{"id":4547,"date":"2017-09-22T10:20:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2015\/09\/03\/remembering-air-india-launches-in-toronto-and-hamilton\/"},"modified":"2018-10-29T09:13:23","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T15:13:23","slug":"remembering-air-india-launches-in-toronto-and-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2017\/09\/22\/remembering-air-india-launches-in-toronto-and-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"“Remembering Air India” launches in Toronto and Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors Chandrima Chakraborty, Amber Dean and Angela Failler launched their new collection, Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning<\/em><\/a> in Toronto on September 14th and in Hamilton on September 15th, 2017.<\/p>\n

Anjula Gogia of Another Story Bookshop of\u00a0Toronto introduced the presenters: contributors Elan Marchinko (York University) and Renee Sarojini Saklikar (Surrey Poet\u00a0Laureate). There were also video clips from Lata Pada\u2019s dance performance \u201cRevealed By Fire,\u201d a stunning image of\u00a0which is featured on the book\u2019s cover. The Hamilton event, introduced by Kerry Cranston-Reimer of Bryan Prince Bookseller also included these same\u00a0contributors to the book, with an introduction by\u00a0Rob Alexander, who lost his father in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, and Khursheed Ahmed, of the South Asian\u00a0Heritage Association of Hamilton and Region.<\/p>\n

The Editors introduced the book and the\u00a0speakers, and were delighted by the huge show of interest in the book. They were also deeply honoured to have a number of\u00a0family members and friends who lost loved ones aboard Flight 182 in attendance. “As editors of\u00a0Remembering Air India<\/em>\u00a0we would like to begin by acknowledging those who lost their lives to the Air India bombings\u00a0of 1985, and the family members, friends and loved ones who continue to mourn their loss,\u201d Chandrima\u00a0Chakraborty said in her opening remarks. “This book is a collaborative attempt to share in that mourning, by\u00a0remembering this little-known or hazily remembered event in Canadian public memory.”<\/p>\n

Both of these launches also aimed to give audiences a sampling of the book\u2019s unique combination of creative\u00a0and critical\/scholarly work. \u201dRemembering Air India<\/em>\u00a0is somewhat unique, as scholarly books go,\u201d co-editor Amber\u00a0Dean explained in her opening remarks, “because it includes reprints of the creative works that the scholars in the\u00a0book write about.\u201d The book features fiction by Padma Viswanathan and Bharati Mukherjee, poetry by Uma\u00a0Parameswaran and Renee Saklikar, paintings by Deon Venter, and photographs and artist\u2019s statements from a film\u00a0by Eisha Marjara and a dance performance by Lata Pada, alongside a critical introduction and essays by Angela Failler, Amber Dean, Maya Seshia,\u00a0Cassel Busse, Elan Marchinko and Chandrima Chakraborty. The book also reprints the text of former Prime Minister\u00a0Stephen Harper\u2019s 2010 apology to the Air India families and Dr. Sherene Razack\u2019s expert testimony given at the Air\u00a0India Public Inquiry, and includes short, candid commentaries by Rita Dhamoon, Sherene Razack, Karen Sharma,\u00a0Teresa Hubel, and Suvir Kaul.<\/p>\n

The co-editors gratefully acknowledge the support and sponsorship of the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies Institute<\/a> (University of Toronto), the Department of English and Cultural Studies<\/a> and the Graduate Program in Gender Studies and Feminist Research<\/a> (McMaster University), Another Story Bookshop<\/a> (Toronto) and Bryan Prince Bookseller<\/a> (Hamilton), the South Asian Heritage Association of Hamilton and Region<\/a>, along with the University of Alberta Press<\/a> and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n