EYEWITNESSING FORGOTTEN HISTORY Italian Canadian Internment Objects

The Italian Cultural Centre (ICC) gallery in Vancouver possesses a collection of handcrafted wood objects donated by the Ghislieri family that embody the power of craft to speak volumes about important episodes in this community’s cultural and social history. These objects serve as the inspiration for our exhibition series in 2020. The Ghislieri collection consists of simple, hand-carved wooden objects made by Federico Ghislieri — an Italian Canadian inmate at the Kananaskis, Alberta, internment camp — between 1940 and 1941.

This extremely rare collection was donated to the Italian Cultural Centre by the Ghilsieri family in 2012. It consists of seven hand carved and wood burned objects: three wood picture frames, a cigarette box, a hand made belt with a bone buckle with the initial “M” carved into it, and two plaques. One plaque is an oval with a profile of a woman’s face inside, rendered with a remarkably strong expression. While it was created