By Caitlin Ohama-Darcus

Please check one of the following three options. I am ___white. I am___black. I am ___other. If other, please specify____________________________________.

How often have you been faced with this question? Where was it? When was it? Why? And what have you checked? What did you specify? How easy did you find putting a name to the parts of you or, for that matter, to the whole of you?

The 20th Anniversary Japanese Canadian Redress Conference was held this past September here in Vancouver, BC, with participants traveling to attend from all over Canada, as well as the United States. This conference stood out as a celebration of community.

On the Friday afternoon of this three-day-long event, I had the honour of co-facilitating a workshop geared towards youth. Titled “Re(a)ddressed: I am (Japanese) Canadian,” the aim of this workshop was to open a dialogue between Japanese Canadian youth surrounding the present and possible futures of identity and ethnicity in Canada. Very suited to these topics was the collaboration of award-winning Canadian independent animation filmmaker, writer and artist, Jeff Chiba Stearns.

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