The Chinese Canadian Artifacts Project (CCAP) for the first time brings together and makes accessible in a single, searchable database over 6000 Chinese Canadian artefacts held by 16 local and regional museums throughout British Columbia. Anyone with Internet access can virtually enter these participating museums and discover much about the everyday lives of early Chinese Canadians – their resilience in the face of over a century of racist exclusions, their work and family life from decades past, and their ongoing community contributions. Whether searching family genealogies, investigating Chinese Canadian history, or looking for Qing-era pottery, CCAP opens new pathways into the past and present.
CCAP originated as a Chinese Canadian Legacy Initiative project, one of several B.C. government projects to commemorate the historical contributions of Chinese Canadians to the province. These projects are part of an official apology offered by the B.C. provincial government in 2014 for historical wrongs directed towards Chinese Canadians. Representing the provincial government, the Honourable Teresa Wat, Minister of International Trade and Minister Responsible for Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism, inaugurated the artifact project at the University of Victoria on April 30, 2015.Supported by the B.C. Museums Association, (Theresa MacKay, Executive Director), a UVIC research team (John Price, Project Director) partnered with 16 museums across the province to compile the database. UVIC’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre provided technical expertise and support to harmonize and enter the materials into the web-based, open-source archival repository ATOM (Access to Memory). A guide to the collection is available here.