Blog & News

From the Association of Canadian Archivisits:

"Join us for a special Lunch and Learn session on December 16th: "Archival Googling: Using Archives Portal Europe as an aid for Archives in the web sphere". In this workshop, participants will test first-hand how archival research in multiple archival institutions can be conducted via Archives Portal Europe, an online archive catalogue repository which allows simultaneous archival research in thousands of institutions from more than thirty European countries in 24 languages and 5 alphabets through one simple online search system. Participants will engage with the new opportunities (and challenges) offered by Archives Portal Europe as an international aggregator of archival descriptions."

Register here.

The SASI received over 3 million photographs taken by the legendary BC photojournalist, the late Mr. Chandra Bodalia. These extraordinary images have been entrusted to SASI for stewardship and preservation.

As part of its key initiative, the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive, at the South Asian Studies Institute, plans to digitize, preserve, and provide open access to these invaluable photographs. This important project is a collaboration with the RBCM and BC Archives, ensuring that the rich visual history captured by Bodalia is safeguarded and made accessible for future generations.

Read more here.

From the Grist Mill & Gardens: 

As we prepare to celebrate 40 years as a heritage site next year, we've been diving into our archives—old photos, documents, and stories that capture the incredible journey of the Grist Mill & Gardens. It's been a joy to revisit these moments and reflect on everything that makes this place so special.

Now, we’d love to hear from YOU!

Do you have a favorite memory of the Grist Mill? Maybe a photo from a family visit, a special event, or even a quiet moment in the gardens? Your stories are a vital part of our history, and we’d be honored to include them in our 40th-anniversary celebrations."

Share your memories and photos here.

From the Museum of Vancouver:

"The Museum of Vancouver is pleased to announce that a donation of $5,000 has been made to the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP) in Guatemala, thanks to purchases of art, furniture, jewellery and more from Reclaim + Repair: The Mahogany Project. A cheque presentation ceremony was held at the Consulate General of Guatemala in Vancouver on October 28, 2024.

Reclaim + Repair: The Mahogany Project was on view at the Museum of Vancouver from July 20, 2023 through September 2, 2024. Thirty-one local designers and makers were selected to create 22 objects made from vintage mahogany. This wood was harvested from the 1950s to 1970s in Guatemala and Nicaragua and came from a local business that designed and manufactured boating equipment. When it closed, the leftover wood was stored for decades before it was donated it to the MOV’s upcycling design program, SAGE. The MOV partnered with Propellor Studio, who selected the designers whose work would become part of the exhibition.

Works created for the exhibition were for sale with the goal of donating a portion of the sales to Indigenous-led reforestation efforts in Central America, where the mahogany was extracted.

Thanks to support from the Consulate General of Guatemala in Vancouver and the National Council for Protected Areas (Consejo Nacional de Areas Protegidas, CONAP), the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Peten: ACOFOP) was selected to received $5,000—one-third of the sales from The Mahogany Project exhibition."

Read the full release here.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 is the only immigration law in Canadian history to have prevented a particular group from entering the country on the basis of race, specifically barring people of Chinese descent from legally entering Canada from 1923 until 1947 with very few exceptions. Preventing entry denied many prospective Chinese people opportunities for new experiences and economic gain in Canada. However, it also meant that the Chinese already in Canada were prevented from having their families join them in their new lives across the Pacific. 

Mah Tin Yick was one of many Chinese whose life was profoundly impacted by this draconian law. Arriving in Victoria from China in 1885, just before the head tax was implemented, Mah Yick settled in Salmon Arm, British Columbia and ran a hand laundry business with his family. However, tragedy struck when his partner passed away just after the Exclusion Act came into effect, leaving him struggling to care for his two young daughters on his own. 

On this episode of the School Room podcast, host Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee is joined by Janet Bradley Worthington, Mah Yick’s granddaughter. Tune in to hear about how Mah Yick was personally impacted by the family separation the Exclusion Act brought on, the role the Oriental Home and School played in Janet’s family history, and what it took for Janet to uncover these stories through searching Chinese Canadian archival records.

In her time, Anna May Wong was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family’s laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May Wong rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks’s blockbuster The Thief of Bagdad. Fans and the press clamored to see more of this unlikely actress, but when Hollywood repeatedly cast her in stereotypical roles, she headed abroad in protest.

Anna May starred in acclaimed films in Berlin, Paris, and London. She dazzled royalty and heads of state across several nations, leaving trails of suitors in her wake. She returned to challenge Hollywood at its own game by speaking out about the industry’s blatant racism. She used her new stature to move away from her typecasting as the China doll or dragon lady, and worked to reshape Asian American representation in film.

In this talk moderated by UBC Professor of English Dr. Mary Chapman, biographer Katie Gee Salisbury will discuss the vibrant, radical career of a groundbreaking artist, bringing an unsung heroine to light and reclaiming her place in cinema history. Also included in this talk is the story of Wong’s first trip to Canada in 1924 and the actress's experience crossing the border under the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act.

Watch the full video here.

Former B.C. judge Randall (Bud) Wong remembers getting out of bed early one morning when he was five to greet his uncle at the train station in Vancouver at the end of the Second World War.

It was 1945 and his uncle Delbert Yen Chow was returning from India after years of service as an infantryman.

"I remember very vividly my uncle coming off the train, and he was wearing his army uniform and knapsack," Wong, 83, said.

"We were so happy to see him that we took him home, and then he came to live with us."

The service of Chinese Canadian soldiers like Chow in the First and Second World Wars will be honoured by a new exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Read more here.

Photo: Carole Itter, Dollarton Cabin, 2015

The Blue Cabin has a new home at the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s Heritage Harbour.

Not bad for a modest squatter’s shack built in the 1920s. But it’s an appropriate location, given its new life as a floating residence for artists.

The cabin spent several decades on the North Vancouver waterfront beside the McKenzie Barge and Derrick shipyard near Cates Park. The story goes that a Norwegian craftsman built it in Coal Harbour, got a job at McKenzie in 1932, and floated it over to the North Shore to live in.

In 1966, the legendary local artist and musician Al Neil moved in. With the blessing of McKenzie Barge, Neil and his partner Carole Itter lived there for almost five decades, for many years getting free rent in exchange for Neil being an “unofficial beach watchman.”

In 2015, McKenzie Barge sold the land near where the cabin was located, and the structure had to be moved or torn down. A group of artists saved it and moved it to the Maplewood Flats in North Van, where it was restored by Jeremy and Sus Borsos.

Read the full story here.

It will soon be "All aboard!" for the  North Pole Express, which returns to Squamish's Railway Museum of British Columbia on Nov. 23.

The popular all-ages holiday attraction, which takes guests on a ride to the "North Pole" to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, runs Nov. 23, 24 and 30, as well as Dec. 1, 7 and 8, 14, 15 and 21, with several trips and packages per day to choose from.

The immersive attraction sees the train headed to deliver "much needed wrapping paper and bows to Marshall P. Bear, the Polar Bear who is the head of Santa’s workshop.

On the ride along the way, passengers meet all sorts of characters. Guests can enjoy cookies, unlimited hot chocolate and marshmallows at the North Pole and take in many activities. 

Read more about the event here.

Lii fil di nutr istwayr, Threads of our History: Exploring Métis Identity and Culture Through Clothing is an exhibition that explores a pillar of Métis culture that is shaped by historic events including the fur trade, economic and political change, resistance, and displacement. The revitalization of traditional Métis arts and creating new methods of sharing Métis culture and stories through clothing and self-decoration is a testament to the resilience the Métis Nation.

The exhibit runs from now until the end of March, 2025.

Learn more here.