[ARCHIVE] South Asian Studies Institute

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits SASI exhibit at National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple

Sharanjit Sandhra — Tue, 23 May 2017 23:22:04 +0000

(From UFV Press Release)

A crowd of excited community members spent Friday afternoon waiting patiently for a special visitor on the grounds of the Gur Sikh Temple national historic site and Sikh Heritage Museum on South Fraser Way in Abbotsford.

And, at around 1:45 pm, they were rewarded as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a private tour inside the gurdwara to give a brief address in the courtyard. The visit from the Prime Minister was arranged through the office of Member of Parliament for Mission — Matsqui — Fraser Canyon, and former UFV Board Member, Mr. Jati Sidhu. The Prime Minister spoke about the importance of multiculturalism in Canada, especially during this year as the nation celebrates 150 years since Confederation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tours the (Dis)Enfranchisement exhibit, presented by UFV South Asian Studies Institute, inside the Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford with UFV’s Satwinder Bains. May 19, 2017.

He noted that it had been one year to the day since his government formally apologized in parliament for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, which saw a ship of Sikh men (and British subjects) intending to immigrate to Canada denied entry in Vancouver harbour, before being forced out and back to India, where they were shot at by British Indian troops with most men were either killed, injured, imprisoned, or forced into exile.

Trudeau added that 2017 is a year to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, but also to continue to work on reconciliation and acknowledgement of the injustices suffered by Canada’s Indigenous peoples over several generations.

After the speech Trudeau walked through the crowd, shaking hands and posing for selfies with many enthusiastic audience members at the small, invite-only event.

“The Prime Minister was absolutely genuine and earnest in his tour of the site. He took the time to take in the historical content but also revel in the historicity of the space and Heritage gurdwara itself,” said Sandhra. “When I told him how honoured I was to meet him and that my boys and I watched the swearing in of his federal cabinet together and saw it as such a proud moment for Canada, as a rejuvenated energy — Justin said that that energy is because of all the people he is surrounded by. He is such a nice and humble man!”Satwinder Bains and Sharanjit Sandhra, director and coordinator of the UFV South Asian Studies Insitute (SASI), met with Trudeau inside the temple prior to his speech and toured him through the exhibit (Dis)Enfranchisement 1907-1947: The Forty-Year Struggle for The Vote, which chronicles the 40-year struggle to attain the vote for Indo-Canadians in Canada. The exhibit is funded by a Canada 150 grant from the federal government.

The Prime Minister’s visit was a historic moment in the 106 year history of the Gur Sikh Temple as he recognized its Canadian presence as an iconic site of both struggle and success. While he toured the exhibit on The Forty-Year Struggle for The Vote, he expressed dismay at the franchise being taken away from early immigrants of many stripes by the governments of the day, according to Satwinder Bains.

“He was dismayed that the governments of the time would ‘take away’ the vote — he thought it had never been offered… but to take it away he said was absolutely wrong. He asked about the role of Dr. Pandia who made many trips to Ottawa to reinstate the right to vote,” noted Bains. “He commented how surprised he was that the National Historic Site resembled many prairie homes but then said; Of course that would have been the expertise in architecture in 1908. He thought he would have been seeing an exotic looking building but seeing its prairie connection made it that much more precious as a Canadian iconic site.”

Other UFV-related community members in attendance included CFO and VP Finance and Administration Jackie Hogan; Abbotsford councillor Kelly Chahal, one of UFV’s Top 40 Alumni; geography instructor Terah Sportel; members of the SASI advisory committee; past and future honorary doctorate recipients (Parm Bains and Andy Sidhu); UFV students; former UFV Board member and federal MP Jati Sidhu; and Alumni Association board vice-chair Nav Bains.

For more images, please visit the SASI Flickr page.

Prime Minister Trudeau visits the Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford. May 19, 2017. ///
Le premier ministre Trudeau visite le temple sikh Gur à Abbotsford. 19 mai 2017.

Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies celebrates 10 years, rebrands as South Asian Studies Institute

Sharanjit Sandhra — Wed, 10 May 2017 23:40:23 +0000

by Anne Russell on May 4, 2017

UFV’s Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies began with an idea and a commitment from the community.Now, as it celebrates 10 years of serving as a centre of activity, events, information, scholarship, and research related to the Indo-Canadian community, it is extending its focus to embrace regions of South Asia. Centre director Satwinder Bains announced the name change to the South Asian Studies Institute (SASI) at a celebration event marking the centre’s first decade on May 3.“As we enter our second decade, we felt it was important for our identity to reflect the broader field of South Asian studies,” noted Bains. “This will result in increased opportunities for UFV faculty and students to connect and collaborate with partner institutions and projects throughout South Asia. We will continue the very important work of facilitating research and other connections, but with a wider mandate.”

The Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies (now SASI) has served as a hub where scholars from UFV programs, Indo-Canadian community members, groups from all sectors of the community, international visitors, students, and scholars from India/South Asia come together.“Our young university has done a remarkable job of building connections and partnerships across the world, and the centre, which now deservedly will be an institute, has played a major role in that success,” said UFV President Mark Evered at the 10-year celebration, at which he and his wife Maureen were made honorary patrons of the new institute.

The institute supports the development, maintenance and strengthening of links that lead to diverse experiences for students, faculty, and community. It initiates and supports an interdisciplinary range of courses in India-Canada Studies at UFV, and programs and activities that promote the study of and engagement with the sub-continent and the Indo-Canadian diaspora. It also houses the BC Regional Innovation Chair on Canada–India Partnership Development, and maintains a close relationship with the UFV campus in Chandigarh, India.In the past ten years the it has undertaken many research projects, created a program of study, supported and mentored student research, and partnered with universities in India. The CICS has built strong community partnerships locally and across Canada with numerous Indian diaspora communities, held international conferences, invited visiting scholars from around the world, curated acclaimed exhibits, and developed business ties with India.It also serves as a repository of history for the Indo-Canadian community. It has partnered with the Gur Sikh Temple National Historic Site on several projects, and is currently working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to ensure that the Indo-Canadian story is reflected in museum exhibits chronicling the history of B.C.The Abbotsford area has one of the largest concentrations of Indo-Canadian population in Canada.

Starting in the early 2000s, UFV and the community have worked together to build a stronger connection through the creation of the CICS.In April 2005, after several years of fundraising and planning on the part of UFV and the Indo-Canadian community, then-Premier Gordon Campbell announced the centre’s launch. It began operations in 2006, completing its first academic year of service in 2007.“It’s important that we look at the cultural fabric of our communities and ensure that what we’re doing brings them into our embrace,” noted former UFV president Skip Bassford at the time.“I am very much enjoying looking back and reflecting on what we have achieved in our first decade. At the same time, I am also every excited about what the future holds for the South Asian Studies Institute,” says Bains.

For the flickr page of images, please visit: CICS 10th Anniversary

CICS Research Student Nominated for the 2017 Undergraduate Research Award

Sharanjit Sandhra — Wed, 10 May 2017 23:36:31 +0000

The CICS was pleased that research assistant, Yuvraj Singh will receive the 2017 Undergraduate Research Award from the Office of Research, Engagement and Graduate Studies at UFV.

Yuvraj worked as a research assistant during the fall and winter semester, 2016/17 on a number of data collation projects for the CICS. The awarded project he worked on in the fall semester of 2016 was the RBCM Provincial Consultations on Punjabi intercultural history. He attended and observed three of the seven consultations across the Province.

As a young researcher Yuvraj’s skills and scholarship contributions to this field put him in a category of excellence as he undertook this research with great accuracy. The data was rich, extensive, complicated, varied, and requiring an intensive and good understanding of public consultations about how history should be developed and archives maintained. The work that he undertook has been posted on the Royal BC Museum website.

Yuvraj will be presented the award at the annual dinner honouring UFV research students on May 29th.

UFV President and Vice-President Visit Khalsa College

Sharanjit Sandhra — Wed, 10 May 2017 23:10:34 +0000

Dr. Mark Evered, UFV Vice Chancellor and President; Dr. Eric Davis, UFV Provost and Vice-President, Academic and CICS Director Satwinder Bains visited Khalsa College in Amritsar to meet with Principal Dr. Mehal Singh and faculty from Social Sciences. The goal of the meeting was to look for ways to build faculty collaborations on research and student exchanges.

The Khalsa College organizing committee made up of faculty from the Social Science is committed to discussing protocols for such an agreement with UFV in the near future. The trip to the Khalsa College was a part of the March 2017 UFV India delegation trip.

Sikh Heritage Museum Exhibit Travels to the Penticton Museum and Archives

Sharanjit Sandhra — Tue, 09 May 2017 19:39:53 +0000

The CICS’s curated exhibit on Canadian Sikhs in WWI (originally launched in 2015) at the Sikh Heritage Museum traveled to The Penticton Museum and Archives. The Penticton Museum exhibit, called British Columbia’s War, 1914–1918, aims to educate British Columbians about the contributions of their forebears in the First World War, and will be available for viewing from January 26 to May 29, 2017.

As a special feature to run concurrently with the British Columbia’s War, the Penticton Museum & Archives presented the Sikh Heritage Museum exhibit: Canadian Sikhs in World War 1: A Forgotten Story. The exhibit describes the lives and sacrifices of 10 Canadian Sikh in both English and Punjabi languages, a first for the Penticton Museum & Archives.

“Hosting an exhibit about Canadian Sikhs who fought in World War I highlights an often unknown piece of history that took place during World War I,” said Dennis Oomen, Manager/Curator of the Penticton Museum and Archives.

One of the strengths of this traveling exhibition is its deeply collaborative nature. Partnering community museums have been encouraged to expand upon the exhibition’s major themes by adding content from their own collections to tell the stories that matter most to their visitors.

(Parts of this newsletter have been taken from an RBCM Press Release, dated January 14, 2017)

Sikh Heritage Museum’s Canada 150 Exhibit Launches with Great Success

Sharanjit Sandhra — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 20:00:37 +0000

Seven months of intense research, curatorial work, design and implementation came to a successful culmination with the Sikh Heritage Museum launching its exhibit (Dis) Enfranchisement 1907-1947: The Forty-Year Struggle for the Vote on Sunday, February 19th. The exhibit launch was attended by an estimated one hundred community members including dignitaries and South Asian pioneer descendants.

The speeches from dignitaries at the launch included Member of Parliament Jati Sidhu, MLA Mike De Jong, Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun, UFV President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mark Evered, Paul Banwait who is the family member of pioneer Mr. Mahinder Singh Beadall, one of the first South Asians to cast a ballot in the year 1947 and Aruna Pandia, daughter of Dr. DP Pandia who was the lawyer that advocated for the rights of South Asians in the mid-20th century.

Based on funding awarded from the Canada 150 grant, the exhibit (Dis) Enfranchisement 1907-1947: The Forty-Year Struggle for the Vote investigates and presents the arduous struggle for the South Asian franchise and the right for equal recognition and citizenship with other Canadians. In addition to the story of the South Asian franchise, the exhibit also pays homage to the stories of franchise for Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians and women of European descent.

For those who missed the opening reception and launch the exhibit is available for viewing all year long until December, 2017. For anyone interested in booking group tours, they may contact Sharn at (604) 851-6325 or email sharanjit.sandhra@ufv.ca.

CICS Advisory Committee Member Visits UFV India

Sharanjit Sandhra — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:51:52 +0000

Dr. Malwinder Dhami, long time Indo-Canadian Community Advisory Committee Member and UFV friend and donor visited UFV India and its campus in Chandigarh. Dr. Dhami visited classrooms and students of the program in UFV India and also visited with past UFV President and Vie-Chancellor, Dr. Skip Bassford. Dr. Dhami takes pride in being the first donor to several UFV projects. He was the first donor for the endowed Canada–India Research Chair within the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, and for the Peace and Conflict Studies program establishment. He was the first Indo-Canadian Abbotsford community member to create a family endowment fund (the Dhami Family Endowment Leadership Award, which is not a memorial fund, but rather honours living family members).

Reluctant Rebellions Book Launch and Readings

samanpreetb — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 21:09:19 +0000

The Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies was pleased to host a full room of avid readers and fans of Shauna Singh Baldwin on September 29th to celebrate the official launch of Reluctant Rebellions: New and Selected Non-fiction, a collection of speeches and essays by Shauna Singh Baldwin.

Published by the CICS, Reluctant Rebellions has been described by one critic as “139 pages of magic” because of Shauna Singh Baldwin’s ability to “explore labels, identity, and how identity shifts to accommodate life’s randomness.”

In 15 speeches and essays written between 2001 and 2015, Shauna brings a new perspective and voice to Canadian public discourse. Offering examples from her personal journey as a writer and a South Asian woman born in Canada, married to an American, living in the United States, and with strong ties to India, Shauna transcends homogenized national identities and is an example of a truly global citizen.

Dr. Jacqueline Nolte, Dean of the College of Arts at the University of the Fraser Valley introduced Shauna to the audience. Shauna’s engaging talk was then followed by book signing and one-on-one interactions. It was an evening full of inspiring words and engaging discussions. Shauna said that she looks forward to sharing the stories with readers everywhere.

The book is now available in paperback and ebook via Amazon. Copies of the book may also be purchased at the UFV Bookstore and other fine booksellers.

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Shauna also had book reading events in British Columbia at City Centre Library in Surrey and the Department of Asian Studies at UBC as well as a reading at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. Following her tour of Western Canada, Shauna’s next set of Reluctant Rebellions readings took place in India at: Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in Delhi, the Chandigarh Literature Festival as its keynote speaker and at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi.

The Indian Express featured a beautiful story of Shauna’s keynote address at the Chandigarh Literature Festival and can be viewed here.

Shauna will next be launching Reluctant Rebellions in the US in her hometown of Milwaukee. For more details on Shauna’s book reading tour, please visit her webpage at ShaunaSinghBaldwin.com.

For the full CICS Flickr page of Shauna’s book tour events, please click here.

Sikh Heritage Museum Receives the Award of Merit

Sharanjit Sandhra — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 19:38:56 +0000

The Sikh Heritage Museum, located in the National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple (the oldest still-standing Sikh Gurdwara in the Western Hemisphere) was recently honoured by the BC Museums Association. The Sikh Heritage Museum received the ‘Award of Merit’ for its exhibit Canadian Sikhs in WWI: A Forgotten Story.

The BCMA annual awards recognize institutions and individuals who have exemplified excellence in creativity, community engagement and innovation within the Province’s museums, galleries and history community.

Three Awards of Merit were presented for outstanding, innovative and creative achievements to: The Sikh Heritage Museum, The Chinese Canadian Artifacts Project and The Residential and Indian Day School Art Research Project. A Distinguished Service award was presented for a unique and substantial contribution over an extended period of time to George Harris, Curator at Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George.

For the official press release from the BCMA, please click Press Release.

The Sikh Heritage Museum’s recent award was also featured by the CBC News in an article that can be read here.

Profiling the Work of Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies Staff

Sharanjit Sandhra — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 19:38:07 +0000

The CICS was pleased to work with current UFV students and UFV alumni this semester over a range of projects. Please see below a small profile on our great staff:

Riely Moore: Riely has been working with the CICS team on the Canada 150 project in the role as French Translator for the exhibit, which will manifest in the new year. The project exhibit, panels and historical timeline will showcase Canada 150 in three different languages, Punjabi, English and French.

Amandeep Grewal: Aman has been working at the CICS as a research assistant since the summer of 2016. She is part of the Canada 150 team that is developing an exhibit at the Sikh Heritage Museum looking at the story of the South Asian vote. Aman collected and analyzed images pertaining to the framework of this project. She learned a vast amount of history of the hardships and accomplishments the early Asian immigrants faced in migrating to British Columbia.

Samanpreet Kaur Brar: Samanpreet is a UFV alumni who has been working as the Assistant Coordinator at the CICS. Samanpreet assists with the communications and public relations at the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies. She worked on the marketing and logistics of the CICS publication Reluctant Rebellions by Shauna Singh Baldwin. In addition, Saman has organized CICS research databases that have developed over the last seven years.

Kendra Schellenberg: Kendra was hired at the end of summer 2016 as a Designer/Visual Artist for the CICS’s 2017 exhibition at the Sikh Heritage Museum. During her time at the Centre she has stepped into a wide variety of roles including: copy editor, social media consultant and research assistant.

Samarveer Singh: Samar worked on a number of tasks including: English to Punjabi translation work for an upcoming Sikh Heritage Museum exhibit; preparing outlines for the execution of education kits and data management. According to Samar, his experience at the CICS has been an amazing learning experience which has taught him South Asian history in Canada.

Yuvraj Singh: Yuvraj has been working at the CICS as a research assistant for two semesters. Yuvraj worked on two major CICS projects. The first major project was as a marketing strategist for the CICS publication of Reluctant Rebellions by renowned author Shauna Singh Baldwin. Yuvraj also compiled, digitized and archived the raw data based on the consultations for the Punjabi Legacy Project led by the Royal BC Museum in partnership with the CICS.

Ankush Goyal: The CICS hosted Ankush Goyal, a final year Bachelor of Business Administration at GGDSD College, Chandigarh in the Fall semester, 2016. In addition to pursuing a marketing course at UFV Ankush also interned at the CICS doing a research project under the supervision of CICS Director, Satwinder Kaur Bains.