The Reach Gallery Museum and the Sikh Heritage Museum are teaming up to offer a cultural history tour this summer.
The public tour will be offered Tuesday, July 22 at 11 a.m. and Thursday, Aug. 14 at 11 a.m. at the Sikh Heritage Museum, 33089 South Fraser Way. The cost is $10.
The Reach collections manager Kris Foulds and Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, coordinator of the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies, will lead the tour.
Participants will see the exhibit “Challenge and Denial: Komagata Maru 100 Years Later, 1914 – 2014” and learn more about Abbotsford’s Gur Sikh Temple (the city’s only national heritage site) and Sikh religion and culture.
The tour also includes a visit to the newer Khalsa Diwan Society Sikh temple for langar, the communal vegetarian meal that affirms the equality of all who partake in it.
These tours are in recognition of the passing of 100 years since 355 passengers of the Komagata Maru were denied entry into Canada.
The tours also connect to The Reach’s summer history exhibition, Boat People, which examines the stories of other Abbotsford immigrants who made their way to Canada via an ocean voyage.
Also showing at the Sikh Heritage Museum is an exhibition of works by local artist Jarnail Singh, whose paintings depict the Komagata Maru tragedy.
For more information on the tour, contact kfoulds@thereach.ca. To register for the July 22 tour, visit http://tinyurl.com/n7nxxq3.
To register for the Aug. 14 tour, visit http://tinyurl.com/ngzmmhs.