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Oral History Interview with Pamila Matharu (2014)
Matharu discusses the critical progressive nature of the Desh Pardesh festival, and how this was targeted specifically for a population of people of colour. Matharu also touches briefly on the intergenerational nature of the festival, and how this…
Oral History Interview with Michelle Mohabeer
Mohabeer discusses her experience of moving to Canada during the 1970s, when racism, sexism and homophobia were rampant. She also discusses briefly her experience as a Pakistani person in a time where Paki-bashing was common place. Mohabeer then goes…
Oral History Interview with Ian Iqbal Rashid (2015)
Ian Iqbal Rashid is a poet and writer, and one of the co-founders of Desh Pardesh. In this interview he discusses the conception of Desh, its original visions and its its manifestation into an internationally recognized event. Rashid was not involved…
Oral History Interview with Paramjit Rai (2014)
Paramjit Rai was a volunteer and co-coordinator at Desh Pardesh for a number of years. She discusses her experience as a social policy worker and academic at the festival and how this role of “outsider” informed her perspective on the festival. She…
Oral History with Punam Khosla (2015)
Punam Khosla was the coordinator of the Desh Pardesh festival from the second festival in 1991 to 1993. She headed the festival with clear political goals, which often clashed with other organizers of the event but she was not willing to compromise…
Oral History Interview with Shelly Bahl (2015)
Shelly Bahl was one of the founders of the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC). In this interview she discusses her role in several small collectives prior to her full involvement in SAVAC, and how these collectives worked hand in hand with the…
Oral History Interview with Anthony Mohamed (2015)
In this interview Anthony Mohamed, and HIV/AIDS activist and attendee of the Desh Pardesh festival discusses several social movements that took place for the LGBTQ community from the 1940s till the 1990s. He discusses the impact of racism within the…
Oral History Interview with Leela Acharya
Acharya was an activist that was involved in the progressive feminist scene in Toronto prior to hearing about Desh Pardesh. She later went on to work in the programming committee for Desh Pardesh. In this interview, Acharya discusses how the…
Oral History Interview with Sheila James and Rachel Kalpana James (2014)
Sheila and Rachel, in this oral history interview, speak about their roles in Desh Pardesh, as a contributor and a programming coordinator, respectively. They explain the internal mechanisms of Desh, as well as its public perception at the time. They…
Oral History with Leila Sujir (2014)
Leila Sujir is an artist that first worked at Desh Pardesh in the late 1980s. Her work India Hearts Beat screened in Toronto, and she was invited to discuss it. She felt that Desh was a space of both validation and contention. She argues it gave…