Visit to Alberta Yields Results!

In April, staff at the South Asian Studies Institute embarked on a trip to Alberta to connect with community members in Calgary and Edmonton and conduct research for current and upcoming projects.

SASI Director, Satwinder Bains, with Calgary mayor, Jyoti Gondek.

We started our trip by attending the Sikh Heritage Month Sikh Military exhibition opening ceremony at the Calgary Military Museums highlighting the contributions of Sikh soldiers in various military wars and conflicts throughout history until today. In attendance were members of the Canadian military including Canadian Sikh soldiers, political leaders including Calgary’s Mayor, Her Worship Jyoti Gondek and Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser. We also met with exhibit curators, Indra Teekasingh and Al Ross to speak with them about their work and research and to build Digital connections to our South Asian Canadian Digital Archive (SACDA).

Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton. This mosque was built in 1982 to replace the smaller, original Al Rashid Mosque which was the first mosque built in Canada in 1938.

We held imporant meetings with peers from Alberta universities and institutions to discuss projects SASI for collaboration and cooperation. A focus of our trip was aimed at the purposeful expansion of SACDA into a Pan-Canadian archive to include new collections from people and organizations situated in Alberta. Our goal was to reach out to various archival institutions to view the materials they hold while also building relationships with them to potentially host their materials digitally on SACDA. Visits included the Provincial Archives of Alberta and the University of Calgary Archives and Special Collections. We also met with community members and leaders to discuss the possibility of being able to record and share their stories on the SACDA website and visited several places of worship to connect with and learn their histories with a goal to work on Built Heritage in BC and Alberta.

Overall, our trip to Alberta was busy, exciting, and highly successful. Being able to connect with people and create networks with communities in our neighbouring province was a rewarding experience and one that will lead to further projects and interesting future endeavours.

Header image: Library at the Dasmesh Culture Centre in Calgary, AB.

Photos:

Jam Tse Cho Ling Tibetan Buddhist Temple, Calgary

Sri Murugan Society of Alberta, Calgary

Gurdwara Darbar Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Calgary

Gurdwara Millwoods, Edmonton

Guru Ravidass Community Centre, Calgary

Sikh Society of Calgary Gurdwara

Baitun-Nur Mosque, Calgary

Karumari Ammam Temple, Calgary

Sikh Heritage Month event at Calgary Military Museums