Human Rights and Equity Services, in partnership with OPIRG and MSU- Diversity Services, is showing two remarkable films in May (Asian Heritage Month) to draw attention to the little-known histories of Chinese and South Asian immigrants in Canada.

On May 12, at 3:30 p.m., Karen Cho's film In the Shadow of Gold Mountain will be screened at the Ewart Angus Centre, HSC-1A6. Cho, a fifth-generation Canadian of mixed heritage, discovered that half her family wasn't welcomed in the country they called 'home'.

In the Shadow of Gold Mountain takes her from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover the stories of the last living survivors of the notorious Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act that plunged generations of Chinese families into debt and forced family separations from 1885 to 1947. Canada's governor general Adrienne Clarkson has said that “Karen Cho's film eloquently illustrates the personal and social consequences of exclusion and ostracism.”

On May 26, Ali Kazimi's film Continuous Journey, will be screened at 3:30 p.m. at the same locale, HSC-1A6. This award-winning film tells the tragic story of the Komagata Maru and its 376 passengers who sailed from the British East Indies in 1914, expecting to settle as British subjects in colonial Canada. The ship was not permitted to land and its passengers were subjected to the racism of those who believed in “A White Canada Forever”.

Continuous Journey makes dramatic use of archival photographs and texts to narrate a crucial part of Canada's troubled history.

For more information, contact Nuzhat Abbas- Educator, Human Rights and Equity Services at ext. 24067 or abbasn@mcmaster.ca