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The Arts

Celebrating south Asian subcultures

Eugene Correia in Toronto

The south Asian gays and lesbians community has successfully hosted Desh Pradesh (Home Away From Home) for 10 years now.

It was in 1989 that some members of Khush, the gay and lesbian organization, held a one-day festival to promote their own talents. The following year Desh Pradesh officially made its bow.

If the recently-concluded festival is any indication, Desh Pradesh is bound to get bigger. The festival is now funded by social and cultural agencies and by sponsors but the money coming in has reduced this year because government funding to these organizations has also been cut.

Since the Ontario government has cut funding to social and cultural agencies, the organizers had to make do with whatever was available. But despite lack of funding, the festival lasted six days and the fare was pretty impressive.

Billed as Intra-National Festival/Conference for last few years, the event is still markedly south Asian in character. It now deals with wider social and cultural issues. This year's theme was Bodies & Border ...Unbound.

In the introduction to this year's souvenir, the programming committee writes, "Things have changed. Things are changing. Some have stayed the same. All realms cultural, economic, spiritual, and social are shifting. For better or worse is the question that seems to be the topic of the day at the turn of the century. Bodies are coming together, slipping against and into each other, but at the same time boundaries are also being reformulated. Programming for this year's festival has tried to keep up with these issues."

If this all sounds a little mysterious, it could also have something to do with the organizers being people used to being misunderstood.

The introduction clarifies things a little later, saying Desh intends to banish borders and to help articulate critical expression. It goes on to say that Desh Pradesh will not only showcase alternative south Asian culture, but also provide a voice to the underprivileged, women, and racial minorities. The event covers a whole range -- from films, visual arts, workshops and panel discussions on social, cultural and political issues, dance, drama to literature, it said.

This year's highlights included Florida-based Professor Amitava Kumar who read from his new book, Passport Photos. Known for his cultural writing, Kumar has also the script-writer and narrator of Pure Chutney, a documentary on Indians settled in Trinidad and Tobago.

Well-known visual artist, India-born Sarindar Dhaliwal gave tips to up and coming artists. Raised in London, England and coming to Canada in 1968, she has exhibited her work extensively in Canada. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Toronto Arts Council, and has been a trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario Dhaliwal, who is on the editorial board of Fuse, a cultural magazine, said that no artist should think big of himself or herself.

"One is only good as the last piece of art," she said while encouraging artists to push themselves to higher standards. Another well-known performer who entertained the audience was Sharon Mareeka Lewis, a professional actor, writer, director and producer. Sharon, who has a mix of Trinidadian and Jamaican heritage, also gave a talk in the Artists Talk Series.

Newly-published writer Raywat Deonandan, of Indo-Guyanese origin, read from his short story collection, Sweet Like Saltwater, which has most stories about the Indo-Caribbean diaspora.

Sapna Desai, an Indo-Canadian, read her poetry that seemed lyrical and often seemed a soul still rooted in Indian soil.

Parijat Desai gave two performances -- one, a fusion of neo-modern Bharatnatyam and the other, a blend of Indian, Javanese and modern dance techniques. She studied choreography at University of California at Los Angeles and has performed at the Kaleidoscope Dance Festival in Los Angeles and at the Attakalari Choreolan in Bangalore.

Toronto-based Nilu Gupta, a playwright and filmmaker, showed a six-minute documentary, Burning Down the Dream, which focused on the garment industry sweatshops in Toronto. She used dialogue, dance and still photography. The stills included one of Mahatma Gandhi weaving khadi and of the boycott of English clothes during India's freedom struggle.

As part of the festival, the South Asian Visual Arts Collective showed the works of Damien Lopes and Roark Andrade, both based in Toronto. Andrade's Suburban Little India showed images of the shopping complex at the west end of the city.

Andrade is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design, and works as a multimedia artist.

Lopes's Project X: 1497-1999 showed the journey of Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama to India.

The poetry-multimedia project focuses on the colonizing effects of da Gama's voyage. Lopes is also a poet and his first book of poetry is to be released shortly.

Two of the notable films shown were Moin Jamal's documentary Black Pakistanis, a 35-minute film on the Macrahni or Black Pakistanis, descendants of African slaves brought to Pakistan, and Turbans, a 27-minute film by Erika Surat Enderson, about a family forced to chose between their cultural traditions and the desire for social acceptance in Oregon.

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