Kong immigrant came here with years ago.
“Our community has changed so rapidly. We all left somewhere else to be here. Markham is so fitting to be the host for this exhibit,” said museum director Cathy Molloy.
“We speak different languages and share different cultures, but these stories show us how we are more alike than we think.”
Admission for the show is $6 for adults, $4 for children ages 2 to 12, and $5 for seniors and students. An official opening is scheduled for Feb. 16, during Markham’s Winterfest celebration.