Event Description
Archives shape the past, they shape the way in which we access the past and write for the future. But archives are connected to colonial pasts, erasures, and harm, relegating marginalized communities and racialized communities invisible. We know this is untrue – we know archives of these communities exist and there are many, many stories that need to be told. The event will feature a film screening of Unarchived directed by Hayley Gray & Elad Tzadok and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
In community archives across British Columbia, local knowledge keepers are hand-fashioning a more inclusive history. Through a collage of personal interviews, archival footage and deeply rooted memories, the past, present and future come together, fighting for a space where everyone is seen and everyone belongs. History is what we all make of it.
Following the film screening, join panellists (UBC History professor Dr. Henry Yu, Unarchived directors Hayley Gray & Elad Tzadok; and Kwakwaka’wakw artist Lou-ann Neel) in a discussion with UBC Library Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra on how we can work towards a change where archives can address the erasure of the past, working towards a tangibility in the future.
Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra (Sharn)
EDI Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra (Sharn) is the founder of Belonging Matters Consulting and a sessional faculty in the Department of History at UFV and UBC. Before this, Sharn worked as Coordinator at the South Asian Studies Institute at UFV for more than 12 years and as co-curator and co-manager of the Sikh Heritage Museum, National Historic Site and Gur Sikh Temple (gurdwara).
Sharn’s Ph.D. looks at the affective experiences of museum visitors through a critical race theory lens with the dissertation titled “Museums as Spaces of Belonging: Racialized Power in the Margins.” Sharn is a passionate activist, building bridges between community and academia through museum and cultural work. She is a past member of the BC Museums Association and past Director of the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre – Museum of Migration.
Sharn has been featured most recently in the Knowledge Network series “B.C: An Untold History,” is a published author, and has been featured on local, and international podcasts and media. She has lived in Abbotsford with her husband, two boys, and mother-in-law, for more than thirty years.
Location
Peña Room (RM 301), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, (1961 East Mall, UBC Point Grey campus)
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