The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum recognizes individuals, businesses and organizations that have made significant contributions to the museum’s mission of “collecting, preserving and fostering knowledge of Bainbridge Island History.”
The program was initiated in 2017 and has awarded 19 individuals, businesses or organizations.
This year’s recipients are The Suquamish Tribe and the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association.
The tribe and museum are within the ancestral territory of the Suquamish “People of Clear Salt Water.” Expert fishermen, canoe builders and basket weavers, Suquamish people live in harmony with the lands and waterways along the state’s central Salish Sea, as they have for thousands of years.
The tribe has been a valuable partner with the museum, sharing stories of BI, a museum news release says. Such stories are the trademarks of History Heroes; they teach and inspire us — and have been passed along for thousands of years. They honor their ancestors, educate and empower the young, and contribute to the resurgence of the Suquamish culture.
The tribe played a critical role as a partner and contributor to Our Community: Past to Present, the museum’s primary exhibit in its iconic 1908 schoolhouse.
Also, the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, created by the association, is an outdoor exhibit commemorating the internment of 276 Japanese Americans from BI on March 30, 1942, to an uncertain location and an unknown future. The memorial is a tribute to the resilience and courage of those who were exiled. But it also does something else: It celebrates our community — a community that defended its neighbors, supported them in exile and welcomed them home.
Because of the way it educates us in such a powerful and elegant way, the memorial has become a destination on BI — attracting visitors from all over the world, the release says. It ensures that the exclusion story and its message are spread far and wide.
The association is also recognized for efforts to document the story for future generations by collecting oral and written histories and producing documentary films.
