New BC South Asian Museum “liberation” group seeks $100 million in funding

As the government consultation process for the proposed British Columbia South Asian Museum lurches forward, a new group has arrived on the scene.

The newly formed Museum Liberation Force asked “What’s happening with the ‘South Asian Canadian Museum’”? on Instagram on March 25, 2024 and announced a meeting to be held at the Surrey City Hall on April 2. In its “Open letter” of invitation, the group alleged that the process led by Arts and Culture Minister Lana Popham had resulted in “condescension” and “harm” related to “performative language” and “white fragility”.

The Museum Liberation Force meeting attended by Rungh News on April 2 included about 150 people. The meeting format consisted of an on-stage panel responding to questions from a moderator and a dinner break, followed by audience questions. The self professed leaderless movement’s public meeting began, before anyone else came to the stage, with Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra and Mo Dhaliwal informing the audience that the audience needed to hold onto a “paradox”, “two thoughts together at the same time”, of a museum which could be “predominantly Punjabi” and also have “broad South Asian inclusion”.

Since Rungh News’ initial reporting, the term “South Asian” in relation to the museum has become contentious and when the moderator asked the panel about the use of the term, Keerat Kaur noted that “specificity could be an issue”. Dr. Sandhra referenced “religious trauma”, “Sikhs being targeted”, and the farmers protests in India. Dr. Malik referenced and recited a poem, in a language other than English, by the 16th century Punjabi Sufi poet Shah Hussain.

At the dinner break, a previously announced langar²“The Langar or free community kitchen is a hallmark of the Sikh faith.”
[Source: https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Langar] was provided by the Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar and Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen. Attendees were asked to jot down answers to broad questions about the proposed museum on coloured sticky Post It notes or on white paper covered tables. The Museum Liberation Force mirrored the same method as the Ministry consultation held at the 5X music festival on the public plaza at Surrey City Hall on June 17, 2023. The Ministry had also encouraged attendees to provide comments on coloured sticky Post It notes and write their thoughts on paper covered tables.

In the morning, on the day of the meeting, Dr. Sandhra had been a guest on Stephen Quinn’s morning CBC Radio broadcast. In her criticisms of the Ministry led process, she noted that Ministry staff lacked “nuance” in understanding the communities involved. The knowledge required to practice “nuance”, and be sensitive to all the South Asian communities involved, also became an issue at the Museum Liberation Force meeting held that evening.

At the start of the post-break question and answer session, Dr. Malik, in response to a conversation with a non-Punjabi speaking artist’s concerns raised during the break, apologized for reciting poetry without translating it and provided a loose English language translation. While the Museum Liberation Force panel had previously referenced its desire to hold “conversations, with love, integrity and care”, when culturally laden terms like langar, sangat, haq³‘Haq’ means rights, and the PCLP [Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project] is about putting community voices and history in their rightful places. Next to the kiosk in the gallery, Mo ended the event by leading three calls of ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ – ‘Long live the revolution!’ (in Punjabi) – calling for continuous work to move beyond traditional boundaries and create new paradigms for heritage work.
[Source: https://staff.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/2019/08/19/haq-history/] and seva⁴“Seva also Sewa, short for the word Karseva refers to "selfless service", work or service performed without any thought of reward or personal benefit. In the Punjabi language the person performing such service is called a Sevadar.”
[Source: https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Seva] were used during the meeting, no contextual translations or references were provided. No reference was made as to whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or other communities also had traditions of providing free communal meals, gathering in community, a claim to truths, or concepts of charitable service.

During the question-and-answer session, several individuals wondered aloud about how other South Asian voices would be accommodated. One questioner noted how it was a “Sikh value to ‘hold space’” and wondered how the Museum Liberation Force’s efforts would deal with any “discord”. Dhaliwal responded with “hold onto your thoughts” and that the “tension” needed to be figured out. Cheema noted that “discord” could be “reframed” by organizing. Dr. Sandhra referenced the “harm” that she experienced on the Ministry advisory committee and “Mo [Dhaliwal] experienced harm in previous versions”. Dr. Sandhra suggested that people needed to become “un-silent” about the “elephant in the room”. No further explanation was provided about the “elephant”.

After the event, Rungh News sought interviews with panelists Monica Cheema and Dr. Anushay Malik. No response was received from either of them. Other sources Rungh News spoke to raised concerns about the separation which the Museum Liberation Force appeared to be advocating between “predominantly Punjabi” and other South Asians, wondering how the other South Asians could be ensured a full and fair voice within the divisive “paradox” which the Museum Liberation Force proposed.

On the same day as the Museum Liberation Force meeting, the Ministry announced a $500,000 community grant pool to be managed by the BC Museum Association. Rungh News requested an interview with the BC Museum Association and was referred to a Ministry media spokesperson instead.

Interested groups can apply to the BCMA for up to $5,000 each to hold community conversations about the proposed museum. The BC Museum Association site is also asking for the public to provide online comments and to fill in a public survey, available in Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi. Rungh News has learned that this funding announcement had been in process before the Museum Liberation Force publicly announced its event, and had been delayed due to the need for multilingual translations.

The Museum Liberation Force meeting displayed the skills of a nimble group which can harness social media, harvest email addresses, and mobilise the “predominantly Punjabi” community. The group is only bound by the “privacy” policies of the various online apps it utilizes, which apps exist to monetize user data. The “liberation” group can set its own rules and is not accountable to anyone but itself. The “liberation” group’s assumptions about shared understandings are “predominantly Punjabi” and exhibit the very lack of “nuance” for which it criticizes the Ministry. The “force” uses opaque methods about who is actually making decisions and claims to be leaderless.

The Ministry is similarly opaque about why the museum was promised and how advisory group members were chosen. The Ministry moves ponderously and for this it has been criticized by the “liberation” group. The Ministry, however, is accountable to the public via a legislature, a public accounts and audit process, strict privacy and access laws, and an electorate.

How to be less dominantly Punjabi, “predominantly” or otherwise, and more transparent is the challenge which the new group will have to address if it wishes to be seen as a legitimate, “community” engaged alternative to the Ministry process. Less “force” and more reflection on their learnings from their first public meeting might be a more productive road to “liberation”.