This is one of a series of columns by specialists at the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum that explore the human and natural worlds of the province.
British Columbia is a culturally diverse place. The Centre of Arrivals project, the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum鈥檚 multicultural and intercultural initiative, takes account of this.
It鈥檚 a long-term project to explore, preserve and share this diversity through research in our collections and making connections with many different ethnic communities, collecting information and material objects.
A focus on immigrant history, with a special emphasis on the transnational context, broadens our understanding of the intercultural and historical complexities of our shared history, with special reference to the role of sa国际传媒 as a gateway between Asia Pacific and the Americas.
Work on the project is underway. With the financial support from the H.Y. Louie Family Co., and the assistance of many community partners, research centres, and the Ministry of International Trade, the Ministry of Education and Open School sa国际传媒 on projects such as the Chinese Canadian Legacy Initiatives, we have completed much work.
Educational tools such as travelling exhibitions, an online digital collection, on-site programming and an outreach box featuring learning materials have travelled around the province to support the sa国际传媒 social studies curriculum. Some of these tools have even travelled to other parts of sa国际传媒 and China.
The current five-year plan builds on this foundation, with ongoing work with sa国际传媒鈥檚 diverse communities in preparation for celebrating sa国际传媒 150 in 2021. By that time, we hope to have completely refreshed our modern-history gallery.
For many years, the museum has collected artifacts significant to various multicultural groups in the province, but research for the Gold Rush exhibition revealed many gaps in the collection about British Columbians who were neither First Nations nor Anglo-Canadian.
As we began research for the 2017 exhibition Family: Bonds and Belonging, we made a special effort to begin filling these gaps 鈥� collecting artifacts and doing interviews, which provide us with intimate, detailed knowledge about communities.
As a result, the family exhibition included family letters written in Punjabi between the wife in the Punjab and husband in sa国际传媒 during their years of separation in 1930-47; letters in Chinese between a father in Hong Kong and son in Vancouver that later shaped the business ethics and practices for generations in the H.Y. Louie Co.; a series of diverse textiles; and artifacts from the francophone Guichon family.
We hope the new modern-history gallery will feature stories of immigrant families, highlighting sa国际传媒鈥檚 global links and making its intercultural experience relevant and engaging for our visitors. One result will be an interactive map 鈥� in the gallery and online 鈥� that connects sa国际传媒 to different corners of the world through immigrant routes, historical chronologies and examples of relevant items from the museum鈥檚 collections.
The Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project
In partnership with the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, we鈥檝e completed the first (research) phase of the Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project, collecting 92 oral histories in 2014-15 and data from eight provincewide community consultations in 2015-6.
Previously under-represented Punjabi Canadian communities around the province identified what they would like to see preserved and shared as their collective heritage 鈥� and how. One example is the central significance of sawmills as an important link to early Punjabi Canadian history. We heard a story about an early Punjabi who couldn鈥檛 initially get work due to his turban; when he eventually found work at a sawmill, he once used his turban as a lasso to save someone who was drowning.
The second phase of our plan is dedicated to provincewide engagement and legacy-building. The Punjabi Canadian community recommended we continue our community engagement and provincial outreach by creating a travelling exhibition, oral history collections, digital platforms and diverse learning tools and publications.
The Royal sa国际传媒 Museum also worked in partnership with sa国际传媒鈥檚 Heritage Branch, the University of the Fraser Valley and a separate evaluation team on the South Asian Canadian Historical Places Recognition Project, which officially recognized historic places significant to South Asian Canadian communities in sa国际传媒 in March 2017.
Feeding the Family II: Immigrants鈥� Transnational Food Practices in British聽Columbia
Food history is essential for collective memories. In 2016, the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum created a travelling exhibition to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Ukrainian communities coming to sa国际传媒. In this and other community history research, food 鈥� more than religion and cultural performances 鈥� binds the people in diaspora together.
This long-term research project traces diverse food traditions and ingenuity in sa国际传媒 as a result of immigrants鈥� movements, local farming and ranching experiences. With help from many museum staff and volunteers, we launched a curated online digital food packaging collection this year (royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/ about/explore/centre-arrivals/ food-history-project).
All the Centre of Arrivals initiatives I鈥檝e mentioned envision a reinterpretation of British Columbia history with diverse stories that will make more visitors feel 鈥渃ulturally at home鈥� and inform everyone about the many cultures that make up British Columbia.
So far, the Centre of Arrivals research has informed collections development, online and onsite educational programming, online feature collections, gallery-refresh planning, travelling and feature exhibitions, and provincial outreach, as聽well as academic and other publications.
These partnerships, the growth of our collections, and the advancement of public, academic and community understanding are the legacy our museum is building 鈥� the province鈥檚 collective heritage. The history of sa国际传媒 as a gateway and a centre of arrival is key to re-envision regional, national and global history.
Tzu-I Chung, PhD, is curator of history at the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum. She is a cultural and social historian, broadly interested in transnational migration within the context of historical, cultural and economic interactions between North America and Asia-Pacific and of cultural and economic globalization. Her recent publications deal with environmental cultural studies, comparative ethnic studies and transnationalism.
