Return to Paueru Gai: 50 Years of Powell Street Festival Exhibition
March 27th through September 5th, 2026
Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre – 6688 Southoaks Cres, Burnaby, BC V5E 4M7
Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10:00AM – 6:00PM / Saturday & Sunday 10:00AM – 5:00PM Closed Monday and Canada Day.
Admission by donation.
Celebrate 50 years of Powell Street Festival memories and expression in the new exhibit curated by Emiko Morita. This retrospective exhibition features photographs, archival video, and immersive art installations that highlight the Powell Street Festival’s rich history of Japanese Canadian art and activism.
Exhibit Features
The Karasawa Gallery is decorated with a complete collection of festival posters, featuring both originals and reproductions including: Photographs by Tamio Wakayama, Taki Sekiguchi, Fred Herzog, and Roy Kiyookaand a selection of original framed works.
Otsukare Installation
Located in the foyer, Otsukare—meaning “thank you for your work”—welcomes visitors as they enter the gallery. Suspended overhead, the installation stretches 8 feet wide and 21 feet long, composed of hachimaki (traditional headbands) generously contributed by volunteers. Since 1990, these headbands have been gifted to volunteers as both a token of appreciation and a symbol of their role during the festival weekend. Otsukare is a tribute to every volunteer—past and present, named and unnamed—whose efforts have shaped the festival.
Interactive Experience
Visitors are invited to step into the playful Macro Maki installation by wearing a giant sushi costume and snapping a selfie in front of the mural. The mural features over 175 embedded images captured during the 2017 and 2018 festivals.
View on Demand
Take time to explore a curated selection of videos, including:
- The Body Electric by the late artist Roy Kiyooka
- Art works such as WALLS (Bart Uchida) and KIYO (Spatial Poetics)
- Archival festival footage, including the whimsical The Way We Are
- Images: The First 100 Years, Powell Street Revue’s 1977 slide presentation
- Akebono Sakura (Linda Ohama), documenting the cherry trees in Oppenheimer Park
Resource Table
Browse PSF curated archives and related books.
Takeaway
While supplies last, visitors are invited to take an origami-folded omamori as a keepsake.
Purchase your Return to Paueru Gai Book here
Return to Paueru Gai: Fifty Years of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival
$32.95
Edited by Emiko Morita
Paperback
Books Available Now!
Description
The remarkable history of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival and the proud Japanese Canadian community behind it
Paueru Gai, the Powell Street neighbourhood in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, was a place of early settlement and forced removal for Japanese Canadians during the shameful years of internment in World War II. But Paueru Gai is also a site of regeneration: Since 1977, a diverse array of people gathers every August in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park and the surrounding neighbourhood to honour and celebrate Japanese Canadian history, art, and culture. The Powell Street Festival is an act of empowerment that defines and redefines Japanese Canadian identity.
In Return to Paueru Gai: Fifty Years of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, essays, photographs, archival images, and a chronology articulate the festival’s crucial role in uplifting Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian community and affirming its place in the history of the city (and our country). From taiko drumming and sumo wrestling to community food vendors and human rights advocacy, the festival and the people who make it happen come brilliantly alive in this wide-ranging, vibrant book.
Essay writers include Musqueam Elder Mary Point, the seniors of Tonari Gumi (the Japanese Community Volunteers Association), cultural worker Julia Aoki, journalist Charlie Smith, writer Angela May, and members of the Japanese Canadian Art and Activism Project.
Full colour throughout.
Reviews
A 50-year anniversary book could simply serve as a commemorative collectible, but Return to Paueru Gai is so much more than that – it chronicles the ongoing evolution of the diverse communities of people who share Japanese ancestry, history, and cultural artistic connections. It shows us the passion, the heart, and the political commitment to both memory and change. This book blazes a trail toward the future. -Hiromi Goto, author of Shadow Life
A joyous and raucous celebration of community, culture, and resilience, Return to Paueru Gai is a living history built on powerful stories, shared experiences, and a commitment to social justice, just like the beloved festival it documents. -Margaret Gallagher, journalist
The Powell Street Festival has been central to my life since it began. I always see it as coming home, where my parents started, where my brother grew up. I’m happy there’s a commemorative book to demonstrate to the world how I feel. Fifty years later, it is going strong. May it go on forever. -Terry Watada, author of Hiroshima Bomb Money
948 in stock
Additional information
| Weight | 1000 g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 21 × 26 × 1.5 cm |
Accessibility & Location
NNMCC is located at the corner of Kingsway and Sperling in Burnaby, at the geographic centre of Metro Vancouver, and is easily accessible by both car and public transit. Underground parking is available for visitors.
An elevator provides access between the underground parkade, ground floor, and second floor. A single-stall wheelchair-accessible washroom is located on the ground floor, and the second-floor washrooms also include an accessible stall.
If you are unable to attend the opening event, the exhibition will be on view during regular hours at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre from March 27 to September 5, 2026.