Okinawan Community Members – Sydney

On 16 February 2025, Okinawan community members in Sydney, Australia (Okinawa Kenjinkai and Eisa Champ Roo) held a celebration for the Lunar New Year (Soguwachi, ソーグヮチ) and held a workshop for the When You Call My Name Project. Mayu Kanamori reached out to Okinawan community members to co-ordinate the creation of artworks for the 20 or more former internees who came from Okinawa and died while interned, and are buried in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales. It was a beautiful occasion for Okinawan Australians of many generations to come together and contemplate their ancestral migration history to Australia, and to honour that history through creative works. An explanatory video by Mayu was played before members created artworks in the shared space. Further information about internment and Okinawan migration histories to Australia was also provided.
As a way to combine the Lunar New Year celebrations and the When You Call My Name Project, community members wrote out the names of all the Okinawan civilians buried in Cowra and tied them to the mane on the lion or shīsā (シーサー). The Eisa Champuru group performed Eisa (Okinawan dance and drumming) performances, including the shishimai (獅子舞) lion dance. Eisa is traditionally performed at Obon time, a celebration that honours ancestors, so it was fitting that the shishimai honoured the Okinawans at the Cowra cemetery – creating a link between current and past Okinawans in Australia. It was a poignant day, reflecting on Okinawan struggles, but also the vibrancy of surviving and thriving with Okinawan culture and identity. Everybody present felt grateful to be part of this deeply meaningful project.

–Timothy Kazuo Steains

Soul of Okinawa Video for When You Call My Name Project

In February 2025, as part of the When You Call My Name Project, I brought together the Sydney Okinawan Club and members of Eisa Champ Roo. We shared Okinawan food, learned about our fellow Okinawans who rest eternally in Cowra, and created space to reflect and honour them through art.

Okinawan people share a deep, unwavering love for their homeland – a bond that lives on beyond death. I felt that those who died would want to stay together, just as we do. With that in mind, we performed Eisa (traditional drum dance), and wrote the names of all the Okinawan souls on the mane of the shishimai (lion), offering the dance in their honour.

I created this video to document and also preserve the spirit of this day together.

–Yasue Taggart

Okinawan Names

When I moved to Miyakojima, Okinawa I was in love with the Okinawan spirit and culture. People are very warm-hearted, always welcoming, and helpful to others. They always unite to overcome any challenges they have. I wrote all the names of the internees from Okinawa, thinking about how they must have supported each other, living so far away from their home. I hoped that they always had someone like my Okinawan friends, who are always there for me. I am so honoured that I reconnected with the people from Okinawa here in Sydney.

–Ayako Saito