Project Background

Developed by artists Maya Ersan and Jaimie Robson, Our Community Story was produced in 2005 in partnership with Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, Hastings Community Centre, and Hastings North Business Improvement Association.

Our Community Story was a community public art project that engaged youth and elders in Vancouver’s Hastings/Sunrise neighbourhood in an oral history process. OCS used artistic processes to recover and document some of the area’s living history: the history remembered by the community’s inhabitants.

A team of fourteen youth and six mentoring artists worked together to create films, photos, animation, and soundscapes, which were exhibited in cafes and shops along East Hastings Street between Nanaimo and Slocan Streets.

Neighbourhood Profile

Hastings/Sunrise is one of the city’s earliest established neighbourhoods. Home to important early developments such as Vancouver’s first hotel and post office. The neighbourhood’s history is intimately connected to the opening of the railway and roads of the lower mainland. In the early days of Vancouver, this neighbourhood was slated for development as Vancouver’s downtown core. It was also the site of important historical events, including the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. The majority of the first buildings constructed in the area no longer exist. Due to this, there is little public acknowledgement of the historical significance of this area. Our Community Story recovered and documented some of the area’s living history, making it accessible to the wider community as well as to future generations.

The history of Hastings/Sunrise is culturally diverse. It is home to First Nations peoples, as well as to many immigrant families, each of which brings their own stories, perspectives, conflicts, traditions and relationships to the current community. It is this diversity as well as these turbulent histories and deep-rooted conflicts that make this neighbourhood the vibrant, growing community that it is today. The Hastings/Sunrise community is developing at a rapid rate. Signs of gentrification are already altering this culturally, linguistically and economically diverse area.

Our Community Story created a strong presence in the community and addressed the need for local and contemporary artistic activity in every day life. The project made audible to the broader community, the histories that are rooted in the Hastings Sunrise Neighbourhood.

Funders and Partners