The Wendat, Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe peoples in Tkaronto (Toronto) have been dispossessed of their rights, and continue to be subjected to colonization and genocide. In this context, Farheen and Mohini discover each other’s stories of migration to England and eventually to Canada, from Pakistan and India. They explore their relationship to language, share experiences of racism and reflect on reconnection to self and community. Stay tuned for a future episode about settler colonialism.

Deepest gratitude to:

Our parents, who with great courage, strength and persistence did the best that they could in moving across continents and oceans - more than once. And to our extended families, family friends and larger communities who supported us as new arrivals, and into our auntiehood. We are in them, they are in us.

For a history of Desh Pardesh: https://savac.net/collection/desh-pardesh/

Just some of the brilliant musicians, writers, filmmakers, thinkers in our formative years who helped us reclaim and be proud of our Browness (as complex as that is) - Gurinder Chadha, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, Hanif Kureishi, Kiran Desai, Srinivas Krishna, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, Asian Dub Foundation, Talvin Singh, State of Bengal, Karsh Kale, DJ Zahra’s Funkasia and DJ Amita’s Besharam club nights, DJ Rekha’s Basement Bhangra jams, Goodness Gracious Me tv show. The 1990s & early 2000s were all that and a bag of Kurkure!

A passage from Harsha Walia, South Asian activist, author of Undoing Border Imperialism.

https://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html

“Racialized communities face interlocking and connected conditions of marginalization within the settler-colonial state. Victims of global political economy built on our dispossession, communities of colour are further disciplined into normative whiteness and hegemonic neoliberalism. The power of state controls and the insidious nature of racism force us to metabolize our own oppression, and many of us become “the good Indian” or “good immigrant” who is silent, complicit, and grateful to the colonial master. Some even become the system’s greatest cheerleaders. The reality, though, is that people of colour face legislated racism from immigration laws to policies governing Indigenous reserves; are discriminated against and excluded from equitable access to health care, housing, child care and education; are disproportionately victims of police killings and child apprehensions; fill the floors of sweatshops and factories; and are overrepresented in head counts on poverty, incarceration, unemployment and high school dropout rates.” pg 124-125, Undoing Border Imperialism

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