The National Portrait Gallery, along with Wolverhampton Arts and Culture, photographer Anand Chhabra and poet Laureate Kuli Kohli, have put together a captivating collection delving into the lives of Punjabi residents from Wolverhampton who have left a lasting imprint on their city. Through a dynamic collaboration with dedicated Citizen Researchers, remarkable tales to life using a blend of archival resources, oral histories, poetic expressions, and captivating photography have been put together for the exhibition.
Citizen researchers themselves hail from the city, spanning different generations, backgrounds, and experiences. These individuals brought their personal narratives into their research, illuminating the captivating stories of the people and pivotal moments that have moulded the vibrant Punjabi community in Wolverhampton.
Within this treasure trove of local narratives, several accounts of remarkable courage stand out. Tarsem Singh Sandhu, for instance, is a resolute bus driver who put his foot down and fought for his right to wear a turban on duty.
Cllr Bishan Dass Bains, the first South Asian Mayor of Wolverhampton, through his tireless campaigns for equality and human rights, has brought about substantial improvements in the lives of countless individuals who were victims of discrimination.
Countless Punjabi women who have made significant contributions within the confines of their homes and workplaces, often without receiving the recognition they deserve, have shaped the very fabric of the community, serving as a testament to their strength and resilience.
These stories of courage, equality and contributions paint a vivid portrait of the Punjabi community in Wolverhampton, showcasing the indomitable spirit that binds them together.
Kuli Kohli on how the exhibition preserves the untold stories of the community for the future generations
According to Kuli Kohli, creative writer, poet and retired council worker, the main objective of the “Punjabi Migration Experience” is to archive untold stories and make them available for future generations to see. “As a close-knit community that had many untold stories, we tried to explore them from the perspectives of the Punjabi citizens of Wolverhampton.”
Talking about the most impactful aspects of the exhibition, she shares that, “we found diverse stories of activism and a sense of community which demonstrated how people worked together which fed into the national influences about UK citizenship.”
“One of my favourite stories is about the of courage and integrity of bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu, who fought for two years for the right to wear his turban to work. This is close to my heart because my father had a turban and was a bus driver at that time.”
For Kuli, Wolverhampton is her home and she is proud of the city that has provided her with a safe and happy place to live. She feels that “being a poet Laureate of the city has brought some excellent experiences and opportunities that have made my confidence soar.”
If you would like to know more about Kuli's life as a writer please visit her website, www.kulikohli.co.uk. For a copy of her debut poetry pamphlet Patchwork and full poetry collection A Wonder Woman, please contact her piblisher, Offa's Press shop online: http://offaspress.co.uk/shop/
“Art is the best way to communicate the truth”- Anand Chhabra
Anand Chhabra, founder, director and the Chair at Black Country Visual Arts and a photographer with over 20 years of experience worked on the exhibition to train citizen volunteers with archiving and interviewing stories for the project. He also created a number of portraits of the participants for the project.
Explaining the project further, Anand said, “The exhibition conveys the individual stories of arrival of Punjabis ‘en masse’ between the 1960s-1980s.”
The most impactful parts of the exhibition, according to him, are the interactive parts and how visitors can engage and write about their own experiences. “People can hear first-hand, through a special audio system, individual experiences of first and second-generation migrants arriving and living in the city as migrants.”
Apart from the reiterating the inspiring stories of Tarsem Singh Sandhu and Cllr Bishan Dass Bains, Anand talks about the struggles of community nurse Harjinder Kaur who strived to educate the community and became the first community nurse of Asian description at the main hospital.
“It was all particularly hard for them as they suffered opposition to keep their identity as Indians and took on jobs that the indigenous community of British people felt wasn’t meant for them”, he added.
Anand believes in the saying that ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ and that art is the best way to communicate the truth. When people hear first-hand stories and see the participant portraits, it brings the very essence of their lives to audiences which they can then experience and appreciate.
“To create these kinds of projects that represents the community in a public gallery, that they can celebrate and tell their friends about, is an important part of what creating art should be about.”
Talking about the Apna Heritage Archive which Anand help curate, he expresses that a city with as large a population of Punjabis as in Wolverhampton (largest outside of London), there is little to no immigrant history curated in local archives and galleries. “It is important for me as an artist to showcase their stories. This photographic archive readdresses the fact no archives were held in the local collections in Wolverhampton.”
The exhibition leverages a wealth of archive material sourced from Wolverhampton's renowned repositories, including the esteemed Express and Star and Apna Heritage Archive, this project gains a solid foundation. The exhibition is now available at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery for viewing.
