Area Discourse

Area Discourse I: To Memorialise

The first event in the series, To Memorialise brought two projects into conversation, Cups of nun chai led by artist Alana Hunt with publisher, filmmaker and founder of Yaarbal Books, Sanjay Kak and; Remembering ‘89: Memorial and Archive led by activist Nilvala Vijayasiri and artist Jagath Dheerasekara, members of the Remembering ‘89 collective. 

Join the guest artists and activists as they discussed the projects and their interventions in keeping memory as a form of resistance, operating as archivists and allies within state sponsored systems of oppression and censorship.

Date: Saturday 20 June, 2-6:30pm

Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre, 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW

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About the projects: 

This event marks the 10th anniversary of the serialisation of Cups of nun chai in 86 editions of the newspaper Kashmir Reader from June 2016 - April 2017. Published as a book by Yaarbal Books in 2020, Cups of nun chai records the sharing of 118 cups of nun chai, and just as many conversations. Each cup formed a requiem for 118 people killed by the state amidst pro-freedom protests that shook the Kashmir valley during the summer of 2010. Like a storm in a tea cup, the work brews an archive of small moments that move against the normalisation of political violence.

Read this article Alana Hunt with Sanjay Kak: A conversation about Kashmir on Artlink to learn more. This article is available to readers without a subscription for a limited time in the lead-up to this event, thanks to the generosity of the artists and Artlink.

The Remembering ‘89: Memorial and Archive is dedicated to people who were killed or disappeared by the State during the 1987-1990 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led Uprising in the ‘South’ of Sri Lanka. As an independent initiative founded by a group of survivors of the 1987–1990 Uprising and their children, it seeks to preserve and enliven the memory of activists, supporters and sympathisers who were killed, disappeared, imprisoned, tortured, or persecuted during one of the most violent periods in Sri Lanka’s modern history.

Jashn-e-Azadi (How we celebrate freedom)

It’s 15th August, India’s Independence day, and the Indian flag goes up in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmir. But the empty streets and the sullen silence that greet India's claim on Kashmir spark off old questions about freedom – azadi – and the denial of freedom. In the aftermath of 18 years of an armed struggle, with 60,000 dead and nearly 7,000 missing, death and loss is everywhere.

Sometimes this loss is marked by the dozen's of ‘martyr's graveyards’ that dot the valley; sometimes in the process of being uncovered as we follow a group of men involved in a ‘survey of death’; sometimes expressed in the fractured minds of ordinary Kashmiris we encounter in the Psychiatric Ward of a city hospital. As Kashmiris begin to look within their ledger of loss, we slowly prise open the meanings of Kashmir's struggle for Azadi, freedom. Using a beguiling mix of verite footage, rare archival material, poetry and text, this a provocative look at Indian democracy in the 60th year of India's independence, and a reflection on power, resistance and “freedom’s terrible thirst”.

About the artists:

Alana Hunt is a non-Indigenous artist working across visual art, filmmaking, literature, social engagement, and illicit public interventions. Her practice is grounded in lived experience in Australia and South Asia and shaped by a long-term, forensic approach to research. She has worked with journalists, filmmakers, human rights defenders and lawyers, to create work that resonates within the communities it grows from, and the worlds beyond. 

Since 2009 Alana has worked in Kashmir examining the state’s violence and the need for self-determination. Cups of nun chai, a decade-long iterative memorial formed by conversations with 118 people across Australia, India and Kashmir, was serialised in 86 editions of a daily newspaper in Kashmir, and later became a book now entering its third reprint with Yaarbal Books. 

Sanjay Kak is an independent documentary filmmaker and writer whose recent work includes the films Red Ant Dream (2013) Jashn-e-Azadi (2007) and Words on Water (2002). He is the editor of the anthology Until My Freedom Has Come – The New Intifada in Kashmir and of the photobook, Witness – Kashmir 1986-2016, 9 Photographers which he published independently under the imprint of Yaarbal Books. At Yaarbal he has also edited and published the recent Cups of nun chai by Alana Hunt. 

Nilvala Vijayasiri works in the medical sector. She serves as the convener of the Remembering ’89 Collective. During Sri Lanka’s 1987–1990 Uprising, as a university student, she played a significant role in the Students for Human Rights, contributing to the documentation of human rights violations and in related advocacy efforts. 

Jagath Dheerasekara is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice draws on personal and collective memory, the legacies of colonisation, and the fragility of humanity’s principles. He lives and works in Gandangara Country in Western Sydney. 

Watch this space for more events in the series. Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date.

Cover artwork by Eddie Abd

PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

These projects are supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Neilson Foundation.

This projects have been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Utp is supported by venue partner City of Canterbury Bankstown.