Desmond Tutu was a black, South African, Christian male but in a world where colour, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, sexuality and gender matter, he transcended all of that to be a…
For three months Layla Gonaduwa, a self taught, interdisciplinary artist, travelled around Sri Lanka to explore the concept of memory, home and migration. She explored symbiotic and discordant relationships between within communities…
It proves a firm reminder of the magnitude of loss and it is the realisation behind the creation of a digital space of memorialisation and remembrance for those Sri Lanka has lost…
The first five months of 2009 brought immense and unprecedented pain to the people of northern Sri Lanka, and to their many Tamil relatives outside the country who looked on and received…
Animals continue to crack in Sri Lanka, Richard. Lions don’t exist in the natural state, nor tigers roam through the brush. Elephants, yes, are still around, mostly straggly survivors in an orphanage…
“An alleged former combatant who was “rehabilitated”. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the armed group that the Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa government claim they defeated in May 2009.…
We will not forget Mullivaikkal, the shot, the strafed, the scissored, and the cluster-bombed. We will not forget holes in roofs, holes in water tanks, holes in heads. We will not…
Maaveerar Naal, otherwise known as Heroes day, is celebrated on November 27 to remember those who lost their lives fighting for the LTTE. While this day has come to be a highly…
It is increasingly evident that the lasting impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic will not be merely health related. In the early stages of government efforts to contain the virus and over the…
Ten years ago, activist and contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara created an exhibition called The Vigil and Other Works, dedicated to remembering the disappeared and to the families who are forced to live…
Today is the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism. In Sri Lanka, the word terrorism embodies an experience that stretches over 30 years, the most recent being the…
For the past 22 years, activist and renowned contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara has been memorialising the horrific period of July 1983 through paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. This year, undeterred by the…
In July 1995 the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, Jaffna, was filled with displaced Tamils seeking refuge and safety from the war. People in Navaly, including members of the…
Comrade Saman Wagaarachchi had joined the JVP in early 1977 while we were still being held incarcerated for our role in the April 1971 uprising. Later I heard that he had supported…
