A post about Canada Day, in three parts.
Letter to Canada
Hi Canada, it’s me, Linda.
Happy birthday! So what are you doing today? Hosting parties? Heck yes, I’m coming to the show tonight. I love fireworks.
How are you feeling? You’re looking pretty good for 155. How’s independence treating you? Remember when you moved out of the [British] Houses of Parliament? You were only 115 – just a kid then, but look at you now.
What’s that? Adulthood has its ups and downs? Tell me about it. But let’s save today for celebrating the good things. Tomorrow we can talk about the other stuff. Today let’s celebrate clean water, diversity, inclusion, multiculturalism, and gorgeous vistas. Let’s raise a glass of ice wine to Sandra Oh, Drake, Jim Carrey, Ryan Reynolds, Carrie Ann Moss, Sarah McLachlan, and Elliot Page. Let’s fill a plate with shawarma, sushi, dim sum, BBQ baby back ribs, poutine, and pakoras.
Remember when I sewed your flag on my backpack that first trip to England? Then again the next year to Europe? And so on it went, to Australia, New Zealand, and a few years later, around the world. The maple leaf took care of me and I could certainly spot my fellow Canadians at a distance.
Happy Birthday, Canada.
Countdown: 365 days to go
A year from now, on Saturday, July 1, 2023, the new permanent home of the Chinese Canadian Museum will open at 51 E. Pender Street, Vancouver. There will be drinks, speeches, and ribbons to cut. There will be so many people it’ll be hard to actually see the exhibitions, but that’s OK, the exhibitions can wait. There is a time for celebrating and a time for remembering. Next year, our community might be able to let go some of the hurt of Humiliation Day. We look forward with hope but never forget our past.
I’m looking forward to seeing it all. I can’t wait to see the opening exhibition, The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, and I want to see EVERY SINGLE THING at the museum. Maybe I’ll go twice, or three times, or maybe I’ll just move in.
It was my family’s house, after all.
A year to learn our own history
I am super excited about my latest project.
I’m putting together a video series, complete with slides, handouts, and transcripts. Some of the videos were prepared for an institute-level course, while others were made for webinars presented at genealogy societies. Now, finally, they are all together in one place, in an order that makes sense, for the student of Chinese genealogy.
Here’s the deal: I have only just begun to download all that I’ve learned into these videos, because the more I learn, the more it all seems to connect and goodness knows we need all the resources we can get. And tools. Did I mention this is Chinese genealogy? Not everybody reads Chinese, very much including me, and we students of Chinese need our tech tools to hurdle the language barriers. Do you know how it feels to be able to read a page in Chinese using tech? UH-MAZING.
So stick around because Members-only genealogy video courses are coming! Here’s a preview.
Thank yous
It’s a tradition here at Past-Presence.com to close every blog with gratitude. Today I’d like to thank my tribe Gail Dever at Genealogy à la carte, Carly Lane Morgan at Family Tree Notebooks, Lynn Torrie at Storytellers of Canada, and Jessica McNaughton at MemoryKPR. I am uplifted and inspired to keep such company.
