Oppenheimer Park

Location: 400 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1G6

This public park has a rich history acting as a battle ground for the fight against racism, poverty, and oppression of culture and language. The ground that this park now encloses is known to different minority groups by names other than the colloquial name Oppeheimer Park or Powell Street Grounds, ranging from the Japanese-Canadian name Paueru Groundo, to the Musqueam K’emk’émlay’. The park, and all of the city of Vancouver, rests on unceded Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam Territories. Contemporary placement of this park locates it in the historically significant Japantown. Anti-Japanese and anti-Indigenous oppression has played a significant role in the history of this park.

In the 1870s, the first Japanese settlers arrived in the emerging colony of British Columbia. The area of prominent Japanese development initially called Nihonmachi, known today as Japantown, formed shortly afterwards as the Japanese-Canadian community thrived. In 1914, the Asahi baseball team formed, using Oppenheimer Park as their playing field. This team was extremely successful winning many titles and served as a major source of pride for the Japanese-Canadian’s of Japantown. However, in 1941, the team was disbanded as anti-Japanese sentiments and racism during World War II resulted in the forced deportation and internment of Japanese-Canadians in internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. The culture, diversity, and language displayed in Japantown by the Japanese-Canadians was almost entirely destroyed by the internment. But thanks to the resilience and continued work by returning Japanese-Canadians, the area now known as Japantown and the Japanese history of Oppenheimer Park has seen a cultural resurgence, albeit never fully restoring the once thriving Nihonmachi. Since 1977, the annual Powell Street Festival has been taking place in Oppenheimer Park celebrating the continued Japanese presence and importance in Vancouver. Take care to notice the “Asahi Baseball” placard on the historic baseball diamond when walking through the park.

The Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam Peoples have inhabited and cared for the land that this park now occupies for thousands of years. This area was more recently utilized as a home and safe place for Indigenous Peoples of the area after the expulsion of Indigenous Peoples from Stanley Park after it’s colloquial founding in 1887. Take care to notice the memorial totem pole and the “tree of life,” a Western red cedar, that both act as contemporary monuments to the rich history and importance of Indigenous Peoples on this ground.

While walking through the park, make sure to also take notice of the carved wooden feathers hanging from the trees along the walkway. These feathers feature linguistically diverse messages to and names of those that have died or are at risk from the opioid overdose epidemic currently gripping Vancouver, especially the Downtown Eastside. These feathers were hung following the rally at Oppenheimer Park in 2017 on Vancouver’s National Day of Action march.

Since 2014, tents have been continuously pitched in Oppenheimer Park. The park has acted as a place of refuge and as a home for many people living in poverty, the majority of which in Vancouver studies have shown belong to minority groups. The tents originated as a protest of the abysmal and unsafe conditions homeless people in Vancouver were facing either on the street or in temporary shelters and communal buildings. But tents have remained since then due to these same reasons and tent inhabitation was intensified by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. Tent cities were a dominant presence in the park until the inhabitants were removed in May and relocated to government housing. Today, parts of the park are still cordoned off as refurbishment continues.

References

Brach, B. (2017, February 21). “Vancouver drug users take to streets in national day of action.” CBC. Retrieved on November 22, 2020, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-drug-userstake-to-streets-in-national-day-of-action-1.3993397.

Duffek, K., and Tania W. (2016). Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories. UBC Museum of Anthropology.

Ellison, K. (2018). A Place of Resistance: Oppenheimer Park, East Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. SFU Library Digital Publishing. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/228533409.pdf

Robinson, K. (2020, November 15). “$870K and counting: Break-in, vandalism delay Oppenheimer Park reopening plans”. Global News. Retrieved on November 22, 2020, from https://globalnews.ca/news/7463727/oppenheimer-park-reopening-delayed/

Wilson, D.J. (n.d.). 400 Block East Cordova baseball at Oppenheimer Park [Photograph]. GEOG 350 University of British Columbia Wiki Page. https://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1/Oppenheimer-Park