Abstract

Southern Alberta is home to Canada’s third largest post-war concentration of Japanese Canadians. Many Japanese Canadians were relocated to this region between 1942 and 1949, and many remained to rebuild their lives and communities during the postwar period. Our study draws on oral histories conducted as part of the Nikkei Memory Capture Project, a multi-year oral history project that initiates the narration and analysis of the cultural and social history of Japanese Canadians from 1950 to the present in southern Alberta, Canada, to interrogate the cultural practice of curling, near ubiquitous and evocative in the memories shared, as a means and representation of Japanese Canadian integration, civic engagement, community building, resiliency and agency. In southern Alberta during the postwar period, curling, as a physical cultural practice, served several purposes: first, curling provided a social space for community renewal through–sometimes Japanese-only–events and gatherings; second, representations and experiences of curling reflect and contribute to the nisei goal of achieving full integration into Canadian culture; and third, it provided space for expressions of resiliency, agency, and escape through camaraderie and physical movements on the ice.

摘要

南艾伯塔省是加拿大战后第三大日裔加拿大人聚集地。许多日裔加拿大人在 1942 年至 1949 年间迁往该地区，许多人在战后时期仍留在那里重建他们的生活和社区。我们的研究借鉴了作为日经记忆捕获项目的一部分进行的口述历史，一项多年口述历史项目，启动对 1950 年至今日裔加拿大人在加拿大艾伯塔省南部的文化和社会历史的叙述和分析，以询问在共享的记忆中几乎无处不在和令人回味的冰壶文化实践，作为日裔加拿大人融入、公民参与、社区建设、弹性和代理的手段和代表。在战后时期的艾伯塔省南部，冰壶运动作为一种体育文化实践，有多种用途：首先，冰壶运动通过（有时仅限日本）的活动和聚会为社区复兴提供了社交空间；第二，冰壶的表现和经验反映和贡献于nisei实现完全融入加拿大文化的目标；第三，它为通过冰上的友情和身体运动表达弹性、代理和逃生提供了空间。