Community Consultations

Support for this project generously provided by:

 

Greetings and Support for the Project

The Royal BC Museum is committed to preserving, exploring and sharing BC histories through diverse intercultural perspectives. Meaningful community engagement is an important way to explore such perspectives.

Process

The first consultation for the PCLP was held at the Royal BC Museum on November 21, 2015. We asked members of the Punjabi community for their feedback on parts of the Modern History gallery. You can find more details about this event here.

In 2016, we held seven community consultations in BC–two in the Lower Mainland and one each in northern BC, in the Okanagan, in the Kootenays, in the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island. The project brought together BC Punjabi community associations and individuals and sought their input on the best approaches to initiating this community legacy project locally and provincially.

Communities, local host partners and other organizations and institutions were asked three questions:

  • What significant stories best convey the Punjabi legacy in BC?
  • What collections are important to future generations?
  • How should we make Punjabi history available to the general community?

Results

We give special thanks to all the communities, institutions and dignitaries who participated in the consultation process and provided valuable feedback. Our special thanks also go to the hosts, listed below, who worked with us to make these consultations possible.  

The consultation reports from each location are available here:

City Date Host Report
Abbotsford June 27, 2016 The Reach Gallery Museum View Report
Prince George June 28, 2016 The Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum View Report
Vancouver September 16, 2016 The David See Chai Lam Centre for International Communication at Simon Fraser University View Report
Surrey September 18, 2016 The Surrey Museum View Report
Golden October 15, 2016 The Golden Museum and Archives View Report
Kelowna November 5, 2016 The Kelowna Museums Society View Report
Duncan November 19, 2016 The Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives View Report

The community consultations are informing how the Royal BC Museum approaches its research, collections, on-site and online learning programs and exhibitions (both temporary and permanent), and collaborations with local cultural institutions on this legacy.

Most importantly, this work aims at preserving, exploring and sharing the contributions Canadians of Punjabi descent have made to the history of BC.

The community recommendations for the legacy project include:

  • Continuing with community engagement and provincial outreach
  • Continuing to establish family history collections
  • Creating travelling exhibitions
  • Creating diverse learning tools including online and on-site curriculum
  • Creating publications

We are working with our partner, the South Asian Studies Institute at UFV, and the Advisory Committee to identify and apply for funding sources to proceed with this work.