Archive: Our Own Backyard: Mapping the Grandview Woodland Community
Urban Issues and the Bronfman Foundation
In July 1996 the Our Own Backyard: Mapping the Grandview-Woodland Community project was announced as a recipient of The Bronfman Foundation's Urban Issues grant. This three year project began in September of 1996 and was a collaborative process involving the Institute for the Humanities at SFU, Britannia Community Education and local community residents from the Grandview-Woodland area. The Institute for the Humanities was pleased to be able to continue the participation in the Grandview-Woodland community that began with the “Grandview Woodland Oral History Project” in 1994.
The goal of the Community Mapping project was to work together with various groups and individuals living and working in the Grandview Woodland community to develop representations of places in the community where a proud sense of belonging and ownership was imagined and worked out. Focusing on local strengths and local decision-making, the theme of the community mapping project was centred around the question, “What do you value about Grandview Woodland: what is important, unique, or interesting about it? What makes it distinct from other neighbourhoods?”
Through the creation of "maps" of the various aspects of the local area and the collection of historical archival material the sense of community identity and appreciation for the heritage of the community was strengthened. The maps too many forms: quilts, paintings, photographs, drawings, models, conventional maps, collage, oral artistry—songs, poems, or storytelling and more . Allowing for a diversity of map forms encouraged people to define their own ways of interpreting the place in which they live. The “maps” were compiled into a “Community Atlas” and used as a tool for social action and the creation of a community plan. The third year of the project involved an intensive community planning process where the local vision for the future of this area was articulated.
Project staff worked closely with the Britannia Community Centre. The Institute acted as a liaison for the project through the Institute's Project Group on Community Education. This group is made up of Community Education, Community Economic Development, Geography, and Humanities faculty who were available in an advisory capacity.
Find out more about the Bronfman Family Foundation >>
What Was Our Own Backyard about?
It was about the everyday people of Grandview-Woodland speaking up and taking control of their lives and their community and telling the planners, developers, and politicians what they wanted and needed in their community.
It was the goal of this project to work with a wide variety of community groups and individuals so that there could be an inclusive community process, so that different experiences, perceptions, and interpretations of our community could be voiced and shared. Beginning in September 1996, community members of Grandview-Woodland made maps about what was important to them. These maps were exhibited in the community and documented for the local Britannia Library archives.
The mapping project helped develop community awareness, building on community identity, and acknowledged the many kinds of social diversity within the geographical neighbourhood. We invited everyone who lived or worked in Grandview Woodland to take part in making maps. By the summer of 1998 the mapping phase of the project was completed and we moved on to the community planning stage. In the grassroots planning process we used all the maps people created as the starting point, the foundation, from which we could plan and take steps for the future of this community.
Publications
Our Own Backyard has produced two books about the history of the neighbourhood. One book is historical photographs of Commercial Drive 1912 - 1954 and the other oral histories of twenty-five local seniors. We have also produced 6 walking tours of Grandview Woodland on audio-cassette with booklet. All of these are available at Britannia Branch Library. These were produced to develop a greater awareness of local history and involved the hard work and commitment of many people. These books will also help us plan for the future of our community.
- A Pictorial History: Commercial Drive 1912–1954 ($14.95)
- Stories From Our Own Backyard: A History of Grandview Woodland as told by neighbourhood Seniors ($ 7.95)
- Our Own Backyard Walking Tours of Grandview Woodland ($5.00)
- In Our Own Backyard Newsletters, Issues 1 and 2
Books are available through Britannia Community Education Office (604-255-9371) or at Vancouver Photo (1523 Commercial Drive). Click here to view publication citations at the Britannia Community Library and reserve your copy. Publications may be available at other branches of the Vancouver Public Library as well.
Thanks to Joanne and Nick, and Diane. All proceeds go to the Our Own Backyard Project.
Community Mapping and Exhibits
Clay Maps Display
Members of the Community made their favorite places in clay tiles: houses, gardens, parks, local shops etc. Artist Helen Spaxman facilitated the workshops. The finished clay tiles were displayed in the Britannia Library foyer display case from December 1–14, 1997. Scheduled for February 1998 in the Britannia Library Art Gallery was another exhibit of local mapping by community groups, students, and individuals.
Breaking Barriers: Britannia Teen Centre Mural Project
The youth mural project grew out of the controversy in the community about graffiti. Teen Centre staff and a group of youth discussed the impact of graffiti on the larger community and what graffiti means to them. A game of tag? A claim of territory? A political statement? A form of expression? One youth stated “Graffiti is an art... it is our way of expressing ourselves.” The Britannia Teen Centre mural was done over several weeks as youths worked with artist Andrew Currie. By designing and painting two murals inside and outside of the teen centre, the youth who participated took “ownership” of their centre, working together with the community to meet their needs, identifying issues important to them and developing ideas for future projects. The teens had a mural opening celebration on September 10, 1997.
Many Ways of Seeing: A Community Maps its Neighbourhood
This exhibit at the Britannia Library Art Gallery in August 1997 showed Britannia Elementary and High School students mapping projects as well as individuals from the local community. The Britannia grade 5/6 class exhibited their watercolours, bark rubbings, and photographs of the trees of Grandview Park, done over a three month period with artist Sylvia Oates. The grade eleven International Baccalaureate students worked on a huge map of Grandview Woodland and spent the year taking photographs of things they liked in the community and collaging them onto the map.
Artist Karenza Wall mapped the celebrations in our community: Party of the Lost Souls, Illuminares, and others, in a multi-media form. Margaret Wong exhibited her acrylic on wood paintings of local people's houses, gardens, and some local small businesses, “Every home and garden tells a story—the very special story of the family who lives in that home and creates that garden to reflect their dreams, their hopes, their uniqueness, in their own little piece of the world,” says Margaret. And Ulrike Rodrigues displayed some interesting photographs of local graffiti.
Ulrike states,“Like the neighbourhood that serves as its canvas, the graffito is passionate, political, unapologetic, adoring, amusing, condemning, creative, indignant, and beautifully transitional. Who creates it? Who views it? Who alters it? Who removes it? You and me and our neighbours. The pictures are a continuous, impermanent neighbourhood conversation. These photos tentatively record some of that dialogue. they form a map of unique and fleeting neighbourhood artifacts that aren't supposed to exist.”
Britannia Banners
The theme for the Britannia Community Centre banners was Our Own Backyard. Over one hundred people participated in making nine sets of banners that were displayed on lampposts throughout the community centre site. Banners depicted local character houses, gardens, elements of Commercial Drive, Party of the Lost Souls—a local Halloween celebration—and the names and places of origin of many of the people who use Britannia's gym and pool. The banners were put up on site at the end of November 1997 and a celebration for participants and the community held.
Workshops and Forums (1998)
Can Houses Tell Stories?
Tues. Jan 20, 1998, 7:30-9:30 pm Below Britannia Library—how to research the history of the house you live in.
The Environment and Our Neighbourhood
Thurs. Jan 29, 1998 7:00-9:30 pm, Room 203, Britannia Secondary School. In this workshop participants looked at environmental issues and how they relate to our specific neighbourhood: pollution, litter, noise, industrial and commercial waste, parks, community gardens, wildspace etc.
Roundtable Discussion on Housing and Gentrification in Grandview Woodland
Thurs. Feb. 12, 1998 7:30-9:30 pm, Room 203, Britannia Secondary School. This roundtable discussion provided us will an opportunity to discuss the issues we are facing in housing today in our local community and contributed to the grassroots planning for the future development of Grandview Woodland.
What Happens On Our Community Streets?
Sat. Feb. 22, 1998 1:30-4:30 pm, Below Britannia Library. How are our local streets and alleys used? Pedestrians, car traffic, community celebrations, shopping, sidewalk cafes, vendors, panhandlers, prostitution, drug dealing etc. We looked at all of these activities and mapped out what happens on our community streets at different times of day, different seasons and talked about what we as community members can do to affect what happens on our streets.
Art and Community
Tues. March 24. 1998 7:00-9:30 pm, Below Britannia Library. We looked at where community art has been successful in our neighbourhood and why. What is the role of the artist in community. How does community art help build local identity. How does the community at large interact with the arts community and how can we develop a stronger link between community and the arts.
Traffic Concerns in Grandview-Woodland
A public meeting was held on October 4, 1998, which was co-sponsored by Our Own Backyard, The Grandview-Woodland Area Council Traffic Committee, and Vancouver City Engineering. The meeting was an opportunity for members of the community to discuss traffic concerns with their neighbours and the engineers. There was a presentation by Jody Andrews, Scott Edwards, and Lon LaClaire from City Engineering, followed by questions. Then people broke into groups with large maps of the Grandview-Woodland area to identify problem traffic areas. There were many ideas generated for possible solutions to specific problems. The Grandview-Woodland Area Council Traffic Committee is continuing to work on these traffic issues.
