This was 30 years ago when the first refugees from war-torn Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) arrived to Canada. Various ethnic, historical and cultural factors posed serious challenges to the local Tamil minority in tragic circumstances. The Tamil uprising has been crushed with an incredible toll of blood just 8 years ago. Using a big picture analogy, the modern Tamils are more or less where the Poles were in 1864 – after the January Uprising.
Tamil diaspora in Toronto has approx. 400,000 people, so it is numerically similar to Polish. Among Tamils, after the Hindu-Saivites the most numerous religious group is Catholics, living a strong faith in their exile. Like many of our compatriots they were brought here by the winds of war. But the similarities do not end just here. Late last year, the Canadian Parliament passed a bill acknowledging January as the annual Tamil Heritage Month. On this occasion, for the first time in Canadian history, we would like to invite the Polish and the Tamil People together, for the Polish-Tamil Night of Culture and History.
We plan to show three short movies provided by Global Village Foundation Poland. We will find out about the prominent Polish missionary of Ceylon and Sri Lanka – Fr. Andrzej Cierpka OMI. We’ll see how this ancient Tamil capital of Jaffna looks like today. We will look at the daily work and faith of the local fishermen. We also plan for the ethnic dances and refreshments. It’s all on Friday evening January the 20th 2017 at 7.00 PM in the John Paul II Center 4300 Cawthra Rd. Mississauga. Let’s include our families and youth. Let us get to know one another. Admission is free.
Organizers:
Canadian Tamil Congress
Global Village Foundation
Czytaj po polsku
