K’emk’émlay’. Paueru Groundo. Oppenheimer. Powell Street Grounds. “Hastings Reserve.”
These are some of the names this ground has gone by. They range from pre-settlement Squamish (Musqueam a close variant), through city government and local names, along with their Japanese-Canadian variant, to a contemporary colloquial nickname that signals the ongoing use of the park by urban First Nations people. These names form the opening chant of “Shadow Catch,” a new chamber opera set on this ground.
Why this park? Outside of the Downtown Eastside, many Vancouver residents, speeding past along Cordova and Powell, see merely a green block in a shabby part of town. They don’t recognize the oldest surviving park in the heart of the city, a tree-stump vacancy designated a sports ground in 1902 and named after Vancouver’s second mayor, David Oppenheimer. There is nothing left of the grove of large-leafed maples and salmon streams that preceded it. There is nothing left of the loggers or of Hastings Mill nor of its large crew that included Japanese millhands who generated the thriving community of shops, cafes, and rooming houses known as Nihonmachi before the notorious internment years of World War II and today remembered as Japantown. There are only a couple of tiled entranceways with women’s names to recall the stately row of brothels that once occupied Alexander Street in the 1910s and 20s.
The Old Powell Street Grounds has a distinguished protest history. It was the site of mass demonstrations in 1931 and 1938 (“Bloody Sunday”) by the unemployed during the Depression. It was the only park designated by the Parks Board as a site for free speech in that decade of marches, sit-ins, and mass demonstrations. Neighbouring houses saw violence as mounted police beat citizens up front steps in the wake of the 1935 Ballantyne Pier dockers’ strike.
Thanks to the induction of the Asahi baseball team in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (2003) and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (2005), the park is remembered as the famous team’s home base for training that took them to league championships in the 1920s and 30s. In 1977 half a dozen sakura (cherry) trees were planted in the park by returned Japanese Canadians to commemorate both their century-long presence on this coast and their once-flourishing Nihonmachi. That same year also inaugurated the Powell Street Festival, a “coming home” for the community that attracts a multi-ethnic and multi-racial audience for its annual celebration of Japanese culture.
From time immemorial, this area was a gathering place for Aboriginal people, a place to hunt and gather and meet others. First Nations people who felt unwelcome in Stanley Park after its founding in 1887 made this park “their home”. A memorial totem pole carved in 1997 pays tribute to people who have died unnecessarily in the area and to the courage and strength of those who have survived. This year a Western red cedar “tree of life” was planted: a living monument to the long history and ongoing presence of Aboriginal people in this place.
For over 100 years, this ground has been a gathering place for the city’s founding Aboriginal, Asian and Anglo communities. It is a vital and welcoming presence today; the park is heavily used, hosts many sports and arts events and is a site for prayer and healing ceremonies.
Powell Street Grounds / Oppenheimer Park is drenched in city history.
by Daphne Marlatt, with contributions by Savannah Walling