CanAsian Arts Network: Connecting Asian Canadian Arts and Culture

Shawn Tse 謝兆龍 (he/him) is an amiskwacîwâskahikan/Edmonton-based father, artist, and community organizer. He is the CanAsian Arts Network’s Community Growth Consultant responsible for ensuring Asian Canadian artists from coast to coast are consulted and their needs are taken into account over the evolution of this project. We invited him to be the first of what we hope will be a long series of artists who will use this space to express their thoughts, hopes and ideas.

If we don’t grow outwards towards love
We’ll implode inwards towards destruction…
Hope is a muscle
That allows us to connect
-Lyrics from Atopos by Björk

Björk’s song Atopos echo many urgent feelings that I have reflecting on how fractured and complex our world has become. Climate inaction, income inequality, anti-police sentiment, rights for bodies, and Indigenous sovereignty are just some issues weighing on me,  heightened as I navigate life as a new parent. As grim as things seem to be, the song is a hopeful reminder that humans are beautifully complex- we’re different, and the artist’s prompt is “to find our resonance where we do connect”.

The CanAsian Arts Network is a response to a community call for deeper connections. A digital and arguably decolonized space where we can find community, be seen, feel belonging, and support each other when we know that the systems weren’t designed with us in mind. Throughout the two years that I’ve been part of this project, engaging with the community has been grounding and inspiring. Seeing members connect, learn, and support each other are glimmers of how we’ll be able to break from our siloes and be proud of who we are.

I wouldn’t be able to speak about this and be comfortable in my own skin without the support of the community. Particularly with this project, I want to express my gratitude to our Digital Council, team, and organizers who understand the struggle and push to make opportunities like this possible. I also want to give a special shout-out to the CanAsian Arts Network’s phase 1 Community Growth Consultant, artist Farah Fancy, for mentoring me and modeling how important relationships are for this work that we are building. Through community comes healing- healing to address gaps in diversity, equity, inclusion, healing to re-imagine what a culturally centred arts and cultural landscape is, healing to pay respect and recognize the rights of Indigenous People and the land where we are functioning. It’s my hope that we can foster a strong national community willing to navigate new ways of nurturing engagement and trust, offering respectful new spaces for differing viewpoints to co-exist in the Asian community.

We’ll need to face each other to unpack and overcome the challenges of building new futures in Canada. The CanAsian Arts Network is vital digital infrastructure to get us there. Now, it’s your turn to be part of it to shape and nurture our evolving Canadian identity and celebrate cultural, artistic, and social diversity.