Canada: Baloch Cultural Day

Baloch cultural event participants and speakers were from a Legislative member of Assembly and the founding Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University, a progressive Canadian community, to Kurd writer, Afghan professor and Simon Fraser University, Professor Dr. Haider Nizamani, a wide audience attended.

Baloch community of British Columbia and Baloch Community of Seattle together held a successful cultural event at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on Saturday March 31st 2012 with distingusihed speakers and display of Baloch arts the event had much to offer.

Hussain Baloch, a Simon Fraser University student took care of the stage with his opening statement. “My family made the big move to Canada when I was a very young little boy, and growing up here in Canada which is an obvious multicultural country, I think one of the most common questions that any Canadian gets asked on a daily basis is where your ethnic background is from? And being a Baloch, it was always a tricky question to answer, and the reason being was no one had heard of it, always left a confused look on people’s faces once they heard it. Who, what, and where are the Baloch people, well that’s what we are here to discover today.”

——————————————————————————–
Baloch cultural event participants and speakers were from a Legislative member of Assembly and the founding Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University, a progressive Canadian community, to Kurd writer, Afghan professor and Simon Fraser University, Professor Dr. Haider Nizamani, a wide audience attended. During the event Baloch culture was displayed through music, art, traditions, beautiful embroidery dresses, historical and beautiful landscapes of Balochistan. Canadian Students wore Balochi embroidery dresses to show on stage

Honorable Member of the Legislative Assembly, Sue Hammell representing Green Timbers Surrey, has done great work with Middle Eastern political parties was present on this afternoon. Honorable Sue Hammell reminded the audience Canada is country built from immigrants around the world. She explained her own parent’s decades ago moved for a better economic opportunity to Canada. Honorable Sue Hammell, took a keen interest about Baloch women’s embroidery works, Balochistan landscape and its historical places. Honorable Sue Hammell said during her next upcoming Legislative session in parliament she is going to talk about the Baloch people and their culture. Honorable Jinny Sims, Member of Parliament although despite not present at the event, sent her message,delivered by her constituency office staff member Nusrat Hussein. Honorable, Jinny Sims, a progressive Canadian politician, former president of the British Columbia teacher federation presented a Certificate of Recognition to the Baloch Community; Aziz Baloch recognized the honor for the Baloch Community of British Columbia Society and was deeply appreciative of honorable Jinny Sims message.

——————————————————————————–
A Message for the Baloch Community:

March 31st, 2012

It is an honor and a privilege for me to congratulate you on the inauguration of First Baloch Organization in Surrey, Canada. Community organizations are formed by dedicated people with great vision of serving the community. Community work requires hundreds of volunteer hours and by forming this organization you have displayed the desire of investing your time in the service of the community.

Canada is land of immigrants, and we celebrate our diversity. As Canadian we must continue to work together to ensure that Canada remains an inclusive society and we regain our place in the international arena by having a progressive foreign policy. I commit to you that I will continue to be strong advocate for our community and for Canada.

I would like to thank Mr. Aziz Baloch – and the entire executive board for inviting me. I am unable to attend because of the parliamentary duties, but you will be in my thoughts. I wish you all the best in the coming days.

Thank you,

Jinny Sims

Member of Parliament

Newton – North Delta

Dr. Derryl MacLean, founding Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures, and associate professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University, provided a very in depth and insightful talk covering topics of Baloch poetry and literature. A social historian of religion, trained at the Institute for the Advanced Study of History at Aligarh Muslim University and the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. It is exciting news for Baloch Community of British Columbia to know he is doing research about the Baloch Zikri. He made a presentation in the event in regards to Balochistan speaking of poets and historical moments that Baloch themselves might not have known.

Mr. Kiumarce Nikraftar, a member of the Iranian writers from British Columbia made a wonderful speech speaking with an analogy of Baloch and Kurd nation.

Executive Director of Simon Fraser Peace Valley; Shehzad Khan Nazer (Buzdar) and Ismail Rajput, as representatives of Pakistani progressive community both spoke in the event and gave their full support to the Baloch community. Their support was greatly appreciated and displayed the cooperation that can hopefully be duplicated on a much larger scale.

Aeyshia Baloch, as Board of Director of Baloch Community of British Columbia Society, shed light of on the role of Baloch women in society. She also presented Balochi crafts and jewelry that really showed Baloch culture first hand.

Persian artist, Reza Honari and his wife are making a great contribution to Balochi music. They lived in Balochistan and this family of artists have had their work aired on CBC and BBC Persian. His wife distributed their documentary which they made about Balochi music and arts to our distinguished guests at the event as support for the Baloch arts and culture.

Baloch Community representative Aziz Baloch thanked all of the distinguished guests and the wonderful audience for their participation of the cultural event and made a brief speech about Baloch culture and customs. It was a significant first step to greater things that can come.

Aziz Baloch

President,

Baloch Community of British Columbia Society

To observe the complete article and photos please visit the site:

http://balochhomeland.weebly.com/arts-article.html

http://balochhomeland.weebly.com/arts-article.html