Mapping My Journey to Home
Created by Lillian Nakamura Maguire, Mapping My Journey to Home allows viewers to explore photos, short stories, poems, documents, and films. These reflect her parents’ emigration from Japan to Canada, to their forced removal from B.C. and seizure of property in 1942 during World War II, to creating a home on the Prairies, to Lillian’s home in the Yukon.
The website includes the short film Kyosyu – Longing for Home created by Lillian and her son, Kiyoshi Maguire during our week of workshopping in November 2022 (keep scrolling to see pictures!). Lillian and Kiyoshi chose to submit the short film to the 2023 Dawson City International Short Film Festival in January 2023. It was accepted and it won the Made In The Yukon Award.
Lillian’s project also features valuable contributions from respected artists Sally Ito, Mieko Ouchi, Takashi Kurokawa, and Wren Brian, along with Lillian’s father Sadato Nakamura. Read more about the team on Lillian’s website on the About page.
Behind the Scenes
In November 2022 thanks to Canada Council for the Arts and the @YAC Residency Program and Yukon Government Department of Tourism and Culture we held a workshop week to help Lillian develop her stories and ideas with fellow collaborators. It is during this week that most of the audio stories were done and a rough cut of film Kyosyu – Longing for Home was created.
Lillian also tested out prompt questions on an invited audience and had everyone respond with post it notes! As part of the website in each home you are able to post your own answers to reflection questions. Explore Lillian’s website to find out more: yukonhome.ca
Take a look at the photos below to get a look into the process before we even began to build the website! It was a wonderful week and wonderful to share the work in progress to help inform the final website.
