FROM THE COLLECTION aims to introduce readers to the inventories of local art galleries, museums and other cultural institutions, not via official exhibition notes but by way of the people that help manage and maintain the collections themselves.

“While there is some distance between the suitcase and I, it evokes a sense of familiarity as I navigate what it means to be a diasporic young adult with family on both sides of the Pacific.”

In this edition of From the Collection, Stanley Chia, Program Assistant and Museum Interpreter at the Museum of Vancouver, selects an item that triggers thoughts of his own personal journey and current place in the world….

“This suitcase is a good reminder of Vancouver’s connection to the Pacific. Hong Kong is written on the suitcase and that makes me think about how my transpacific migration from Southeast Asia to Canada via Hong Kong follows in the footsteps of many others before me. While there is some distance between the suitcase and I, it evokes a sense of familiarity as I navigate what it means to be a diasporic young adult with family on both sides of the Pacific. The fact that one of the two latches is no longer attached to the suitcase begs the question, what and how much do we carry when we move from one place to another?”

Take a look at more objects in the collection here.

Museum of Vancouver

Neighbourhood: Kitsilano

100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9

604-736-4431

WEBSITE