Asian Heritage Month 2025

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada—an opportunity for all Canadians to reflect on and learn more about the many achievements and contributions that Canadians of Asian heritage have made and continue to make across the country.

The legacy of Asian Canadians is one of resilience, resistance, and remarkable achievement. From early immigration and labour struggles to the ongoing fight for equity in our workplaces and communities, these stories shape who we are—and who we must strive to become.

Updated April 25, 2025
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2021/02/ccpa-bc_Challenging-Racist-BC.pdf

This booklet dives into the long history of racist policies that have impacted Indigenous, Black and racialized communities in the province over the last 150 years since BC joined Canada. The illustrated booklet, co-published by the CCPA-BC Office, ties the histories of racism and resistance to present day anti-racist movements. The booklet is being released in advance of the 150th anniversary, which is on July 20, 2021. This engaging resource has been designed to assist anti-racist educators, teachers, scholars, policymakers and individuals doing anti-racism work to help pierce the silences that too often have let racism grow in our communities, corporations and governments.

\"An open source publication of the University of Victoria research project Asian Canadians on Vancouver Island: Race, Indigeneity, and the Transpacific and The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (BC Office).\"

Awe-samosas!
Abbas, Marzieh
Paper Book
This warm and joyful picture book blends family tradition and creativity as Noor puts an awesome spin on her Dadijaan's yummy but ingredient-specific samosa recipe. It's Noor's first time making her Dadijaan's Special Samosa recipe. When she can't get in touch with her...
A dupatta is...
Abbas, Marzieh
Paper Book
A Dupatta Is..., written by Marzieh Abbas and vividly brought to life by the artwork of Anu Chouhan, is a loving and lyrical ode to the dupatta. A dupatta is so much more than a beautiful piece of fabric. A dupatta is sound--swooshing and swashing like a...
Magdaragat : an anthology of Filipino-Canadian writing
Alcuitas, Teodoro
Paper Book
Since first arriving in Canada, the Filipino community has contributed invaluably -- and too often invisibly -- to the fabric of Canadian society. In this anthology of Filipino-Canadian writing, Magdaragatexplores the diverse intricacies of these growing yet underrepresented peoples, continuing...
Extended families : a memoir of India
Begamudré, Ven
Paper Book
In Extended Families: Journeys in Time and Place, award-winning author Ven Begamudré traces the history of both sides of his family, telling a story that is both timeless and universal."My grandmother's house has two gates. The iron from which they were wrought long ago turned to irony." So begins...
My name is Saajin Singh
Brar, Kuljinder Kaur
Paper Book
A debut picture book that explores the importance of pronouncing names properly and celebrates cultural identity. Saajin loves his name--he loves it so much that he sees it spelled out in the world around him in his snacks, in the sky and sometimes he even sings it aloud. On his...
The Takedown
Chu, Lily.
Paper Book
DEE KWAN'S FIVE EASY STEPS TO WIN THE DAY AND GET THE GUY- STEP ONE- Meet Mr. Perfect. Flirt. Daydream. Hope. STEP TWO- Discover he's secretly the son of your uber-problematic new fashion industry boss. STEP THREE- Realize your uber-problematic new boss...
Journey after midnight : India, Canada and the road beyond
Dosanjh, Ujjal.
Paper Book
A midnight's child of poor rural India, Ujjal Dosanjh emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1964 at the age of eighteen, and spent nearly four years making crayons, car parts and shunting trains while he attended night school and learned English by listening to BBC Radio. He moved to Canada in...
Red Silk : an anthology of South asian Canadia women poets
Dunlop, Rishma
Paper Book
An anthology of South Asian Women Poets/
Adventures on the ancient Silk Road
Galloway, Priscilla
Paper Book
The fabled Silk Road conjures up the sights, smells and sounds of faraway lands: great and diverse cultures separated by deserts sands or windswept mountain passes. But traveling the Silk Road took years, often through bleak and rugged country with few inhabitants. Those who set out fought off...
Wedding: A Novel
Gurjinder Basran
Paper Book
You're invited to The Wedding, an electrifying novel about the joining of two South Asian families, and the secrets, resentments, and unspoken truths boiling just beneath the surface. Interweaving themes of identity, culture clashes, and the immigrant experience as found in The Namesake by...
We who produce pearls : an anthem for Asian America
Ho, Joanna
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, Joanna Ho, comes an uplifting call to action that highlights Asian American history, paired with vibrant and colorful illustrations by artist and activist, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.In Joanna Ho's true classic style, she creates a...
Berani
Kadarusman, Michelle
Paper Book
An honest and stirring novel about the choices made by young environmental activists, and the balancing act between consequence and triumph Malia has had a privileged upbringing in Indonesia, but since her Indonesian father died, her Canadian mother wants to return to her own family on the...
On the Ravine: A Novel
Lam, Vincent
Paper Book
From the bestselling, Giller Prize-winning author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures comes an exquisitely crafted novel, piercing in its urgency and breathtaking in its intimacy, about the devastating experience of addiction. CBC's Best Canadian Fiction of the Year. ...
Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart: A Memoir
Lee, Jen Sookfong
Paper Book
For most of Jen Sookfong Lee's life, pop culture was an escape from family tragedy and a means of fitting in with the larger culture around her. Anne of Green Gables assured her that, despite losing her father at the age of twelve, one day she might still have the loving family of her dreams, and...
Chinatown pretty : fashion and wisdom from Chinatown's most stylish seniors
Lo, Andria
Paper Book
Chinatown Pretty features beautiful portraits and heartwarming stories of trend-setting seniors across six Chinatowns. Andria Lo and Valerie Luu have been interviewing and photographing Chinatown's most fashionable elders on their blog and Instagram, Chinatown Pretty, since...
The double happiness cookbook : 88 feel-good recipes and food stories
Lui, Trevor
Paper Book
Toronto is a renowned food mecca, born out of a cultural identity defined by the unified culinary tradition of a vibrant multicultural community. It is a city that has shaped and defined one passionate chef who abandoned his corporate job to throw on an apron and to get into the kitchen, behind the...
The Great Henna Party
Malik, Humera/ Zohra, Sonali (ILT)
Paper Book
If you were to name the person you loved the most, who would you choose? Noor's cousin is getting married tomorrow, and tonight, Noor's family will hold a henna party in her honor. They'll sing traditional songs, eat delicious treats, and have their hands painted in swirling designs using...
Smiling eyes
Park, Linda Sue
Paper Book
From Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Linda Sue Park comes a joyous and inclusive celebration of eyes--showcasing the variety of Asian eye shapes and hues--in lively rhyming text ideal for sharing with any child. For an enthusiastic little boy, an ordinary day is...
Dayo
Perez, Marc
Paper Book
An elegant debut collection that illuminates the contours of un/belonging. Dayo: a Tagalog word referring to someone who exists in a place not their own. A wanderer, migrant worker, exile or simply a stranger. At its core, the poems in Dayo interrogate whether...
Duty, honour & izzat : from golden fields to crimson : Punjab's brothers in arms in Flanders
Purewal, Steven
Paper Book
The story of how the Indian soldiers of the Punjab chose to ignore the insults to their honour and dignity, to help stop Great Britain losing World War One in 1914. Presented as a historical scrapbook with beautifully realised, photo-realistic artwork. Framing the history is a story about a teenage...
The hoop con
Shah, Amar (Screenwriter)
Paper Book
YOU CAN'T WIN IF YOU DON'T PLAY Raam Patel is eager to prove himself ever since he didn't make the middle school's basketball team. So, when Hoop Con comes to town he is determined to be there and take his shot. His big moment proves to be unforgettable... but not in the way he'd hoped....
They called us enemy
Takei, George
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller! A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale...
Skim
Tamaki, Mariko.
Paper Book
The time is the early 1990s, the setting a girls' academy in Toronto. Enter "Skim," aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird...
Falling back in love with being human : letters to lost souls
Thom, Kai Cheng
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE LEAGUE OF CANADIAN POETS PAT LOWTHER MEMORIAL AWARD "Required reading for the untamed soul . . . reminded me how to love others and myself."--Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed A transformative...
The doll
Tran-Davies, Nhung N.
Paper Book
A young girl and her family arrive in an airport in a new country. They are refugees, migrants who have travelled across the world to find safety. Strangers greet them, and one of them gives the little girl a doll. Decades later, that little girl is grown up and she has the chance to welcome a group...

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