Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project (PCLP)

The Royal BC Museum, in partnership with the South Asian Studies Institute (SASI) at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), and in consultation with the Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project Advisory Committee, is engaging with British Columbia's Punjabi communities, organizations and individuals to create a Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project (PCLP). This work aims to preserve, explore and share the contributions that Canadians of Punjabi descent have made to the history of BC and Canada.

Phase 1 of the PCLP included

• The Punjabi Pioneer Food History Project which resulted in a new collection and the development of educational material on the Royal BC Museum Learning Portal in 2014–2015.
• The establishment of the Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project Advisory Committee in 2015.
• The province-wide Community Consultation including a gallery intervention event and seven consultations, in 2015–2016
• The South Asian Historic Places Project in partnership with the province of British Columbia in 2016–2017

Please click on a project for more information.

Phase 2, informed by the work with communities undertaken during phase 1, is currently ongoing. The current work, made possible by the BC | Canada 150: Celebrating B.C. Communities and their Contributions to Canada fund, is the History Across the Regions Project (HARP), which aims to build Punjabi Canadian community hubs, and collect family histories in each major provincial region that has significant Punjabi Canadian roots (Northern BC, the Kootenays, the Okanagan, the Fraser Valley, the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island).

The PCLP is an award-winning collaboration, recently recognized at the 2018 BC Museums Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement with two kudos:

• Honourable Mention for Impact and Engagement
• Innovation Award Nomination

In 2018, peers in the BC Museums Association nominated the project as one of a select few “Change Makers”, and was featured in the Winter 2018 issue (number 271) of the BCMA’s periodical, Roundup.

The project was also featured in the Fall 2018 issue (number 273) of Roundup (pp.14-15) and the Spring 2018 issue of the University of the Fraser Valley’s Skookum Magazine (pp. 14-15).

In 2020, The Province of British Columbia provided $1.14m to be administered by the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley to develop the South Asian Canadian Legacy Project. The Royal BC Museum continues to support the project as a partner institution.

For project update, please check here