Brown Canada

racismfreeontario:

Brown Canada Showcase
Sharing Our Stories: Creating New Legacies

Wednesday June 27th, 2012
5:30–9:00 p.m
Grace Church
41 Britain Street, Toronto (east of Queen station)
Dinner served from 5:30-6:30 pm.
Program starts at 6:30 pm, sharp.

This is a Free Event, but space is limited; please RSVP before June 25th at eventbrite or by contacting browncanada@cassa.on.ca or 416 932 1359 x14.

http://creatingnewlegacies.eventbrite.com/
www.browncanada.ca

CASSA’s Brown Canada team proudly invites you to our project’s Showcase, an Informative and entertaining event featuring:

· The premiere of the original play “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” 
· A screening of the Brown Canada DVD
· The “Our Stories, Our Histories” South Asian history exhibit
· An interactive discussion about Racialized & Indigenous histories
· A free resource booklet on South Asian histories in Canada

Visit www.browncanada.ca for more info & to share your story online!

The Brown Canada Theatre Project will be presenting “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” a series of vignettes written and directed by Alia Somani. “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” is about one of the least known yet most significant episodes in the history of Canada. What is called the Komagata Maru incident took place in 1914, when a group of 376 Punjabi migrants aboard a Japanese ship – the Komagata Maru – was turned away from Canada’s western seaboard and refused entry into the country. The Komagata Maru incident may have occurred almost 100 years ago, but it has not been forgotten. Instead it continues to haunt us, to reverberate in our nation’s consciousness. In fact, in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood up in Bear Creek Park and declared that on behalf of Canada, he was sorry for the events of 1914. “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” explores, among other things, this apology; it considers how much of our past is remembered and how much still remains buried; and most importantly, it asks us to relive the experiences of those who traveled to Canada in 1914 in search of a better life, and a better future.


Eventbrite: http://creatingnewlegacies.eventbrite.com/

Tumblr: http://browncanada.tumblr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/browncanadaproject

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/204810092975235/

Website: https://www.browncanada.ca/

(via realcanadianhistory)

Do you want to learn more about your personal and community history?

Have you ever wanted to interview an elder, a relative or community member to learn from their experiences and document their story?

Not sure where to start? The Brown Canada Project invites you to attend:

Sharing Our Stories: A Workshop on How-to Interview & Document South Asian Histories in Canada

CASSA’s Brown Canada Project presents an interactive skills-building workshop that will give you the tools to conduct personal interviews to document our communities’ histories.  The workshop will be facilitated by Nayani Thiyagarajah the director of the groundbreaking documentary “Shadeism” and Sailaja Krishnamurti, professor of Humanities & South Asian Studies at York University.

WHEN: Monday, April 23^rd from 6:30-8:30pm

WHERE: The 519 Community Centre, Room 106, 519 Church Street Toronto
Wheelchair accessible space.

WHY?  Because our her/histories matter! 

For more information and to RSVP, Please contact Krittika Ghosh at krittika@cassa.on.ca or call (416) 932-1359 x18 

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/browncanadaproject
Check us out on tumblr: http://browncanada.tumblr.com/

Brown Canada is a community-led project documenting, creating, and sharing South Asian histories in Canada. Our collective entry point is through the Komagata Maru incident.  The Brown Canada Project is based within the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) 

  Refreshments will be provided!

Brown Canada Project Seeks Submissions

Brown Canada is a community-led project documenting and creating South Asian histories in Canada. Our collective entry point is through the Komagata Maru incident of 1914. 

This project seeks to create a participatory and comprehensive website, a play on the Komagata Maru, creative and digital storytelling workshops, DVD and resource booklets, and intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue.

We call all writers, researchers, artists, activists, scholars, educators, community organizers, students, youth, and interested and excited individuals to be a part of this project, and to learn, tell and create South Asian history on our own terms. 

Join us in documenting the history of South Asian immigration to Canada by submitting a post to the Brown Canada website.  Submissions can include scanned photographs, brief essays, poetry, video, art-work and other formats. 

We are looking for submissions from people of various South Asian identities including but not limited to people identifying as Bangladeshi, Indo-Caribbean, Indian, Muslim, Pakistani, Punjabi, Sikh, Tamil,Mixed-Race, LGBTQ, Women, disAbled, Workers, Artists, Cultural workers and Healthcare providers. 

Topics on the submission are diverse ranging from issues such as isolation, discrimination, acculturation, racism, creating ‘community, sexism, homophobia, resistance etc.  Please include a brief bio and your contact information with your submission. 

We are accepting submissions on an ongoing basis and the FIRST round of submissions is due by Monday, April 16^th 2012.   We will be posting submissions onto the Brown Canada website as they are received. 

Please Email submissions to Krittika Ghosh at krittika@cassa.on.ca

Kids of Color and the New American Whitewashing

“Because I so rarely saw black characters in books when I was a child, I learned to relate to protagonists who didn’t look like me — but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t identify with their struggles, triumphs, etc. It did mean, however, that I started to erase aspects of myself when I read — I couldn’t consciously be black and read a lot of those books because then I’d realize there was no place for me in that imaginary realm. I didn’t pretend to be white, I just didn’t acknowledge my own erasure from the scenes that delighted me so much.”- Zetta Elliott

“All throughout my childhood and teen years, I can honestly say that I did not read a single book with characters of colour. At least not one that stands out in my memory… Every book I read depicted white protagonists. Every movie and television show I watched (with the exception of Bollywood) portrayed whiteness in its myriad of expressions. I saw white children and teens being and doing just about everything. I grew up believing that to be South Asian in a world where you were either black or white meant being invisible.” - Neesha Meminger

(via strugglingtobeheard)

Part of the Brown Canada project focuses on the history of the Komagata Maru incident. This took place in 1914 and exposes many things about racism, immigration, empire, as well as brings to light hidden stories from our past and lessons for the present and future. 

Ali Kazimi follows up his award winning documentary with this book - an extensive analysis and discussion of this history and why it is important for today. 

Check out more about the book here: http://undesirables.ca/

Continuous Journey - documentary

Part of the Brown Canada project focuses on the history of the Komagata Maru incident. This took place in 1914 and exposes many things about racism, immigration, empire, as well as brings to light hidden stories from our past and lessons for the present and future. Read more about ‘Continuous Journey’, the ground-breaking documentary by filmmaker Ali Kazimi.