As the 2017 recipient of the Darpan Award in the Breaking Barriers category, I was happy to be in attendance when the South Asian Studies Institute (SASI) at the University of the Fraser Valley received the Heritage Defender award in Surrey at the eleventh annual Darpan Extraordinary Achievement Awards on October 15, 2021.
Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains, director of SASI, accepted the award on behalf of SASI and the university.
“The Heritage Defender award by Darpan magazine is truly in recognition of the 15 years of work of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley,” Bains said.
“Since 2006, the Institute has been working very hard to record the history of South Asian Canadians in B.C. and Canada. This history has been omitted, erased, and neglected for far too long, and the important legacy of our work is to ensure future generations have access to our rich, robust, and resilient history. At the same time, we are also concerned with investigating and researching current and contemporary concerns and successes that add to our historical record.
“We have undertaken many research projects that have recorded the stories of about 500 families in B.C. — these stories create a meta narrative of our past history and they help take us into a more socially just and caring society.
“We are working on the South Asian Canadian Legacy Project that aims to ensure that the curriculum in our schools accurately reflects and includes South Asian Canadian history, heritage, and culture. At the Institute, we are busy creating the first South Asian Canadian Digital Archive that will be a repository of artefacts, images, materials and more of the 100+ year history of South Asians in B.C.
“We are also busy writing a social history book of South Asians in B.C. that will bring under one cover the stories of people from the regions in South Asia — stories that are being told for the very first time. South Asian Canadians have been active in social justice causes since their first arrivals in 1903 to the shores of B.C., and their activism in the labour movements is being recorded in a fully comprehensive way for the Canadian record.”
Image: UFV Today
