Drawing on paper, 2004

During 1940-41 Japanese Canadian women were working in canneries, berry farms and as seamstresses. In World War II, thousands of Japanese Canadians on the west coast were removed from their homes by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and sent to internment camps in the interior. They were released from the camps in 1946 and were uprooted from the west coast with a “choice” to move either east of the Rocky Mountains or to Japan. This drawing reflects the absence of Japanese Canadian women during the 1940s. By 1942, due to the labour shortage, single women and married women were recruited to take on the jobs that had been left by men going to war. The burden of history is conveyed in the gestures that are expressed by the women in this drawing who are carrying, lifting, and heaving. Seeping through these women are the ghosts of Japanese Canadian women who whimsically evoke a sense of memory and loss. 

Carry, Lift, Heave was part of the exhibition, A Century of Women and Work, a joint project with the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. The exhibition consisted of artwork from 10 Canadian women artists and an accompanying booklet on the history of Ontario women and work. The artworks brought to life the past 100 years of women’s transformation of their work and their world.

Acquisition by Public Service Alliance of Canada, Toronto, Ontario