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UFV exhibit shows struggle to attain Indo-Canadian vote

Project on display at Gur Sikh Temple's Sikh Heritage Museum in Abbotsford
93040abbotsfordsikhvoting
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A new exhibit curated by UFV’s Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies (CICS) examines the 40-year struggle to attain the vote for Indo-Canadians.

(Dis) Enfranchisement 1907-1947: The Forty-Year Struggle for The Vote offers a different perspective in uncovering Canada’s historical past as the 150th year of Canadian confederation is commemorated.

The exhibit is funded by a Canada 150 grant from the federal government and will be displayed in the Gur Sikh Temple’s Sikh Heritage Museum in Abbotsford (33094 South Fraser Way).

The exhibit will be available for viewing throughout the year.

“Using this heritage site as the location for the exhibit challenges ethnocentric narratives by highlighting Sikh community history as part of B.C. heritage,” said Satwinder Bains, director of UFV’s Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies.

The exhibit investigates and presents the struggle for the South Asian franchise and the right for equal recognition and citizenship with other Canadians.

In addition to the story of the South Asian franchise, the exhibit also pays homage to the stories of franchise for Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians, and women of European descent.

Bains said the idea originated from research on the 100-plus year history of Indo-Canadians to B.C. and the struggles and trials they faced in the first five decades – in particular, from the turn of the century through to the 1950s.

“The Indian immigrants to the west coast were denied rights that were automatically extended to those of European origin arriving on these shores at the same time, the most important of which was the right to vote. It would take 40 years, from 1907 to 1947, to win back the vote. This exhibit investigates that time period and records the difficulties of time, place and politics,” Bains said.

While the exhibit focuses on B.C. as a whole, there are Abbotsford community and family histories featured, including those of the Inder Singh Gill and Sucha Singh Thandi families.

Lumber barons, such as the Mayo family of Vancouver Island, also played a significant role in the campaign for the right to vote, as did the Khalsa Diwan Society of Abbotsford and Vancouver.

Bains says it’s important to focus on some of the “not so good” history of Canada during the Canada 150 celebrations.

“These narratives are just as important because it is the history that we are apt to repeat if we have no knowledge of it. The youth of today need to know our long struggles so that we may protect that which so many fought so hard to gain,” she says.

“As a Canadian, I am proud of the freedoms we all enjoy in this great nation,” says Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon MP Jati Sidhu.

Contributors to the creation of the exhibit include CICS staff, the Nikkei National Museum; Steven Purewal of Indus Foundation; Shirley Hardman, Molly Ungar, Ghizlaine Laghzaoui of UFV; student researchers from UFV; alumna and BFA grad Kendra Schellenberg; Reg Wilford; Pardeep Nagra of Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada; Piara Singh Bhullar and Paneet Singh.