To commemorate Canada’s 150th anniversary, the Sikh Heritage Museum, with funding awarded from the Canadian Government (Canada 150 Grant), and the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies (CICS) has curated an exhibit in the National Historic Site, Gur Sikh Temple’s Sikh Heritage Museum in Abbotsford BC. The exhibit will be launched February 19.

The site’s significance and power, according to CICS Director, Satwinder Kaur Bains, is “because it challenges ethnocentric narratives by highlighting Sikh community history as part of BC heritage.”

The exhibit, entitled (Dis) Enfranchisement 1907-1947: The Forty-Year Struggle for the Vote investigates and presents the struggle for the South Asian franchise and the right for equal recognition and citizenship with other Canadians. The exhibit also pays homage to the stories of franchise for Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians and women of European descent.