Here's how!
For those of you that don't know, April is officially Sikh Heritage Month in the Canadian province of Ontario. I know, it's pretty cool. Between its 'badass' Sikh Minister of Defense, huge Sikh Diaspora communities, overall positive multicultural attitudes, along with being home to JusReign and other social media personalities, Canada is a pretty good place to be a Sikh.
In Ontario, Sikh Heritage Month has become the icing on the cake. Passed into legislation in 2013, this bill, put forward by Ontario's first Amritdhari Member of Provincial Parliament Jagmeet Singh, recognizes April as a month to remember Sikh Heritage…forever. That's right, this was not a one-time deal, this bill is here to stay. This law is one of the first of its kind in the world and doesn't even exist in India, the country with the highest population of Sikhs in the world.
Sikh Heritage Month opened many doors in celebrating the rich tradition of the Sikh community. People started to host events at their workplaces, held gatherings at their homes, and used April as a month to start educating and informing people about the Sikh Spirituality.
In Brampton Ontario, home to one of the LARGEST Sikh communities outside of Punjab, a very special relationship began. The Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archive (PAMA), Brampton's preeminent art institution, partnered with the Sikh Community to celebrate not just a day, but an ENTIRE month of programming around Sikh Heritage.
The results was amazing! Together they created, "The Spirit of the Sikhs," a month long exhibit featuring the work of 22 local and international artists. In addition, a dynamic month of programming was provided to the community with over 20 events with the help of more than 15 community partners. Over 4500 people attended PAMA over the month of April to experience Sikh Arts and Culture (Watch the following recap video to learn more about this amazing month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olR68lgXkVs).
The events that were held were outstanding. They were unique, dynamic, and most importantly fun. PAMA hosted energetic opening and closing nights. These events brought the community together for an evening of performances, music, art, food and more. PAMA also hosted a variety of other events including: a special one day exhibit of the largest Sikh Coin collection in the world, discussions about Sikh Heritage, Gurbani workshops, along with a whole slew of exhibitions by local artists.
This ground-breaking partnership was even recognized by the Ontario Museum Association who awarded PAMA with the Community Engagement Award of Excellence for its Sikh Heritage Month programming (for more information on the award check out: https://pama.peelregion.ca/en/News/index.aspx?newsId=84b26649-c63e-40c9-a776-e0c4120a0a73).
Plans are already underway to expand Sikh Heritage Month for 2016. At the centre of these plans is inviting UK Artists, 'The Singh Twins', as the main exhibitors for the Sikh Heritage Month Celebrations. The Singh Twins are widely recognized as some of the most well established contemporary artists in the Sikh Diaspora. Their world-renowned work has resulted in recognition by numerous art and academic institutions. If you've been living under a rock and don't know about the Singh Twins you can check them out here: http://www.singhtwins.co.uk/PROFILE.html.
How to Get involved!
This is an open call out for submissions from all Artists, Exhibitors, Presenters, Workshop Facilitators and anyone else who wants to present content at PAMA for Sikh Heritage Month. Our goals is to provide a platform where anyone can come out to express themselves about the rich Sikh tradition. Whether it be through exhibiting visual art, hosting a discussion, organizing an open mic, or facilitating a workshop, we want you to get involved with Sikh Heritage Month.
If you're interested in contributing to Sikh Heritage Month please visit www.ontariosikhheritagemonth.ca and fill out the appropriate forms to be a part of the magic.
Please note that deadlines for programming submissions have been extended to January 18th, 2016.
We look forward to your contributions. Let us all work collectively to promote and celebrate Sikh Heritage.
Incidents from 2015:
Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh,
- Gurratan Singh
Member of The Sikh Heritage Month at PAMA team