Fact Sheet

The Memory of Paldi Lives on Through Archive Digitalization

The South Asian Canadian Legacy Project helps piece together the story of Paldi through the digitalization of archives

Kamloops BC – March 12, 2024

Chad Petrie, Public Relations Person, The South Asian Canadian Legacy Project, University of the Fraser Valley, Student, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, chadpetrie1921@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SOUTH ASIAN CANADIAN LEGACY PROJECT

  • located at the University of the Fraser Valley
  • project managed by Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains
  • protects the legacy and history of the South Asian community in Canada
  • pieces together South Asian history in Canada through archive collection and digitalization

ARCHIVES

  • archives show us our history and where we’ve been through visual media
  • archives only exist in snippets and can be pieced together to tell a more complete story
  • ancestors can tell their kids and grandkids their stories through various kinds of visual media including documents, photos, and videos

ARCHIVE DIGITALIZATION

  • digitalized archives prevent the media from being lost
  • archives are more accessible through the internet when digitized and the worry of them being damaged, such as a printed photograph, is eliminated
  • digitalized archives online can reach more people which can potentially lead to more archives being collected

PALDI

  • a community on Vancouver Island that consisted on South Asian immigrants as well as East Asian immigrants, and European immigrants
  • community is most know for the mill called Mayo Siding where the immigrants would go to work as it was nearly impossible to find employment anywhere else
  • archives collected from Joan Mayo and others help show what day to day life was like in Paldi before the mill closed