Masala Canada - Saturday, December 3rd 2011

Conversations with Naveen Girn and Sathy Rajasekharan

MASALA CANADA with WOJTEK GWIAZDA

On this edition of MASALA CANADA I talk to Naveen Girn, a cultural researcher at Simon Fraser University. He’s a guest curator of a unique exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver called “Bhangra Me: Vancouver’s Bhangra Story”. The exhibition started this past May, and is the result of a collaboration between the museum and the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration (VIBC) which hosts annual bhangra music festivals and dance competitions.

The “Bhangra Me” exhibition not only focuses on music and dance, but also on what Girn calls the soundtrack of Vancouver’s history, and the history of South Asians in the city and Canada. It also discovered how present Bhangra was over the past few decades, including being used to organize Canadian farmworkers. As well, the Bhangra sound of Vancouver is unique, and different from that of India or the UK and yet, shows their influences, as well as those of other music such as hip hop.

And I talk to Sathy Rajasekharan, the Chair of the Montreal Business Council, of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. The Council is organizing an event this Thursday, December 8^th, called “Back from India”. It’s following up on other events that focussed on preparing people to do business or connect with India. This event takes advantage of the experience of Canadians who have already been to India, and who will talk about their experiences. We’ll also talk about some of the advantages of being based in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, as far as promoting Canada-India relations.

WEB LINKS:

Bhangra Me website – www.bhangra.me

Museum of Vancouver – Bhangra Me page – here

Delhi2Dublin music and info – www.delhi2dublin.com

En Karma music and info – www.enkarma.ca

Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce – www.iccc.org

Please comment on this article

Note: By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that Radio Canada International has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Radio Canada International does not endorse any of the views posted. Your comments will be pre-moderated and published if they meet netiquette guidelines.

Reply *
First Name *
Name *
Email *
City *
Country *
Telephone
Visual confirmation *	Recharger Enter the validation code
	Fields with * are mandatory