The Community Archival Collections and Heritage Exhibitions (CACHE) cluster is a GCRC Research Cluster headed by Dr. Henry Yu (ACRE) and Dr. Jennifer Douglas (iSchool).
CACHE aims to make archiving practices more accessible, sustainable, and equitable– particularly for persistently marginalized communities, whose collections have been historically ignored and/or neglected by mainstream museums and archives. It is composed of memory keepers and institutions who are united through the shared goal of championing equitable and socially just community archival practices. As this work needs to be grounded on trust, accountability, and equitable collaboration, CACHE aims to intentionally build relationships between these different groups so that we can collectively innovate and diversify archival practice. CACHE members (i.e. Museums, archives, community organizations) have come together to write a Terms of Reference document to guide our work using these values.
CACHE upholds “for our communities, by our communities” as a guiding principle in the planning and operations of community engaged research. CACHE centres community members and organizations as key agents in knowledge preservation and activation of Community Archival Collections through Heritage Exhibitions to highlight (hi)stories that are significant to Asian Canadian communities.
The creation of CACHE responds to histories of knowledge extraction by academic institutions that have treated racialized communities as objects of intellectual fascination and domination rather than as producers and holders of knowledge in their own right.
Objectives
CACHE supports and advocates for existing Community Archival Collections to grow connected, engaged, equitable, collaborative, and sustainable partnerships across the Lower Mainland.
The task of sustaining and resourcing institutional, ongoing, and tangible commitments to preserve the records of historically, systemically, and persistently marginalized communities is key to the immediate and long term success of CACHE. It is equally important to form ethical and responsive relationships with community partners based on trust and accountability.
- Connect community members of institutional archives, community archival collections, and heritage exhibitions, across the Lower Mainland to collectively invest in shaping equitable archival systems.
- Articulate the need for diversity of archival practice in working with communities.
- Assess the community archiving and collections landscape and explore the role of CACHE within the context of our shared strategic priorities.
- Advocate for community archival collections to be reflected in institutional spaces.
- Outline the infrastructure for an operating model that supports the vision and purpose of a equity-focused and dispersed-framework of archival capacity in institutions and communities.
- Develop a high-level implementation roadmap that reflects key milestones, timelines, and resource requirements in creating an operating model/infrastructure.
- Activate community archival collections with heritage exhibitions situated across the Lower Mainland.
- Build a community of practice through events, publicly relevant programming and mentorship programs.
- Bring together community engaged approaches in museum and archival collecting.
Events
Past and upcoming CACHE events are listed below. Outside of the scheduled events, CACHE members also regularly meet every 2 months to discuss strategic priorities, emerging needs, and opportunities for collaboration.
2025
This workshop centred the voices, perspectives, and priorities of community organizations with collections to identify CACHE’s next steps.
This event was led by iSchool student Lily Liu to train volunteers from the Wongs’ Benevolent Association to care for the Wongs’ heritage collection, with special emphasis on the techniques needed to care for the 100+ year old manuscripts and records.
This workshop focussed on exploring the possibilities of developing a tangible tool to support community organizations on managing, preserving, and making informed decisions regarding their collections.
Led by Thami Jothilingam, this workshop shared important information on funding applications with an emphasis on breaking down the grant writing experience to make it more accessible for community organizations.
Hosted by CACHE and iSchool Masters of Archival Studies students Lily Liu and Philip Cheung in partnership with the Wongs’ Benevolent Association (WBA) of Canada, Jeffrey Wong and Aynsley Wong led community members on a behind-the-scenes tour of the WBA. This workshop described and introduced to the audience the collaboration between CACHE and the Wongs’ Benevolent Association while highlighting the value of supporting, preserving, and platforming community collections. Joined by numerous organizations and clan associations, this event served as a catalyst to further gather and grow our community.
2024
In October 2024 ACRE collaborated with the Museum of Vancouver and City of Vancouver to offer a day of tours. These tours had the goal of demystifying collections and archives, specifically for community members, students, and community archivist audiences. Further the programming helped to define, describe and introduce to the audience the distinction between museum collections and city archives. Organizations in attendance included Burnaby Village Museum, City of Vancouver, Chinatown Foundation, Chinatown Storytelling Centre, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, Chinese Canadian Military Museum, Hogan's Alley Society, Museum of Vancouver, Sun Yat Sen Garden Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement Rare Books and Special Collections, Unity Centre Association for Black Cultures, Wong's Benevolent Association, hua foundation.
Research Spotlights
I am a dual Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies student at the UBC School of Information. In my past work, community records gave me glimpses into a region’s history grounded in the lived realities of its residents; conversing with volunteers, donors, and local organizations and hearing their stories in relation to the records were the highlights of my days. Having found this work meaningful, I became involved with CACHE and the Wongs’ Benevolent Association (WBA) to continue exploring community archiving and what archival practice can look like and be.
Lily Liu cleaning Wongs' Benevolent Association Vancouver Scrapbook.
Lily Liu working with Wongs' Benevolent Association Vancouver Scrapbook.
During my CACHE appointment, I focused on physical record preservation and conservation, giving workshops, and developing a metadata application profile suitable for WBA’s records. These tasks helped develop skills such as resourcefulness, creativity, critical thinking, and clear communication amongst others. I also continue to learn and reflect upon the importance of trust in community archival work. On an individual level, I am grateful for the WBA’s trust in letting me handle their archival materials for cleaning and maintenance and in using those materials for other projects and educational development. I also think about how community archival work entails a lot of trial and error due to its exploratory and highly idiosyncratic nature (unique communities, unique working contexts). This means placing trust in the process—we do not know everything that might happen in the process of collaboration or what the exact end outcome might be, but work is done in good faith regardless. I give thanks to Philip, Dr. Jennifer Douglas, Dr. Henry Yu, the Wongs’ Benevolent Association, ACRE/ACAM staff, and the CACHE program for making this opportunity possible.
As a Master of Archival Studies student at the UBC iSchool, I bring expertise in preserving and promoting cultural heritage. My academic and professional journey shows success in safeguarding historical materials, with specialized knowledge in Chinese Canadian and Hong Kong cultural narratives.
Philip Chung working with Wongs' Benevolent Association Vancouver Scrapbook.
Philip Chung working with Wongs' Benevolent Association Vancouver Scrapbook.
I am currently working in the CACHE project, which preserves essential Chinese Canadian historical materials from the Wong's Benevolent Association. Working with Professor Jennifer Douglas, archivist June Chow, Vice President Jeffrey Wong, and my teammate Lily Liu, I implement comprehensive digital preservation strategies that protect vital elements of Chinese Canadian cultural memory. The project encompasses:
- Preserving and digitizing historical Chinese Canadian scrapbooks
- Developing a custom digital collection repository
- Transcribing and describing Chinese materials
- Collaborating across multiple cultural institutions to ensure comprehensive archival preservation
This work advances my professional focus on integrating community heritage preservation with innovative archival technologies. Through my expertise in cultural heritage outreach and digital preservation, I deliver tangible results through the CACHE project. By establishing a specialized digital repository for the Wong's Benevolent Association, I ensure these critical historical records remain accessible and meaningful for future generations.
The CACHE project demonstrates my ability to enhance cultural understanding through precise archival practices and digital innovation. I aim to share my archival knowledge and practices with community archives across Canada and beyond.
Approach and operating principles
CACHE’s approach to engagement includes ensuring that our principles and operations reflect the collective values of building mutual trust with members and the institutions members represent. In addition, the cluster reflects on the historically extractive practices inflicted on racialized communities by knowledge institutions and push for social and systemic change through the cluster’s work.
The following guiding principles shape the work of CACHE:
1. Strengthen relationships between mainstream archival institutions, community archival
collections, and community creators.
2. Support community members to collect, preserve, and care for their own family and community
belongings and collect.
- Build capacity for culturally sensitive care of community materials in mainstream archival
institutions.
3. Help existing institutional archives to evaluate collections of historically marginalized communities, and identify those that should be preserved institutionally as significant to our collective heritage in British Columbia and Canada.
4. Advocate in solidarity with community archival collections to:
- Support the development of relationships, infrastructures, resources, and policies to build a community of practice.
- Support community-engaged curation and participation in temporary/rotating exhibitions.
Administrative support
The individuals and organizations below have collaborated to develop and articulate the values, goals, and operating principles of CACHE.
Community partners
- Aynsley Wong, Director, Wong's Benevolent Association
- Jeffrey Wong, Vice President, Wong's Benevolent Association
- Catherine Clement, Independent Curator
- Viviane Gosselin, Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Museum of Vancouver
- Denise Fong, Curator of Urban Cultures, Museum of Vancouver
- Heather Gordon, City Archivist, City of Vancouver
- June Chow, Independent Archivist
- Melissa Lee, CEO, Chinese Canadian Museum
- Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, Independent Public Historian
UBC affiliates
- Dr. Henry Yu, Co-Director, UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement
- Dr. JP Catungal, Co-Director, UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement
- Jennifer Lu, Community Engagement Manager, UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement
- Joanna Yang, Program Development Manager, UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement
- Shirley Ting, Administrative Coordinator, UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement
- Dr. Laura Ishiguro, Director, UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies
- Szu Shen, Program Manager, UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies
- Dr. Jennifer Douglas, Associate Professor, UBC School of Information
- Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa, Head, UBA Asian Studies Library
- Clare Malek, Archivist, UBC Rare Books and Special Collections
- Krisztina Laszlo, Archivist, UBC Rare Books and Special Collections