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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…
The Media Girlfriends is a podcast company led by Nana aba Duncan, Hannah Sung and Garvia Bailey, three women of colour who use storytelling and journalism to present and honour the voices of those who were historically misrepresented. The Media Girlfriends is participating in the Fourth Annual Vancouver Podcast Festival to discuss the process of…
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…
Citizen journalism has become more and more prominent in the era of social media, where sometimes news is being disseminated real-time on the spot through eyewitness reports before they even reach mainstream media. And perhaps there is no better phrase than ‘the revolution will be tweeted’ to capture the critical role of citizen journalism in…
“The news coming out of Afghanistan is about how women leaders are fleeing for their lives, and girls are being denied the right to education,” says Holly Benna, Pacific Immigrant Resources Society’s (PIRS) communications and marketing associate. PIRS, a grassroots organization focused on local action, is one of the few organizations across Vancouver and 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…
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Bridge Program, which helps newcomer youth in Canada adapt to their new surroundings and set meaningful goals for their future, took on both common and unique challenges. Rachel Nelson, an associate director at the Office of Community Engagement (OEC) at SFU, who helps lead…
With bold strokes of colour, a touch of perspective and her expertise of visualization, Vancouver-based artist, author and engineer Kiranjot Kaur is redefining artistic mediums and celebrating Sikh culture through her Sovereign Elevations art exhibit. “Creating art is like communicating in my own personal language, but one that others can experience through their visual interpretation,” says Kaur.…
“Canada, by existence, is racist in that it exists because it was able to frame Indigenous peoples as primitive, non-political subjects incapable of owning land,” says Eva Jewell associate professor of Sociology and research director at the Yellowhead Institute, a policy think tank located at ‘X University,’ formerly Ryerson University, in Toronto. “This is used…
It was all a dream – literally. Rebecca Lyon was in the middle of pursuing her PhD in Indigenous studies when she had a dream about a jacket, unlike any she had ever worn. “One of our teachings as Ojibwe people is to listen to our dreams, and the dream was me in a jacket,”…
