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Sewa means ‘selfless service’. It involves acting selflessly and helping others in a variety of ways, without any reward or personal gain.

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Rupi Kaur says that her Sikh identity has shaped her and describes that she had grown up reading Sikh poetry and participating in kirtans (which she called her "first performance").

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Rupi Kaur says that her Sikh identity has shaped her and describes that she had grown up reading Sikh poetry and participating in kirtans (which she called her "first performance").

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Kirtan is the singing of hymns and shabads (verses) from the Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhs often sing kirtan because it helps them to feel connected to Waheguru and focus on Waheguru’s qualities. It reminds them of the oneness of God and comforts them.

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28 Positions in 34 Years by Chila Kumari Burman

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28 Positions in 34 Years by Chila Kumari Burman

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Chila is an Indian-British artist born in Liverpool. On 28 laser-printed photographic self-portraits, she plays with the idea of her two cultures - in some photos she is wearing elegant Western style clothing with hat and gloves and then on other portraits she wears traditional Indian clothes.
Chila herself says her work is about the continuous exploration of her dual cultural identity and the construction of identities other than her own.

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When home won't let you stay: Migration through contemporary art

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When home won't let you stay: Migration through contemporary art

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example artworks of artists talking about migration and

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Tour the Exhibition With Curator Maggie Dethloff

Walk through When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art with exhibition curator, Maggie Dethloff. This recorded event provides insight into the themes and artworks present in this exhibition, and was presented on March 3, 2021.

Tour the Exhibition alongside Curator Maggie Dethloff

Exhibition Catalog Available

Published on the occasion of the exhibition When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art, held at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA (Oct. 23, 2019-Jan. 26, 2020), the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Feb. 22-May 24, 2020) and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, USA (Feb. 5-May 31, 2021).

240 pages, 8 3/4 x 11 1/2
134 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300247480
Hardcover

Published by Yale University Press in association with the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.

To purchase* the exhibition catalog for When Home Won't Let You Stay, please email our Visitor Services team (cantor-visitor-services@stanford.edu).

Students: $40
Members: $45
Non-members: $50
*A $7.00 shipping charge apply.
Available in the continental U.S. only.

Click on the button below to order your catalog.

Get your copy

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When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art

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Walk through When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art with exhibition curator, Maggie Dethloff. This recorded event provides insight into the themes and artworks present in this exhibition, and was presented on March 3, 2021.

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“He said that if culture is a house, then language was the key to the front door; to all the rooms inside. Without it, he said, you ended up wayward, without a proper home or a legitimate identity.” Wrote Khaled ElHosseini in his recently released book And the mountains Echoed.

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“He said that if culture is a house, then language was the key to the front door; to all the rooms inside. Without it, he said, you ended up wayward, without a proper home or a legitimate identity.” Wrote Khaled ElHosseini in his recently released book And the mountains Echoed.

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The artwork shows “the global flows and movements of travelers, migrants, and labor.”
The artist makes use of electrical wires in her installation - giving the material itself a double meaning. While electrical wires come with the notion of connecting people across vast distances like electricity, the wire can also be seen as a weapon used in fences to erect borders or around refugee camps

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Punjabi is the third most common language spoken after English and French in Canada

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Punjabi is the third most common language spoken after English and French in Canada

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Canada Immigration and Visa Information. Canadian Immigration Services and Free Online Evaluation.

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Punjabi Now Third Language in Parliament of Canada

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Punjabi Now Third Language in Parliament of Canada - Canada Immigration and Visa Information. Canadian Immigration Services and Free Online Evaluation.

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Punjabi Now Third Language in Parliament of Canada

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Keeping Culture alive as Third Generation Indian-Canadians

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Keeping Culture alive as Third Generation Indian-Canadians

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On language, culture and traditions - bringing up children as third generation Indian-Canadians

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When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband said to me, "You know I'm going to speak in French with our baby, don't you?"
Without thinking, I blurted, "But what about Hindi?!"
It seemed odd, and more than a little ironic, that our South Asian baby would be raised in French by two South Asian parents.

In that moment, we recognized the issue that would be our ongoing parenting challenge: how could we, second generation Canadians, raise our children as proud Indians in Canada?

My husband and I were both born and raised in Montréal to Indian parents who had immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. The homes we grew up in were infused with Indian-ness. Our parents spoke Hindi/Punjabi, we listened to Indian music, watched Bollywood movies, ate Indian food, socialized with a predominantly Indian community of friends and went to the temple regularly. Our connection to our culture, traditions, celebrations, faith and values was second-hand, but it felt more immediate since it was delivered through our parents who had lived it, breathed it and experienced it first-hand.

Not surprisingly, my husband and I are more integrated into Canadian culture than our parents. We speak English with one another, enjoy a varied international cuisine, have friends of all stripes, see more Hollywood than Bollywood movies and participate in a variety of activities that have little or nothing to do with our native culture. And yet, we're proud of our heritage and want our kids to feel the same. So we made a conscious decision to bring more Indian-ness into our lives.

Naming our children
We started by giving our children Indian names so that they would always remember where they came from, something that they (like us) are reminded about every time their names are mispronounced! They call their grandparents nani and nana and dadi and dada, and use the appropriate Hindi terms for all their relations. It's amazing how heartwarming it is to hear our little guy call his big sister didi, something my youngest sister still calls me to this day.

Tasty dishes
For the first time in my life, I started to make Indian food. How else would my children grow up loving Indian cuisine? That involved many long-distance phone calls to my mom, but it finally paid off. One night, my son opted out of pizza (who opts out of pizza?) in favour of Indian left-overs, and then taunted his sister: "Ha ha, I have Indian food and you don't!"

Learning the language
I've even made a valiant attempt to speak exclusively in Hindi at home, but accepting my limitations, I did two things. I asked all the grandparents to revert back to Hindi after a lifetime of being forced to speak in English with their own kids (but, alas, old habits die hard!). I also got on my kids' school council and worked with the school board to establish an after-school international languages program. Now, once a week, my kids get taken straight from their classrooms to Hindi class where they're immersed in Hindi books, songs and language learning ... and they come home asking for more.

Customs and celebrations
My husband and I make a big deal about certain Indian customs and celebrations. Every year, we've had our daughter tie a raakhi on our son, and have had him give her a token gift in return, to reaffirm their mutual bond of love.

For Holi, we take them to the temple so that they can be part of the crowd of merry revellers throwing coloured powder on one another. (Below is a photo of my son and his cousin celebrating.)

And this year for Diwali, my kids proudly wore Indian outfits to school, and a number of us South Asian moms were invited into the kids' classrooms to share the legend of Diwali - and treats - with the whole class. My children's pride was written all over their faces. (Below is a picture of an "Om" design we created for Diwali one year. It's made of coloured lentils and rice.)

Sharing our culture
My husband and I have made a point of sharing our culture with our non-Indian friends so that our kids can emulate the pride we feel. One year, we even had a Bollywood-themed birthday party for our daughter, complete with outfits, bangles and bindis for all the kids. The girls were thrilled, and the parents loved watching the Bollywood dance number performed by their little Indian princesses.

We've taken our children to Hindu temples for an exposure to their faith (and for yummy halva!), and we never miss a chance to take them to the quintessentially Indian experience: an Indian wedding, which is a virtual explosion of Indian sights, sounds and flavours. And now, finally, we feel like it's the right time to take them "home" ... to India.

In truth, it's challenging to ensure that that our kids are exposed to essential Indian-ness when they are surrounded by "Canadian culture." It's hard to know if we're doing enough. But one day not too long ago, my daughter said to me, "Mama, I'm happy I was born an Indian." That was the day that I knew we were doing something right.

Niru Kumar is a lawyer and blogger. She has two children and lives in Toronto. She is Director on the boards of the Children's Aid Society of Toronto and Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, hosts a talk show called "Talk Local," and is Co-Chair of the Multicultural Liaison Committee at her children's elementary school council. She is also a member of Friends of Sir John A. Macdonald (Toronto) and the Customer Liaison Panel, TTC. You can follow her on Twitter @NiruKumar.

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Keeping Your Heritage Alive for Third Generation Canadian Kids | CBC Parents

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When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband said to me, "You know I'm going to speak in French with our baby, don't you?" Without thinking, I blurted, "But what about Hindi?!" It seemed odd, and more than a little ironic, that our South Asian baby would be raised in French by two South Asian parents.

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This Week in History: Season 6, Episode 12 – Punjabi Canadian Legacy

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https://dataliteracy.com/handmade-in-punjab/

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Artists on Immigration and Cultural Identity

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Artists on Immigration and Cultural Identity

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https://guides.nyu.edu/southasiandiaspora/Immigrantion-Histories

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Silence Doesn't Work For Me by Angie Pai

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Silence Doesn't Work For Me by Angie Pai

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Angie is a Taiwanese-Australian artist who made this artpiece after hearing about her parents emotional and financial struggles of immigrating to Australia to give their children the best life that they could.

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Home is a Foreign Place by Zarina Hashmi

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Home is a Foreign Place by Zarina Hashmi

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Born in India to a Muslim Family, Zarina had to leave her childhood home in her early twenties due to political and religious clashes between India and Pakistan. In these woodblock prints, Zarina tells a narrative of the home she was born in and had to leave to never returned to.

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The artist was born in Paris, France to Algerian parents - later she moved to the UK to study arts where her daughter was born.
In these video sequences the artist, her mother and her daughter engage in conversations each in their own native language (French, Algerian and English) showing language barrier and how cultural identity unfolds across generations.