The SASI partnered with the Surrey Art Gallery and Indian Summer Festival in this year’s Media Arts Symposium titled Roots of Resilience that took place on November 23, 2024 .
The symposium focused on the history of the farmworkers movement, working conditions of migrant workers, and sustainable practices in the face of labour and climate change in the Lower Mainland from the 1970s to present. The event featured a range of speakers and performers, offering a diverse array of topics centered on resilience, making for an engaging and insightful afternoon.
Dr. Satwinder Bains, Director of the South Asian Studies Institute, discussed South Asian Canadian labour history and the struggles of labour activists and leaders during the 70s and 80s.
Media Artist Craig Berggold shared his photographs used to campaign against discriminatory health and safety laws excluding farmworkers during the 70’s and 80’s. Artist Tarun Nayar of Modern Biology played plant music used analog equipment and natural vibrations of time and place through plant bioelectricity. Mercedes Eng and Cecily Nicholson performed poetry on their recent years of volunteering with an agricultural social enterprise that employs survivors/victims, ex-offenders, and offenders in the Fraser Valley.