Mariana Drok

Last week our ASTU class visited the Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSC), where we had an amazing opportunity to explore archives. Archives ‘mainly consist of primary sources and are received by a person or organization’. The most exciting and precious feature of archives is their integrity. The fact that archives do not contain any outside analysis and interpretation gives a person more space for exploration and does not limit their research. As our class is currently reading Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, the main purpose of our visit to RBSC was to learn more about the process of writing the book by looking at primary sources given to the library by the author. Looking through Joy Kogawa’s archives made me think about a choice she made – to share her memories with others. In this post, I want to discuss the connection between a public and private archive, the way one’s memories can become a property of a society.

People make a choice to save some things and throw others away. By doing so, they deliberately choose to forget some events and to remember others. The connection between things (artifacts) and particular events is obvious. These artifacts preserve the memories and keep them alive in people’s hearts and minds. For example, families tend to store their pictures and other items that remind them of a special event or a period of time so that they can remember it. “Things that belong to yesterday”(Kogawa, 62) are not just materialistic belongings, but memory holders. Why is it important to remember? The answer lies in the words of one of the Obasan’s characters – Aunt Emily: ‘the past is the future’ (Kogawa, 60).         Remembering family’s history is necessary to maintain the feeling of belonging. This topic is widely discussed in Obasan. Naomi, who is Sansei (the third generation of the Japanese-born immigrants) is in the conflict inside. The lack of knowledge makes her experience displacement and uncertainty. However, by rediscovering information about her family’s past makes Naomi understand herself better and provides her with a background she always needed.

The significance of private archives is undeniable. However, private archives are accessible only to a particular group of people within one family, or another social group, while public archives are there to enrich minds of the whole society. When a private archive becomes public it reevaluates the memory. It is obvious, that not every private archive can have a value in the eyes of a society. The artifacts placed for public must be the ones that tell the story of something relevant for the whole society. A public archive as an institution of a social memory can be a place of learning more about one’s culture and even redefining one’s personality through looking at a more global scale.

I was greatly impressed by Joy Kogawa’s documents, letters, and pictures. For me, as for an international student, it was very interesting and in some ways surprising to reveal a more shady side of the Canadian history not just through reading Obasan, but through getting acquainted with personal belongings of the author. This experience brought more reality to the story of Obasan. Even though the book is a work of fiction, it is based on real events and definitely has something to share with a reader. It ruins a silence kept for a long time within a Canadian society. Thus, archives can be more than just collections of things, they can tell stories of lives and connect past with the present.

Photo retrieved from http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca/news/featured-room-mackenzie-seminar-room/

Works cited: Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1981. Print.