Hatake toque

Monday, September 11th my blog will be silent to honour the victims of 9/11. Yesterday I attempted to post but my attempt failed miserably.

“Hatake” Toque

Once upon a time there was a little island. On this island there lived islanders. All loved the island way of life. The islanders became neighbours then became friends. They embraced each other’s differences and similarities.
Then “off-islanders” saw the island.
They said to some of the islanders, “You are dangerous. You are not one of us. You must leave the island.”
The “other” islanders said, “No! They are our neighbours. They are our friends. They are islanders.”
The “off-islanders” did not hear the naïve islanders. They made the “dangerous” islanders leave.

In 1942 the government of Canada bowed to public pressure and began interning both Japanese nationals and Japanese Canadian citizens. Nationals and citizens were stripped of their rights, homes, possessions and way of life.
In 1944, Japanese Canadians were ordered to leave BC or face deportation to Japan.
It was not until 1988 that Japanese-Canadians received compensation for the wrongs done to them during the Second World War.

Mayne Islanders have never forgotten their friends. The Japanese gardens were established to honour their memory.

“Hatake” is “farm” in Japanese.

A Japanese family originally owned the land that Helen and John O’Brian farm. To honour the memory of the original owners, Helen and John named their farm “Hatake”.

I used mohair from Hatake farm in this design.

In Canada, this type of hat is called a “toque”.

Copyright by Leanne Dyck on September 10th, 2006

A friend has just started a blog. Please log on to:

http://coldwaterswimmer.blogspot.com/