| title | Winifred J Awmack (nee McBride) fonds |
| general material designation | [textual record, graphic material] |
| date | 1944-1997 |
| scope and content | The fonds contains twenty one series and twenty four subseries of information pertaining to Winifred Awmack's experiences teaching in Tashme, and to her interest and involvement in Japanese Canadian internment, exile/deportation, and forced removal. |
| biography | Winnifred (McBride) Awmack graduated from UBC in 1940 with a BA in agriculture. She also joined the UBC Student Christian Movement, a group that had wide ranging study groups and camps. She met Joe Awmack at one of these camps. He was a concientious objector and was doing alternative service instead of officer training which involved work in the woods under the Forest Service. Reverend Wilbert Roy McWilliams was working with the people at Tashme to find teachers for the young people, releasing some young men from the forestry camps to teach Japanese high school. Joe helped out in Tashme in the fall of 1943. Winnifred helped with summer camp for the girls in 1944 and was asked to stay on to teach Science to 90 new Grade 9 students. The United Church provided the funding of four staff for the High School in Tashme, including May McLachlan who had spent many years with the United Church in rural Japan, and was in Tashme from opening to closing; Ernie Best who taught for 2 years, Katherine Greenback, principal from 1944-1946 until camp closed and had been a principal of the Yamanashi Eiwa school in Kofu from 1926-1939 and was the only non-Japanese person to receive an 'Honorary Citizenship' award from Kofu city in 1957; and Win Awmack. The Women's Missionary Society of the United Church used their funds to carry the cost of the school, salary and activities.
Win Awmack is the author of "Tashme - A Japanese Relocation Centre, 1942-1946" which describes in good detail the activities of the school and the impact the United Church staff had on the community of young adults in Tashme. It describes building 'D' in Tashme where the classes were held.
After Tashme, Win continued to work for the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church until she married Joe Awmack in 1948, had 6 children and lived in Cranbrook for 20 years. They moved to Victoria in 1967 so Joe could head up the committee to oversee the building of the Indian Museum and training center of 'Ksan near Hazelton. |
| number | 1998.209 |
| organisation | Nikkei National Museum |
| access | Open |