The South Asian Studies Institute hosted an open house on February 20th, at the Sikh Heritage Museum at the National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple in honour of BC Heritage Week | The annual celebration of Heritage in BC with the theme Unfolding the Layers of Migration.
The Open House included an exhibit viewing of Marriages & Migration: A Transnational Story of BC, introductory talks, and film screenings. The film screenings featured a documentary premiere of Marriages and Migration: The Story of the Gill Family, a short film highlighting the marriage and migration experiences of an Abbotsford couple, Rajinder and Nash Gill whose stories are showcased in the Transnational Marriage exhibit.
The NFB documentary Unarchived was screened to continue the discussion of unfolding and uncovering layers of migration through studying the archives. The Open House event was well attended with close to fifty guests including those from Heritage BC, UFV faculty and staff and the local community.
After the exhibit viewing, the guests seated themselves in the theatre room. The Khalsa Diwan Society kindly provided them with chai and refreshments to enjoy during the film screenings. Research coordinator of SASI and film director of Marriages and Migration: The Story of the Gill Family, Henna Mann introduced the short documentary produced by SASI and explained its intimate connection to the topic of Unfolding the Layers of Migration.
In the short documentary, Rajinder and Nash tell the story of their marriage and migration while also touching upon the story of Nash’s parents’ Indar Singh and Kartar Kaur, whose experiences significantly differed from theirs. Following the screening, many people engaged in thoughtful questions and comments about their own stories and those of their families, giving great attention to the topic of transnational marriages.
