Roots of Resilience: Media Arts Symposium

Learn about the history of farmworker movements, working conditions of migrant workers, and sustainable practices in the face of climate change in the Lower Mainland from the 1970s to present. 

The afternoon begins with presentations by University of the Fraser Valley’s Director of South Asian Studies Dr. Satwinder Bains and media artist Craig Berggold. Dr. Bains will share the importance of the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive and why it is crucial to collect and preserve these stories. In particular, Dr. Bains will speak to South Asian Canadian labour history and the struggles of labour activists and leaders in the 70s and 80s. Berggold worked as an artist-in-residence with the Canadian Farmworkers Union (CFU) and will share his photographs used to campaign against discriminatory health and safety laws excluding farmworkers. Berggold is the lead researcher at the CFU Project housed at Simon Fraser University.

Bringing together his passion for music and nature, local artist Tarun Nayar of Modern Biology will perform plant music using analog equipment and the natural vibrations of time and place through plant bioelectricity. Trained from childhood in Indian classical music, he uses the system of Indian raga to mold his musical choices for time of day and season. His performances are an effort to bring the listener into the present moment through vibration, space, and connection.

Rounding out the event will be a conversation and poetry performance by Mercedes Eng and Cecily Nicholson. Eng is the author of four books including the recent cop city swagger, a threat assessment of Vancouver's police, and Prison Industrial Complex Explodes, winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (2018). Nicholson, a past recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry (2018), is the author of five books including Harrowings, a study in Black rurality stemming from her experience growing up on a farm. The authors will speak to their recent years volunteering with an agricultural social enterprise that employs survivors/victims, ex-offenders, and offenders in the Fraser Valley.

Throughout the day, participants can create flower eco prints with Justine Redila. Eco printing, also known as tatakizome, is an ancient Japanese technique involving transferring plant pigment to create intricate patterns on paper or fabric.

South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley and Indian Summer Festival are the community partners for this event curated by Surrey Art Gallery Associate Curator Suvi Bains.

About SASI

The South Asian Studies Institute at University of the Fraser Valley fosters interdisciplinary scholarly research, studies, community, and public engagement on issues related to South Asia and the Canadian South Asian Diaspora.

About ISAS

Indian Summer Arts Society is a not-for-profit secular arts organization and registered charity. They present some of Vancouver’s most distinctive arts and culture events as part of the annual Indian Summer Festival, and ISF+ events are presented in collaboration with community and cultural partners. ISAS strives to be loving and fierce, with an audacious curatorial punch that dismantles walls, plays with ideas, and provokes necessary dialogue and debate. In doing this, ISAS believe in the transformative power of the arts and their ability to offer society’s most renewable resource: hope.

About Media Arts Symposium

Roots of Resilience is the 16th edition of Surrey Art Gallery’s annual media arts symposium. While the first decade of the symposium focused on sound art, aural experience, and audio cultures, recent symposia have examined international video poetry, dance, the Covid-19 pandemic, and new digital arts practices.