The Mississauga Story
Living Heritage

NRU
Sarah Niedoba
Sept. 20, 2017

As Mississauga has grown, its population has become increasingly diverse—today, 53.7 per cent of its residents identify as a visible minority. Now, as part of its heritage strategy, the city is launching an initiative to hear those residents’ stories, to create what it calls “living heritage.”

Intended to uncover the history of the city’s diverse population, through the Story of M initiative staff will gather personal histories at storytelling events from residents who are recent immigrants to Canada. Participants will be asked to share their stories about living in the city and why they chose to move to Mississauga. Staff will then compile common themes, which will inform the curation of local museum
exhibits.

“Oftentimes Canadian heritage is deemed as a colonial story,” Mississauga culture division chief curator Stuart Keeler told NRU. “A Eurocentric focus doesn’t reflect what our city is today—our goal is to create living heritage, which reflects our current culture and identity.”

Approved in 2016, the city’s five-year Heritage Management Strategy calls for increased engagement with the city’s ethno-cultural groups.

It’s a worthy goal, Vietnamese Community Centre of Mississauga executive director Kim Le told NRU. She says members of her community often feel excluded from the city’s heritage projects.

“We would welcome the opportunity to share our stories, our history of how we came to live in this city. Many people in my community came to this country as refugees, or from other difficult circumstances, and now call this city their home. These are perspectives you don’t hear very often.”

Chinese Association of Mississauga executive director Mary Yumei Ren, agrees. She says that Mississauga’s Chinese community has valuable experiences that the city should be making an effort to understand.

“We have over 50,000 Chinese residents in Mississauga, that’s no small number,” Ren told NRU. “These are people with extremely valuable personal histories—one of our board member’s father had experienced the head tax, for example. So yes, the city should be seeking these stories out.”

According to Keeler, the experiences shared at the storytelling events will provide staff with the data it needs to start creating more diverse installations in the city’s museums.

“What we’re doing right now is Phase 1, where residents can have their say, and voice their opinions,” says Keeler. “That will continue until March, and then we’ll host a community panel to discuss common themes. From there, we’ll proceed into Phase 2, where we’ll start to consider what kind of exhibitions we could create in our museums, around these themes.”

While Keeler acknowledges that words like holistic and diverse can seem like buzzwords, he says that he believes the project will produce exhibits that residents will feel excited about.

“What we’re doing here is something that is very community-based, that will allow residents to feel heard by their city,” he says. “That’s what this is about—ensuring that people are seen.”