There is a saying that we die twice:
The first time being our physical death.
The second being when our name is mentioned for the last time.
WHEN YOU CALL MY NAME
When You Call My Name is a collaborative project honouring civilians who were brought from South East Asia, Pacific Islands and across Australia as ‘Japanese enemy aliens’ to be interned in Australia during WWII, and who died during internment. They include 26 people from Taiwan and one from Korea. They were included with the Japanese because Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula were under the rule of Japan during the Pacific War. 192 of the 194 people are now buried in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, NSW, Australia. Two who died on the voyage to Australia were buried at sea.
The project gives every participant an information kit on a particular internee to ‘adopt’. The participant will be asked to respond to their learnings with a 2D artwork, or a photograph of a work, which includes the name of the internee.
The resulting artworks will be exhibited online, as a print catalogue and as a part of a large-scale collage for exhibition.
Artwork by Sophie Constable honouring HIGA Denzo, who was brought to Australia from New Caledonia to be interned during the Pacific War.
Denzo was born in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He was working as a farmer in Touho, New Caledonia. He was married, and had 4 sons and 4 daughters. He was 61 years old.
We thank the Higa family for consenting to Sophie’s digital quilt portrait of their ancestor Denzo to be used as the flagship image for the When You Call My Name project.
For more information about Nikkei civilian internment, please visit the following sites:
