Air India [Redacted]: At The Confluences of History, Memory and Our Silenced Past

Part 1At the intersections of history, memory, and trauma are confluences; spaces that offer opportunities for growth and understanding to occur. Engaging in this process does not diminish the individual traumas and injustices of particular events. Rather, our panel discussion, moderated by Naveen Girn, introduced storytelling as a tool through which the shared memorialization and remembrance of past events can gain a deeper resonance. Sharing their work, thoughts, and practice were Kamal Arora, Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty, Gurpreet Singh, and Dr. Milan Singh. Delving into the larger implications of silenced histories and redacted traumas, our panel shed light onto the cultural memory of our shared experience in being not just Canadian, but citizens of this fractured world. The evening included readings of poetry by Renee Saklikar.Renée Sarojini Saklikar writes thecanadaproject, a life-long poem chronicle that includes poetry, fiction, and essays. Published work from the project appears in many journals and anthologies. The first completed book from thecanadaproject is children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections, (Nightwood Editions, 2013) winner of the 2014 Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry and a finalist for the 2014 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award. Trained as a lawyer at the University of British Columbia, with a degree in English Literature, Renée was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1991. A graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, Renée is currently a mentor and instructor for the university and co-founder of a new poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU.Part 2A discussion of the artistic process related to the development of air india [redacted], an artistic collaboration between Canadian and Irish artists, which premiered at SFU on November 6th. This discussion revolved around how artists can revisit and reframe traumatic and historically significant events though the creative process, and how art creates a space to explore emotions that can be difficult to talk about. Panelists included Owen Underhill, Music Director, Turning Point Ensemble; Jürgen Simpson, scholar and composer; and Renée Saklikar, poet. Hosted/moderated by Michael Boucher, Director of SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs.