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/

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)

Dear CASSA Members & Supporters,

As you may know, CASSA is currently engaging in the documentation and archiving of  South Asian history through our Brown Canada project. 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 of 1914. We are writing to invite you to participate in an informal focus group to share your knowledge about community histories and experiences for our community snapshots.

We are in the midst of creating written community snapshots  for various South Asian communities in Canada. We are currently researching the community involvement and history of South Asian women, LGBTQ communities and labour activists as well as the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Sikh, Indian and Tamil communities. These community snapshots  will be shared in a traveling posterboard exhibit, online at www.browncanada.ca and at community events.

We are holding focus groups with  the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indo-Caribbean and Sikh Communities in the next  week, from June 2^nd-6^th We are hoping that you will be able to participate in one these sessions. The focus group schedule is: :

Bangladeshi Community Focus Group: Saturday, June 2^nd from 12:00-2:00pm
Sikh Community Focus Group: Monday, June 4^th from 6:00-8:00pm
Indo-Caribbean Community Focus Group: Tuesday, June 5^th from 6:00-8:00pm
Pakistani Community Focus Group: Wednesday, June 6^th from 6:00-8:00pm

Refreshments will be provided!

The proposed location of the focus group is the CASSA office located at 2401 Eglington Avenue East, Suite 212 between Kennedy and Eglington Avenue.  Tokens will be provided

If you are a member of the above communities and you wish to share  knowledge of the community’s resources, challenges, and organizations, please contact Krittika Ghosh by Friday, June 1^st via email at krittika@cassa.on.ca or call (416) 932 1359 x18 and respond to the following questions

Name:____________________________
Phone #:____________________________
Which focus group are you interested in attending:_______________________________

Organizations/cultural groups/businesses/community groups that you have been a part of, in Canada: ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Why do you think you would be a suitable participant of the focus group:_______________________________________________

If you are unable to attend a focus group, but still wish to be involved and share your knowledge for the Brown Canada project, please let us know!

For more information on the Brown Canada Project

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

Thank you for your support and assistance!

racismfreeontario:

For the Brown Canada Project. 

Komagata Maru Play Volunteers

Brown Canada: Komagata Maru Plays Volunteer Posting
(Part Time – Until end of June) 

Start & End Dates : May- end of June 2012

Brown Canada, lead by CASSA, is a community-led history project to encourage South Asian communities to create and document their histories in Canada creatively, through writing, video, interviews, art, theatre or other means. Our collective entry point for this project is through the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, when a ship of South Asian people was denied entry into Canada due to restrictive immigration policy known as the continuous journey regulation. Through this project, we are creating an interactive website, offering educational and creative workshops, producing a short video as well as seeking to tour a short theatre piece to raise awareness of the incident and spark community dialogue within Ontario.

The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) is currently recruiting a team of volunteers to help out with the final Komagata Maru Play that will be held on June 27.

We are looking for a team of volunteers to be responsible for assisting in media relations, community outreach, stage hands, costume design . These positions will work closely and report to the project coordinator.

Responsibilities:

• Community outreach to spreak word about the event
• Stagehands & lighting 
• Help out with set designs, makeup, and  costumes

Qualifications:

• Volunteers of all ages are welcome
• Relevant interest in theatre or experience
• Interest in educating others about South Asian/PoC history is always a bonus!  

If you do not have experience working with community members, community organizations and agencies, and or theatre, but are interested in working on the play, feel free to send in your resume.

 

We are hoping to have a volunteer meeting as soon as possible, so please email Deena  at deena@cassa.on.ca before June 15th if you are interested in working with CASSA on this project.

 

---

CASSA is committed to employment equity & encourages applicants from equity seeking groups.

Follow our facebook fanpage , brown canada tumblr, and website for more information. http://browncanada.ca/

——————————————————————————————————————

Brown Canada & CASSA

Position Type: Arts / Crafts, Community Outreach, Event Helpers, Performing

Duration: Short term (Less than 6 months)

Location(s): Toronto

Great For: Youth (ages 13-18), Youth (over 18), Groups, 40 hour high school program, Physically Challenged, English as a Second Language, Virtual (can be done remotely), Wheelchair Accessible

Charity village link

 

Captions:

The Komagata Maru story matters because

It makes you realize that multi-cultural means it’s white only true Canada

It relates to me the Reality of South Asian history in Canada

Struggle of South Asians in Canada

I need to know my history

I had no idea what my history is!

(via Komagata Maru)

Photo: Leonard Frank, Vancouver Public Library, 6231 (via Komagata Maru)

Passengers, mostly unnamed, on the Komagata Maru. Gurdit Singh can be seen in the white suit with his son and fellow passengers, 1914.

The Komagata Maru incident involved a number of key players – individuals whose actions played a significant role impacting the lived experience of Komagata Maru passengers. These key players can be viewed within four three main groups:

• Komagata Maru Passengers
• Canadian Officials
• Legal Personnel
• Shore Committee Members

Each individual’s complete story is not captured here; instead these profiles provide snapshots of each key player, and some context of their lives. For some of these individuals, their profiles have become legacies by the memorialisation efforts of scholars, activists, community members and artists. 

For other individuals involved in the Komagata Maru incident, they remain unnamed or their stories are unknown. For example, little is known about many of the passengers. There is not enough information about the hundreds of South Asians already living in the Vancouver area who were passionate about supporting the Komagata Maru passengers. There is scarce documentation of the white allies who attended ing community meetings. For those who died upon their return to British occupied India, there must have been so many unanswered questions for their unnamed friends and families. For the 28 individuals who were unaccounted for after the Budge Budge (Baj Baj) incident, some like Gurdit Singh we know a lot about – but for others, where did their lives take them? 

With the intention of this website to invite readers to reflect on the broader impact of the Komagata Maru incident, this section asks you to interrogate how we remember the individual people in communities, how we write (or do not write) their stories.

Komagata Maru Passengers 

This is very short list of some passengers who played key roles in the departure of the Komagata Maru from Hong Kong, and its experience once in Canadian waters.

Gurdit Singh
Gurdit Singh was a successful businessman who decided to charter the Komagata Maru from Hong Kong after meeting with and speaking with other Indians there. Singh (sold tickets up until two days before the Komagata Maru’s departure, and was briefly held by officials for selling illegal tickets for what was deemed an illegal trip). Singh was a nationalist, who believed in an Independent India. At the Baj Baj (Budge Budge) incident, he escaped capture. After remaining a fugitive in India for several years, he finally surrendered after prompting by Mahatma Gandhi (whom he respected deeply) and served a five-year jail term in Punjab. It was after Singh’s prompting did the federal government of newly-independent India erect a plaque at Kolkata (then known as Calcutta) memorializing the Komagata Maru. 

Munshi Singh
Munshi Singh, one of the 376 passengers aboard the Komagata Maru, was selected as the representative for the test case. He was a Sikh farmer from Punjab, someone who was interested in migrating to Canada for the purposes of buying some property and farming. 

Canadian Officials
Government agents very obviously played a heavy role in the Komagata Maru incident. Both Hopkinson and Reid held very strong anti-South Asian views and prior to 1914, both had been actively pushing for exclusionary immigration. For Reid, his daughter felt (in the 1980s) that the way he was remembered was unfair1; for Hopkinson, an often-staged play by Sharon Pollock fictionalized his mixed-race heritage and his surveillance work, which could be described as internalized racism2.

Malcolm Reid 
Malcolm Reid was the Chief Immigration Officer of Vancouver during the Komagata Maru incident. Posted to the position with no experience, his proposals of how to expel the Komagata Maru contradicted even those of the federal government. He was explicit in his anti-Asian sentiments, and was motivated to use whatever force necessary to remove the ship and its passengers. For example, on June 24, 1914, Reid wired Ottawa to ask for permission to have the Komagata Maru passengers forced onto the S.S. Empress of India, which was departing the next day. The answer was no – an appearance in court (through a test case) is how the federal government wanted to proceed.

Martin Burrell 
Martin Burrell was the federal Minister of Agriculture at the time the Komagata Maru was stationed in Burrard Inlet. He became involved at the very end of the two month period, at the urging of Prime Minister Robert Borden. It was Burrell’s letter to Albert Howard McNeill dated July 21, 1914, that seemed to bring forward a compromise. In it, he refers to the Shore Committee and community members who had provided financial support. Burrell said that he would “urge that full and sympathetic consideration be given to those who deserve generous treatment. I must point out, however, that this is conditional on the passengers now on the Komagata Maru adopting a peaceable attitude, refraining from violence, and conforming to the law by giving to the captain control of his ship immediately, and agreeing to peaceably return to the port when they came.”13

William Charles Hopkinson 
William Charles (W.C.) Hopkinson was an immigration inspector at the time of the Komagata Maru. Working for the federal government since 1909, mostly based in British Columbia and working in the US as well, his focus was on the surveillance of Indian political activists. He was fully occupied with the Komagata Maru while it was in Burrard Inlet for two months. After the Komagata Maru was sent back, his role became important in the context of war – he provided information to officials in Canada and British India about Indian agitators on the Pacific coast who were supposedly plotting to return to India to “take up arms against the British while they were at war in Europe”4 Hopkinson was mixed-race (Anglo-Indian), which he both used in his work (he could understand Hindi and Punjabi) and denied outright. In 1914, he was killed by Mewa Singh at the Vancouver Court House. 

Legal Personnel 
In a hostile environment of British Columbia in 1914, two legal professionals took on the case of the Komagata Maru passengers. J. Edward Bird handled the bulk of the case. 

J. Edward Bird, solicitor 
J. Edward Bird was hired by the passengers of the Komagata Maru to represent the passengers as they lodged a legal challenge to the Orders in Council that were prohibiting them from being able to disembark. The government decided to only have one test case, and Bird was assigned the task of preparing his case very quickly. Bird made the argument on behalf of Munshi Singh (the test case) using constitutional terms, arguing that the passengers of the Komagata Maru were entitled to disembark and settle in Canada as British subjects. Unfortunately, the five judges disagreed with him, and the case was lost. Bird was a socialist, and was opposed to the anti-Asian sentiment around him in British Columbia – proving this by creating a space for Indian socialists to gather. 

Albert Howard MacNeill 
Partner to J. Edward Bird, he took over the Komagata Maru case in the latter stages after Bird received a threatening letter and opted to travel out of town. He was an established lawyer in Vancouver, with connections to many powerful individuals. He sent a personal cable to Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden (McNeill was a member of the Conservative Party himself) to encourage him to think about the Komagata Maru situation beyond what he was told by immigration officials (like Reid and Stevens). 

Shore Committee Members 
While the Komagata Maru was forced to stay in Burrard Inlet, South Asian community members in the Vancouver area mobilized to support the passengers. The 15-member group, coming together initially at the Khalsa Diwan Society, was called the Shore Committee. The Shore Committee raised awareness, raised funds, spoke out about the exclusion, and was heavily involved in retaining legal representation for the Komagata Maru passengers. 

Hussain Rahim 
Hussain Rahim was one of the Shore Committee members, an active member of the Indian community in British Columbia, and the editor of the short-lived English newspaper The Hindustanee. Rahim spoke English, Hindi, Punjabi and Gujrati, and was vocal about his thoughts on the ways the governments of Canada and British Columbia treated Indians. Rahim was instrumental in mobilizing community members to support the passengers of the Komagata Maru. 

Bhag Singh 
Bhag Singh was one of the Shore Committee members, an active member of the Indian community in British Columbia, and Secretary of the Temple Management Committee at the Khalsa Diwan Society gurdwara. His own experience of challenging Canada’s immigration policy in 1911 meant that he was one of the very few Indians in Canada to have been able to be reunified with his wife and child. 

Visit km.browncanada.com & browncanada.ca for more info.

376: number of passengers on Komagata Maru when it arrives in Vancouver Harbour 

   12: number of Hindus aboard Komagata Maru 
   24: number of Muslims aboard Komagata Maru 
   340: number of Sikhs aboard Komagata Maru 

90: number of people declared medically unfit to land 

20-24: number of people who claimed to have Canadian domicile and were allowed to disembark

$150,000: Amount of damages claimed by Gurdit Singh for Canada not allowing him to land and sell coal stored aboard Komagata Maru

15: Number of core members of Sshore Ccommittee, local South Asians who were mobilizing to support the Komagata Maru passengers 

500: ??Unknown: number of local South Asians present at meetings to support Komagata Maru passengers, held at the the Khalsa Diwan Society at Gurdwara 

$5,000: amount collected at once at first meeting at Gurdwara by local South Asians to support Komagata Maru passengers

$17,000: amount collected at future meetings by local South Asians to support Komagata Maru passengers 

150: number of immigration officials and police who attempted to board Komagata Maru on July 17, 1914 

$4,000: value of provisions Canadian government placed on board the Komagata Maru for the return trip 

2: number of months the Komagata Maru stayed in harbour off the coast of Vancouver

2: number of years shore committee struggled legally with government after Komagata Maru was forced to return to Asia

$3,000: further legal expenses of shore committee after Komagata Maru forced to return to Asia

6: number of months Komagata Maru passengers spent aboard 

via Brown Canada Project: Komagata Maru

Brown Canada is looking to audition actors for a series of vignettes based on the Komagata Maru incident and related themes of exclusion, questions of belonging and unspoken/unknown histories, among others. Firstly, we are looking for actors to either perform at different venues across the province: 4 performances across Toronto, and 5 outside of Toronto. These projects will be performed at various times from May to July 2012.  We are also looking for actors to perform in our final performance, which will take place at the end of June.

Staff at CASSA would set up the performances and facilitate the community dialogues following the performances. We do have a small budget and can provide compensation for the development of the work and pay travel expenses for the actors.

Actor/Performer:

• Interest or experience in theatre
• Interest in Canadian South Asian history
• South Asian identifying preferred

For more information, please call or email Deena Hai: 416 932 1359 extn. 14  / deena@cassa.on.ca

 webpage: browncanada.ca

facebook: browncanadaproject

youtube: browncanadaproject

tumblr:  browncanada

 Brown Canada is a community-led  history project to encourage South Asian communities to create and document their histories in Canada creatively, through writing, video, interviews, art, theatre or other means.  Our collective entry point for this project is through the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, when a ship of South Asian people was denied entry into Canada due to restrictive immigration policy known as the continuous journey regulation. Through this project, we will be creating an interactive website, offering educational & creative workshops, producing a short video as well as seeking to tour a short theatre piece to raise awareness of the incident and spark community dialogue within Ontario.

Call for Event Planning  and Outreach Volunteers Brown Canada Project

About the “Brown Canada” Project:

Brown Canada is a 2-year comprehensive South Asian history project that seeks to document and create history from a diverse range of perspectives that fall under the “South Asian” umbrella. During this project, we will be creating a comprehensive website with photos, videos and articles, creative and digital storytelling workshops, resource booklets, a DVD, as well as a memorial website and youth-led play dedicated to exploring histories of the Komagata Maru.

1) Call for Event Planning Volunteers:

We seek a committee of dedicated volunteers to assist the Event Planner with the various logistical responsibilities involved in:

a)     Setting up a series of community dialogues taking place across Ontario that will also feature a theatrical piece;

b)     Coordinating contents and logistics relating to a Brown Canada exhibit that will tour within the Greater Toronto Area during South Asian Heritage Month in May and;

c)      Planning and overseeing the final Brown Canada event in June.

Our core team will consist of about 6-10 volunteers who will work out of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) office, located at 2401 Eglinton Ave. E., Suite 212 in Toronto. Occasionally these volunteers will also work from home.

We will also have teams of 3-5 volunteers located in various cities outside of the Greater Toronto Area to assist with the setting up of the theatrical play and community dialogues component of this project. These cities (tentatively) include Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo, Windsor, London and Ottawa.

All volunteers will report back to the Event Planner for the Brown Canada Project, Shameela Zaman

Skills Required:

• Excellent communication and outreach skills
• Experience with social media and networking platforms such as Facebook, and Twitter is an asset
• Event planning experience is an asset
• Must be able to work independently and with a team
• Must be able to follow orders, work within a limited time frame and under tight deadlines

Time Commitment:

Members of our core team are expected to commit 5 – 7 hours per week at the CASSA office, with the possibility of extra hours at home.

Members of teams located outside of the GTA are expected to commit 2-5 hours per week. These hours will increase as the event date draws nearer in each city.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in joining the event planning committee, please email Shameela Zaman at shameela@cassa.on.ca by May 4^th at 12pm.

2) Call for Outreach Volunteers:

We seek a committee of dedicated volunteers to assist the Outreach Coordinator with the following responsibilities:

a)     Setting up a series of outreach events and workshops within the Greater Toronto Area, on the Brown Canada Project

b)     Attending various Outreach Events for South Asian Heritage Month in May, and general community events in June to set up Brown Canada booth

c)      Engaging with community members to elicit participation in activities including creating community collages, art activities, documenting oral histories and assisting at community workshops

Our team will consist of 6-10 volunteers who will work out of both community venues and  the CASSA Office located at 2401 Eglinton Ave. E., Suite 212 in Toronto. 

All volunteers will report back to the Outreach Coordinator for the Brown Canada Project, Krittika Ghosh

Skills Required:

• Excellent communication and outreach skills
• Experience in doing outreach in the South Asian community
• Arts based experience including photography, painting, graphic design
• Knowledge of organizations, cultural groups, student groups and other resources in the South Asian community in the GTA
• Must be able to work independently and with a team
• Must be able to follow orders, work within a limited time frame and under tight deadlines
• Knowledge of a South Asian language such as Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi an asset
• Access to a vehicle would be an asset (but not required)

Time Commitment:

Members of our core team are expected to commit up to 5-7 hours per week which could include weekend and week nights.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in joining the event planning committee, please email Krittika Ghosh at  krittika@cassa.on.ca  by May 4^th at 12pm.