The Reach and Sikh Heritage Museum Offer Two Cultural History Tours, Jul 22 & Aug 14

The Reach and the Sikh Heritage Museum are teaming up to offer an incredible cultural history tour this summer! This public tour will be available on Tuesday, July 22 at 11am and Thursday, August 14 at 11am at a low fee of $10 pp at the Sikh Heritage Museum, 33089 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford.

Join Kris Foulds, The Reach collections manager and Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, Coordinator of the Centre for Indo Canadian Studies, UFV in a visit to the Sikh Heritage Museum to see Challenge and Denial – Komagata Maru 100 Years Later, 1914 – 2014, learn more about Abbotsford’s iconic Gur Sikh Temple - the City’s only National Heritage Site, Sikh religion and culture.

“In addition to and following the tour, we will visit to the newer Khalsa Diwan Society Sikh temple for langar, the communal vegetarian meal that affirms the equality of all who partake in it,” explain Foulds and Sandhra.

These tours are in recognition of the passing of 100 years since 355 passengers of the Komagata Maru were denied entry into Canada and connect into The Reach’s summer history exhibition, Boat People, which examines the stories of other Abbotsford immigrants who made their way to Canada via an ocean voyage. It draws on The Reach material culture collections:  artefacts, photographs and excerpts from oral histories. Boat People also compliments the exhibition currently showing in the Sikh Heritage Museum: Challenge and Denial – Komagata Maru 100 Years Later, 1914 – 2014. The latterfeatures a detailed timeline which looks at the trajectory of the history of South Asian migration to BC and Canada starting in 1904, focusing on the events of May 23 to July 23, 1914, the two months that the Komagata Maru was held in Burrard Inlet while the future of the immigrants on board was debated and contested in the courts. Also showing at the Sikh Heritage Museum is an exhibition of works by local artist, Jarnail Singh, whose paintings depict the Komagata Maru tragedy in Komagata Maru Stories.

For more information on The Reach and Sikh Heritage Museum cultural history tour on Tuesday, July 22 at 11am and Thursday, August 14 at 11am, contact: kfoulds@thereach.ca

To register for the July 22 tour: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=iqqthmdab&oeidk=a07e9gjht479c2e0298

To register for the August 14 tour:

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=iqqthmdab&oeidk=a07e9gjgxjpf2eb97b3