Hi everyone,

We just started a new project called the Ology of Apology. With this project we are lucky enough to go on six day trips around Vancouver. You can follow these trips along in real if you go follow the @plpseycove instagram account. For our first trip we went to a Sikh temple and the Punjabi Market. At the Sikh temple we visited an exhibit dedicated to the Komagata Maru. 

If you don’t know what the Komagata Maru is I would suggest watching the video below. So at the exhibit we learned about the the history of South Asians and particularly Sikhs in Canada. After this we got to experience a sliver of South Asian culture at the Punjabi market. It was really incredible to see all these stores selling traditional Indian food and goods. One thing which really stuck out to me after learning about the Komagata Maru was that the Canadian and BC governments did not offer good apologies for these events even after 100 plus years. 

Apologies are really important. Especially to a community like the South Asians and particularly Indians. They weren’t allowed entry into Canada even though they were apart of the British Empire. A good apology could help spark a change and prevent anything like this from happening again. Then discovered the terrible apology the Canadian Government offered the Sikhs. Even though eventually the Canadian Government offered a better apology its still is terrible that it took them so long to do so.

Originally I had troubles relating the Komagata Maru incident to my life. I mean it was 107 years ago and didn’t affect any one of my relatives or family members. But then after the trip to the Punjabi Market I realized how it was relevant today. We need to interact with many different communities to build a complete worldview. We should never exclude a group of people due to where they came from or the colour of there skin. The Komagata Maru incident really serves as a reminder of the danger of only interacting with people who look and think the same as you. I also began to think of how my ancestors would have been some of the people in Vancouver. Hearing the White Canadian perspective about this ship and while I have no clue about what their opinions on the ship would have been. I know that if they interacted with the Indian community they would see the problem with this incident. 

Memorializing people and events of the past is a great way to help those affected as well as remind the public of the importance of not repeating our past wrongs. We need memorialize the courage and bravery of these men onboard the Komagata Maru as well as the Sikh community in Vancouver. We need to document the struggle of both the individuals and the community as a whole as a reminder of our past wrongs.