Update on the BCMA’s Ongoing Commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: December 2025
The BC Museums Association is committed to supporting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the museum and cultural sector and our own organizational practices. These priorities are woven throughout our current Strategic Plan 2024-2029, which you can find here. A key component of this commitment is being open and transparent with our community. We aim to provide regular updates about our steps to support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. If you have feedback or would like to share your thoughts, we encourage you to contact us.
The BCMA has published regular justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion updates since 2020. To read our past updates, please visit this page.
Jump to Recent Updates
BCMA Update
Jazmin Hundal, the BCMA’s Equity Initiatives Manager, will be leaving her position in December 2025 after 3.5 years with the organization. Jazmin primarily worked with the IBPOC Network and shares this message:
“It has been the opportunity of a lifetime to run this network and collaborate with my colleagues on the many equity projects and spaces that we are lucky to support as a team. Doing this work has taught me that there is incredible power in uplifting each other and building community with like-minded folks across the sector. As we watch funding for this kind of work disappear in the US, and its ripple effects in Canada, it is so critical that we continue to advocate for affinity spaces and equitable compensation for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work. As long as you have the capacity, please continue to speak up in your workplaces, meetings, committees, and conferences. Your voice matters and has made the many initiatives we take on at the BCMA possible. Thank you for your support and guidance! We genuinely notice and appreciate it every day.”
The BCMA Council and Executive Director recognize the importance and impact that the IBPOC Network has had, and will continue to have. We look forward to the future of the Network in which we continue to prioritize the diverse needs of our members and provide ongoing dedicated support and resources to support our strategic goal of advancing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.
Online Tea and Talks will continue to support the needs of IBPOC cultural workers with the help of the Network Advisors and the support of BCMA Staff. At this juncture, we welcome thoughts and feedback from those for whom the IBPOC Network has had an impact and supported. Please reach out to us at bcma@museum.bc.ca
Program Updates
IBPOC Network
The IBPOC Network continues to hold an accountable space for racialized staff, volunteers, and students in the sector to find support amongst peers.
Every month, we host online Tea and Talks over Zoom as a low-barrier way for folks to meet each other, ask questions, and co-navigate workplace challenges. With Jazmin’s departure from the BCMA, members of the IBPOC Network Advisory Group have kindly offered to host sessions until transition plans are solidified. Our next two sessions will be on January 14 and February 19, 2026. Our advisory group will continue to plan future Cultivating Careers workshops for members in the coming months.
This year, Tea and Talk On The Road travelled across BC to Surrey, Victoria, Coquitlam, and Kelowna, bringing opportunities for regional community building and connection with these in-person sessions. In-person programming will continue next year and will include more joint-network events, co-hosted with the BCMA’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Network.
Joint Network Events
Connect with arts, culture, and heritage IBPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ professionals, students, and volunteers from across British Columbia.
Joint network events are planned by staff as a way to create intersectional spaces for members and solidarity between affinity groups. This year, we hosted multiple joint network Tea and Talks online, as well as our online book club Beyond The Margins. In March 2026, the networks will come together again to offer an event in Victoria featuring local youth artists. Keep an eye on our website for this event and more!
2SLGBTQIA+ Network
The 2SLGBTQIA+ Network continues to build our community and support queer identifying folks in the sector.
Since September 2025, our main focus has been implementing programming through the Creative QueerPreneur program. The QueerPreneur Program is funded through The Old SchoolHouse Arts Centre and is dedicated to fostering community hubs across the Island, providing 2SLGBTQI+ creative entrepreneurs with space and resources to connect, collaborate, and thrive. Each hub will host a variety of engaging and informative events, including workshops, networking meetups, mentorship sessions, and skill-building opportunities, all tailored to the unique needs of the community. As of December 2025, we are wrapping up our Capturing Queer Legacies workshop series, which included a community storytelling methods panel, a zine making workshop, and an archiving 101 workshop. This series was intended to support queer creatives to have an understanding of the story collecting and telling process, so that we are involved in and have agency over our own narratives as we see a rise in queer stories included in museums and cultural spaces.
In November 2025, we also hosted a two-part workshop series featuring Indigo Dunphy-Smith and her resource “How to Queer Your Historic House.” In this workshop, Indigo detailed her resource and supported participants through implementing the method outlined in the guide.
Queer Connect continues to be offered as a monthly space for queer professionals to connect, seek peer support and network. Looking ahead to the New Year, we look forward to hosting more QueerPreneurs workshops, an in-person collaboration with the IBPOC Network in March, and more.
Network coordinator Desirée is always happy to meet with members to hear about how the Network can support them. Email community@museum.bc.ca to get in touch!
BCMA Reconciliation Resource Advisor
While Leia continues to provide resource support for reconciliation-related inquiries and initiatives, our staffing transitions have led her to split her time between ongoing organizational needs and this work. Leia aims to continue supporting reconciliation work as much as possible and will be working on resources to combat Residential School Denialism in the new year.
Indigenous Culture and Heritage
The BC Museums Association is proud to feature a collection of resources for Indigenous communities, cultural centres and museums as well as non-Indigenous museums, galleries, and cultural organizations who wish to strengthen their relationships with Indigenous communities.
Knowing that changes are coming to funders through the Federal Budget, Leia will communicate those changes as best she can for the Funding Newsletter in 2026. BCMA and Leia have been keeping up with the BC Heritage Conservation Act Transformation and the Provincial Repatriation Policy Framework Co-development, attending engagement sessions to provide input from the experiences of our membership and Indigenous Communities we have worked with to help inform these outcomes.
Leia is happy to meet to discuss your priorities with you and hopes to curate and develop resources to respond to member and community needs. You can contact Leia directly at engagement@museum.bc.ca
BCMA Book Club
Leia and Lorenda hosted a spring and summer session of the BCMA Book Club, focusing on informal drop-ins where members and museum workers could drop in and share their successes and challenges in decolonizing their work and organizations.
They look forward to hosting a Spring 2026 session of the BCMA Book Club covering the recently published From Stealing to Healing: Repatriation and B.C. First Nations Report. This report provides First Nations–led research and analysis of the history, context and impacts of repatriation for First Nations in B.C, and we are excited to dive into it with our members!
BCMA Book Club
The BCMA hosts sessions of the BCMA Book Club with staff members Lorenda and Leia. This series of online discussions aims to be part of cultural heritage professionals’ decolonization efforts and utilize existing resources to inform our work. Join us to hold yourself accountable for reading important resources to help your professional practice! You can find the list of previous Book Club readings and the dates for future sessions on our website.
BCMA Membership Benefits Review 2026
The BCMA is seeking input on the BCMA Member Benefits as we undertake a 2026 review and update to our membership program. We hope to explore new benefits that will be impactful to all members, but also help increase equity across the sector through the exploration of benefits that bring impact to our membership.
As the BCMA gears up for another Sector Survey in 2026, we hope that members will consider what the BCMA could offer that would best serve their needs to reply to a section about member benefits. If you have specific feedback, please reach out to members@museum.bc.ca or stay tuned to the newsletter for feedback and engagement opportunities.
Honesty and transparency are a critical part of this work and we welcome our members’ feedback on how we can continue growing and improving. If you have questions, comments, or thoughts, please contact us at any time. Alternatively, if you would like to discuss how the BCMA can support your organization’s own justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work, we would be happy to hear from you. This work will take time, but together we can use the transformative power of museums to reinvent our sector for the betterment of everyone.
