Reflection on my DSC Experience

My exchange experience in Canada has been very positive and I gained many new insights to North American culture as well as how my own background compares to that. Academically as well as personally I learned much, and much of it I think I will be able to apply in future. The study of diaspora was not one of my main focuses throughout my university years and the concept as such was never all that clear to me. After having studied diaspora in a country with many different diasporas and in a program in which the courses seemed very interconnected the study of diaspora theory made a lot more sense and was much more interesting than I had anticipated. 

                I had previously only once been to Canada and then only for a short trip to Vancouver so I did not exactly know what to expect.  Abbotsford is not exactly a metropolis and at first it seems rather dull to live there. However, after a while and after meeting a lot of people there was really never a dull moment. The Canadians I met were are really friendly and it did not seem superficial, their friendliness seemed sincere. Compared to Germany this is quite different since here friendliness can be a rarity at times or unnoticeable if one is not used to the dry German friendliness. I also found most Canadians really helpful in all kinds of situations, which was lucky for us when we had two flat tires and no cell phone reception in the middle of the mountains. 

                I knew before-hand that Canada is a very multicultural country that takes pride in having many different people from different parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds and different religions. But not until actually being in Canada for some time and especially because of the courses I took did I begin to understand what it actually means to be a multicultural country. Going to Canada and seeing what issues and problems they have to deal with to ensure the happiness of so many different people taught me a lot about the issues and problems Germany faces with integrating the many different cultures and peoples.

The program as such taught me much about myself as well. By participating in a program mainly focused on cultural studies, my interest in and passion for Literature really has been reinforced. However, learning about different cultures especially in the connection with religion has also shown me that I keep coming back to the influences of religion within literature. The interest in the contextual understanding of literature in combination with religion was and remains my main interests in my academic life. 

                Throughout the courses here I discovered academic skills that I think will be rather useful considering my wish to have a career within the academics. Because I had to apply skills to different field of study than I usually do I became much more aware of them. I am now more aware of that I have an attitude of inquiry, a certain inquisitiveness and critical questioning of the things that surround me. I have also been able to further develop my rhetorical skills and interpretational skills. 

                I also feel as though my framework of reference has been broadened. For most of the past five years I have mainly focused on studying literature from a particular area and a particular period, always specializing more and more on a smaller area. Being encouraged to take quite different kinds of courses here has allowed me to broaden my horizon when it comes to possible fields of study. 

                Often times people who have never been to Canada or the USA ask how it is different and want to know specific things. I think it is really difficult to pinpoint specific details, since Canada and Germany do have many similarities and are both so called Western countries. However, there are differences and once they have been noticed they seem so obvious. One of the differences I have noticed is that sports and the collective watching of sports has a much bigger importance in Canada. People love to go to bars that show ice hockey, basketball or even soccer at times. It is an event that you go to with many friends, you dress up in the teams jersey and have a couple of beers and some food. Of course this is also done in Germany and other places but I always felt as though much more people do this in Canada, even the girls come out to watch the sports if even to just hang out with friends. 

                Although activities were rather limited at times, especially in Abbotsford, people would always be doing something. Many activities were organized by the university or by the residence and it was always a lot of fun to attend those events. The University of the Fraser Valley is much smaller than the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, but people seemed a lot more connected to the idea of belonging to a particular university. Students would identify a lot more with their university than what I am used to from Germany. A certain sense of school spirit was noticeable and created a much more unifying experience than what I have known so far. Even the residence seemed much more eager to create a certain feeling of home and belonging than what I have noticed in Germany. Here if you live in residence, which is not the most common thing to begin with, you usually simply live there. In Baker House we often even left the doors open so as to be able to talk to people walking by. Also I think I never ate my dinner alone but people would always come over and we would eat together or I would go to somebody else’s room. So much more a feeling of community was created based on living in the same residence and going to the same university. 

                Another difference was that a ‘historic site’ would be a place a little more than a hundred years old, like the Gurdwara that was finished in 1911. In Germany a historic site can sometimes even be from BC such as the site of the Varusschlacht or Haitabu. 

                I was also amazed at the diversity of religion I found in Canada. The Fraser Valley is known as the Canadian Bible Belt and I was not disappointed. In comparison to a city like Münster for example, that mainly has catholic churches, protestant churches, a synagogue and some mosques, Abbotsford alone housed four Gurdwaras, catholic churches, protestant churches, various shia islam prayer houses, 7^th day Adventists, Mormons, Menonites, First Nations reservoirs, and probably all kind of Christian sub group there is. At times it seemed like every second house had a sign in front of it proclaiming it to be some different kind of religious place of worship. 

                By being ‘displaced’ myself during my stay in Canada I feel as though I was much better able to at least partially understand what it means to be part of a diaspora. Being friends with Canadians as well as many international students, by talking to them and seeing them every day, has taught me to understand what it means to feel alienated from the dominant culture, what the longing for home means but also the ambivalent feeling of wanting to assimilate and belong but still retain what one has learned at home and what one grew up with. My time in Canada has introduced me to many new and different cultures that I doubt I would have met with here in Germany. Although we all came from different parts of the globe I feel like we all were part of our own little global community within Baker House and I think that the friendly climate towards other cultures that is present in Canada was an important factor that helped enable so many different people to meet and be friends.

A local memorial site in Abbotsford

The local memorial site I visited in Abbotsford was the historical Gur Sikh Temple. The first Sikh pioneers in Abbotsford started buliding it in 1907 and it was finished and inaugurated in 1911, thus celebrating it's 100th birthday this year. It is the only Sikh temple outside of India that is protected as a historical monument. Other privileges were granted to the temple as well when it became an official historic site acknowledged by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Usually the plaque installed at Canadian historic sites is according to the bilinguality of the country in English and French. The temple, however, was granted the right to add a third language on the plaque, Punjabi (see picture).

The temple as such had to be restored into its original shape since some buildings had been added over time. The way it looks today is just what it looked like 100 years ago.

This Gurdwara too has two levels, with the Guru Granth Sahib on the upper level and the former Langar Hall on the lower level. The temple is still open for visitors and everyone who is able of reading the scriptures and wishes to do so can come to the temple and read the Guru Granth Sahib.

What is also memorialized on the temple grounds are the first Sikh soldiers who came to Canada on behalf of the coronation celebrations for Edward VII in 1901. There are two Sikh riders outside the temple showing just exactly how the first Sikhs looked like that most Canadians saw.

The statues are wearing the traditional uniform the Sikh soldiers wore when still employed by the British Crown.

The gurdwara has always been a central point for the Sikh community in Abbotsford. Ever since it was built by the members of the community it has been a place to assemble, pray and meet other members of the community. The Nishan Sahib in front of the old gurdwara has its own story and significance for the community as such. It is said that early on when people tried to cross the border from the USA to Canada the Guru in the temple would turn off or on the light on top of the Nishan Sahib. If the light was off it was not safe to cross the border because it was being patrolled, if the light was on then it was safe to cross. Since the gurdwara is on a hill, the light could be seen all the way on the American side of the border.

The gurdwara remains until the day today a major symbol for the Sikh diaspora in Abbotsford. The Gur Sikh Temple which a historic monument today is a landmark telling the history of the Sikhs in Abbotsford and their strong sense of community and the forming of the diaspora that remains alive even today.

The Sikh Gurdwara in Abbotsford - Visiting a local site of worship

The Fraser Valley in Canada is also known as the Canadian bible belt. Naturally many local sites of worship could be visited, however the most prominent and interesting one to me was the local Sikh temple. Altogether Abbotsford houses four gurdwaras, when counting the historical Gur Sikh Temple as a seperate one. The Gurdwara I visited was the one on the picture in this entry. It is the Gurdwara on South Fraser way, directly opposite the historical Gur Sikh Temple.

Outside the temple is a high flag pole the Nishan Sahib. It is dressed in bright orange cloth and bound up with a long strap of fabric (see picture). On top is an orange flag carrying the Sikh symbol. The flag pole will be taken down once a year on Vaisakhi, the Sikh new year usually on April 13th which celebrates the forming of the Khalsa in 1699 by the 10th Guru Gobind Singh. The cloth will then be removed and replaced by a new one as will the flag if it is torn and needs replacing. 

Walking up the broad stairs to the main prayer hall I always got a sense of peace and calm. Entering the prayer hall, which was completely covered in blue carpet, and after having removed my shoes and covered my head I would walk up to the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book containing the Gurus' writings, which was laid out on the big central alter. Comparing this prayer hall to a traditional catholic church, as we have many of them in Münster, it was much more colorful and comforting. The alter is decorated with colorful lights and brigth colored cloth as well as elaborate gold decorations.

The rest of the hall was kept rather plain. There are various citations from the Guru Granth Sahib along the walls, other than that two big screens hang from the ceiling to transmit Sunday prayer and sometimes even offer English subtitles. The main floor is divided by the middle aisle so that the women will sit on the left and the men on the right. There are no chairs or benches in the prayer hall since everyone would sit on the floor. The arrangement of seating is not important, one should just never turn their back toward the Guru Granth Sahib.

As is traditional in a Sikh Temple a Langar Hall is in the same building as the prayer hall, often located in under the main prayer hall so that there will be nothing above the Guru Granth Sahib. In that hall people would sit together, drink Chai, eat the food provided by the temple and talk about politics and what is going on in the community. This part of the temple I found to be of huge significance for the community. This would be where, usually the men, would meet and discuss everything that has happened. It was a way to exchange news from within the community but also from home. This was where the strong sense of community within the South Asian diaspora was always most apparent to me.

Interview with my classmate on his religious beliefs

Within diaspora studies the question of religion and in what way it is exercised and practiced has taken on some importance. Questions that are central to this issue are in what way does the next generation experience a religion which is not the religion of the majority group within the new home country? how does religion influence their lives and how is their belief changed and influenced by the fact that they are part of a diasporic group?

The children of Sikh immigrants in the Fraser Valley are no different when it comes to that question and at one point in their life they have to ask themselves some of the above questions. I interviewed one of my classmates, born and raised in Canada who lives with his parents who immigrated to Canada in the late 70s. His parents are practising Sikhs who go to the Gurdwara every Sunday and on special occasions, he himself does not attend religious service regularly and does neither consider himself as being a Sikh or an atheist.

Some issues he addressed during the interview led back to the feeling of having a double identity. He said that growing up in a town in the Fraser Valley with the smallest amount of South Asian citizens he never really felt like he belonged to a different group let alone a diaspora. Only upon growing older and understanding the dynamics of racism, whiteness and non whiteness, did he feel as though he did belong to an ethnically different group. However, growing up he never really felt connected to or the need to attend service at the Gurdwara.

He claims himself that his non practicing of Sikhism is not connected to the fact that he grew up in Canada. Upon asked whether he would think that he would have been more religious growing up in India, he states that he might have been practicing it more but not believing in it more. He thinks that the decision on how religious one is is not based upon the outer circumstances such as the importance of a particular religion within a certain society, but rather something that comes from within each person individually.

When contrasting his own pratctice of Sikhism with that of his parents he does see quite some differences. For his parents Sikhism continues to play a central role in theirs lives, which connects them to other Sikhs and back to the homeland as well. For him personally Sikhism in not part of his life, but it is not a non-part either. He said that getting a little older now he realizes more and more how much of his identity is actually influenced by his parents being Sikhs. Growing up he would always be surrounded by the picture of the two main Gurus and hear about important rituals or certain prayers that were performed to celebrate the birth of a new child or the death of someone in the family. Although he does not pratice Sikhism he knows the values and morals the religion tries to pass on and tries to live by them without actually practicing them.