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Greek Heritage Month is back in full swing this year with a street festival, an art showcase, and live comedy. The June-long program (from Jun. 3-26) celebrates traditional Greek art, culture, food, and history, bringing together the Hellenic diaspora with diverse audiences from across the Lower Mainland. “Since they first settled in Vancouver more than…
Even though Reconciliation can be a daunting and confounding subject, Port Coquitlam’s Riverside Secondary School’s art department decided to engage with it after hearing about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. The school asked students to work collaboratively on one call to action, and to come up with one way that they as…
In 2017, the Canadian government amended the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Criminal Code to protect individuals from discrimination and hate crimes based on gender identity and expression. Prior to the 2021 Census, some individuals indicated that they were not able to see themselves in the two responses of male or female on…
Looking to connect with her Métis roots, Donna Lee started Bannock Queen Bakery in 2016 to share her culture. Alongside her husband Ray and son Michael, the family-run business operates from Lee’s home in Surrey, where her knowledge of baking bannocks takes her from one farmers’ market to another. “I learned so much about Métis…
Julia Nakamura, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) health psychology program, is working to improve the health and well-being of a rapidly aging population, one step at a time. Nakamura’s research is focused on how positive psychological factors (like purpose in life) and pro-social behaviors (volunteering, helping behaviors) might reduce the…
Love Intersections is a media arts collective which is comprised of queer artists of colour. Artists who are a part of the collective are dedicated to using their passion for art to challenge systemic racism and advocate for underrepresented communities. David Ng and Jen Sungshine, co-artistic directors at Love Intersections, have created the virtual talk…
“The Buddhist New Year is a day to remind people about gratitude and appreciation,” says Reverend Aoki, minister for the Vancouver Buddhist Temple. This year, Jan 18 marks the Buddhist New Year – Buddhists around the world come together to pray. Reverend Tatsuya Aoki emphasizes the importance and sentimental value of the Buddhist New Year…
The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is one of the country’s largest and oldest civic history museums, with a long history dating back to the late nineteenth century. Today if one visits the museum, the very first thing one would encounter is a strong Indigenous presence according to University of British Columbia (UBC) anthropology professor Bruce…
The Indo-Fijians: Surrey’s Pocket of Paradise, the largely untold story of the Indo-Fijian community in the Lower Mainland is open to the public at the Museum of Surrey. The exhibit, created by Rizwaan Abbas, was, he says, inspired by his father and his community. “What I really wanted to do with this exhibit was to…
An estimated 58 per cent of Canadian youth (12–18 years old) declare they have seen kids bullied based on their race or ethnicity at school, according to an August 2021 survey data, in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC), from the Angus Reid Institute. “The reason for the survey was anti-Asian violences in…
A better world has at its foundation the return to values learned in childhood, says academic-activist Manjeet Birk, PhD. “These values are interconnected to larger issues of social justice, like the ongoing effects of colonization, the environment and racial justice,” says Birk. As an instructor of a newly developed critical race studies minor program in…
The Turkish-Canadian Society is releasing a video program online on Oct. 29 to celebrate the Turkish-Canadian Friendship and the Turkish Republic Day, an annual holiday that is celebrated by Turkish people around the world. The theme of this year’s video is Turkish art and culture. Demet Edeer, the president and a long-standing volunteer for the…
Canadian-born author of Indian heritage Sonya Lalli is this year’s Richmond’s writer-in-residence. She writes novels aimed at diverse groups, and in her novels, she covers topics like interracial couples and the difficulties that women of colour face through adolescence. Lalli attended university in her hometown of Saskatoon and later Columbia University in New York where…
