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Vision

The ways we work together on a shared vision for this new museum or cultural centre will become part of its legacy.  

The engagement process is guided by the principles of equity, inclusion, accessibility, anti-racism, and anti-casteism. It provides multiple and different opportunities for participation, where communities, groups and individuals throughout the province can come together to discuss their vision for a museum, including its location, name, and mission.

To participate in the engagement and get involved learn more/get involved.

Considerations: Learning, language and definitions

No aspect of this engagement is simple, and no aspect of creating this new museum will be simple. It means that sharing and building on one another’s ideas in a spirit of genuine collaberation is vital. The name of the new museum – and how we refer to it during this engagement process – is a useful example. 

The temporary working name South Asian Canadian Museum was intended to be a placeholder until a name is determined through this engagement. The terms South Asian or South Asian Canadian share the virtues and the shortcomings of any broad category: these categories reveal as much as they obscure. South Asian can be a unifying term and it can be a divisive term. Through initial engagement with the Ministerial Advisory and communities it became clear that the temporary working name South Asian Canadian Museum as a placeholder does not accurately reflect the diverse individuals and experiences that this initiative aims to celebrate. As such, the placeholder for this initiative is being updated to Canadians of South Asian heritages in B.C. Museum until an official name can be determined. Naming an institution such as a new museum presents an opportunity to think deeply about the museum’s purpose. Knowing that no name will be perfect or preferred by everyone, what should this new museum be called? What does the new museum’s name need to convey? These are the kinds of questions along with the location, vision, and purpose of the new museum that we imagine will energize the conversations during this engagement process.

Additionally, the definition of a museum/cultural centre comes into question when discussing the vision and purpose of this space. As individuals and communities share their culture, languages and heritages the vision may emerge as something other than a traditional museum model.

Definitions

South Asian Canadian has been a broadly used term during the past 20 years by academics and others. Statistics Canada describes South Asian Canadians as a sub-group of Asian Canadians consisting of a range of ethnic, religious and linguistic groups whose ancestries, immigration histories and personal experiences include those with Bangladeshi, Bengali, East Indian, Goan, Gujarati, Hindu, Ismaili, Kashmiri, Nepali, Pakistani, Punjabi, Sikh, Sinhalese, South Asian, Sri Lankan and Tamil ancestry. South Asians may have been born in Canada or other parts of the world, but their heritage is associated with the Indian sub-continent.

Diaspora refers to the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland.

Community-led: when we use this term, we are referring to communities engaging amongst themselves, within their spaces in ways that work for them to discuss aspects of the project specific to their perspective, experiences, and vision.

Balancing what is common and what is unique 

We are seeking feedback from a wide and diverse range of perspectives to carefully balance what is shared, and what is unique and distinctive, between and within particular communities.   

We will work together to design this process. Words, places, images, calendars for events, languages, and other elements of the process will need to be considered with great care and respect. The guidance of communities will be very important on these and other matters.

What We’ve Heard So Far
There has been significant individual and community engagement since phase 2 of engagement launched on April 2, 2024. The What We’ve Heard So Far provides insight and an overview of early engagement results. The results of the report are what we have heard to date and will be further informed by additional engagement. All engagement findings will be released as part of a final ‘What We Heard Report’ in early 2025.

Initial themes and findings from the What We’ve Heard So Far provide a variety of perspectives and ideas on how a museum could emerge. Many communities have and continue to participate in engagement. However, early results indicate that there are underrepresented community voices through the current engagement pathways. To better reach those voices and further broaden engagement input a more intentional and focused engagement will take place until December 2024.