South Asian community advocacy group pushes for dedicated museum [Video]

A group representing people of South Asian descent in B.C. are coming together Tuesday evening to push for the creation of a museum dedicated to the community — a project that hasn’t seen much progress in four years and has failed to effectively consult with various communities, according to one community advocate.

“We expected movement along the way at some level and what happened was the exact opposite,” said Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, a member of the Museum Liberation Force (MLF) and a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.

She said after the museum was initially announced, only one consultation took place in April 2023 that led to “a lot of pushback and criticism” about its placeholder name as the South Asian Museum.

Sandhra said the name doesn’t adequately capture the diverse communities of people with South Asian heritage, including those from countries or communities not directly in southern …