For Asian Heritage Month, we’re celebrating Asian identities through art

For Asian Heritage Month, CBC Saskatchewan connected with Asian Canadian artists to allow them to express their own stories through art. 

Throughout the month of May, we will showcase four to five different stories, with one artist or group's original work profiled each week, through song, sculpture and dance. These works were created under the theme, Finding strength in our (hi)stories.

We've got artists representing the breadth of Asia, including India, Cambodia, Iran, China and the Philippines. We thank each of these people for inviting us into their homes and workspaces, and sharing their stories with us.  

Our first piece was created by Iranian sisters Shima and Shamim Aghaaminiha, artists who use their work to highlight the struggle and sacrifice of Iranian freedom fighters.

• After leaving Iran, these two sisters are using art to speak out against religious tyranny (new window)

They say having left Iran where artists were not free to express dissenting political opinions, they're now finding catharsis in creating art. 

WATCH: Iranian sisters explain more on the art piece they've created for CBC Saskatchewan:

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Iranian sisters living in Regina use art as form of protest

Shamim and Shima Aghaaminiha may have left their home country of Iran, but the sisters say they've found a way to reflect the struggle of the Iranian people through art in their new home in Regina. For Asian Heritage Month, they created this original work for CBC under the theme, Finding strength in our (hi)stories.

Keep checking in! Come back to this page each week this month as new stories are added. 

Marvin Chan (Merv xx Gotti)

Marvin Chan, otherwise known as Merv xx Gotti, is a multi-genre artist, singer-songwriter and community builder from Regina, who served as a consultant on the project. He believes it's important to give artists a platform to express themselves purely and directly with their own work, instead of having a journalist filter their thoughts in a story.  

Sometimes taking out that middle person or the middle voice interpretation actually gets more to the truth of it, and the truth can speak to the people of that community too, he said.

This project will also be celebrated with a screening of the artists' work on the evening of May 16 at the CBC Broadcast Centre, with artwork, food and drink. Registration is free but space is limited. Click here to register (new window)

CBC Communications