A brand new a poetry collection reflecting on Sikh and Punjabi experiences of discrimination spanning from the 1984 Sikh genocide to modern day Canada..
 
Within the Sikh community, there is a stigma against speaking about the 1984 genocide and the trauma our people suffered. This is a result of decades of government propaganda that taught Sikhs to stay silent in fear of being jailed - or worse, killed.
 
With the generations that lived through it growing older, it’s important that we document our history. More importantly, we need to document our emotions in regards to our experiences. These emotions are best captured in poem format. The poems serve to convey the collective Sikh and Punjabi journey.
 
Early Reviews:
"In a book speaking across generations, Aulakh writes of betrayal, brutality and beginnings anew, describing the mindset of a Panth annihilated and rebuilt. After a jarring journey back to the streets of Punjab in 1984, the reader is transported through the experiences of survivors, victims and martyrs. Tales of escape follow, alongside the heartache and romance from fresh journeys overseas. But this is more than a collection about genocide. Wisdom lies within on themes that dog the daily lives of Sikhs today; poverty and drug addiction, years of oppression, our reluctant journey towards ownership of modern history and, my personal favourite, misogyny in a community of equals. You are challenged to face up to history’s consequences as you grapple with those very issues in reality. With this, Aulakh heralds a message of hope; the generations to follow will speak freely. In the author’s own words: you can’t kill fighting spirits." - Bhajneek Kaur, Author
 
"I was lucky enough to be given the chance to read this beautiful book of poetry ahead of its publication- and what can I say? There are truly no words (but I will try anyway) to capture the experience that was reading this book. Ghuntas sets out in the foreword the aim of breaking the silence that inter-generational trauma can propagate, and mirrors this aim in the way the book is organised. In its three sections, it takes the reader on a journey on a timeline of trauma across generations, beginning with the events of 1984 up until present day Canada. The structure of this book encourages us as readers to not view any of these events in isolation, but rather see how they can shape the course of a community’s collective experience. Each of the three sections is haunting in its ability to flick between different perspectives, paint vastly differnet worlds with the same level of exacting and precise detail, and generate more questions and thoughts in the reader’s head. My particular favourite is in the first section of the book, when the poet wanders in to an art shop and sees blank canvases on the walls next to ones depicting martyrs of the 1984 movement, the clerk tells them they were donated by a mother, ‘whose sons had put aside their paintbrushes to die.’ This poetry manages the seemingly impossible task of tackling vast swathes of time but distilling so precisely and purely, the experiences of thousands of Sikhs, addressing head on political issues, gender dynamics in our community and issues around language erosion in the diaspora. An absolute must-read which will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page." - Harmanjit Kaur Sidhu, Author
 
Publication Date | 1st November 2023    
Format Paperback | 94 pages    
Dimensions | 129 x 198mm
Script | English    
Genre | Poetry    
ISBN13 | 9781739740160