Key Points
- Siva Singh was an early 20th century Benalla resident, Sikh community leader and civil rights campaigner
- Mr Singh’s story is central to the ‘Bush Diwan’ exhibition currently showing in regional Victoria
- ‘Stories of migration and community formation are laden with struggles and triumphs,’ says exhibition co-curator Amrit Gill
An exhibition in regional Victoria shines a light on little-known moments in Australian migrant history and brings together artists from the fastest-growing South Asian communities in the country.
Called Bush Diwan, the exhibition is currently on display at Benalla Art Gallery, which is located just over 200 kilometres northeast of Melbourne.
The setting of Benalla is fitting, as it was once the home of Siva Singh, whose story of struggle and triumph is symbolic of the migrant experience.
"Siva Singh was a Punjabi Sikh migrant who came to Benalla, Victoria, in the 1890s and he was someone who brought together a gathering of Sikhs on his property in 1920 for the diwan, the first full Australian reading of the 'Akhand Path’ - a prayer ceremony for Sikhs,” says Amrit Gill, the co-curator of the exhibition.
Ms Gill explains that the Punjabi word 'diwan' refers to a gathering that plays a role in connecting people and place.
Glimpses from the launch of the exhibition. Credit: Supplied by Ms Gill.
"By 1915, he also owned 320 acres in the regional town," she says.
According to Ms Gill, it is very significant for communities to understand their roots when they have come from afar to restart their lives in a new place.
“We quite often think of the first of our (Sikh) community happening in northern NSW, but this man (Siva Singh) was there, creating ripples in northeast Victoria in the early 20th century.”
Siva Singh and the White Australia policy
Mr Singh is also remarkable for his personal stance against the White Australia policy after he was struck off the electoral roll, despite having voted three times previously.
The White Australia policy was a series of acts in place for seven decades after 1901 with the goal of achieving and maintaining a white, British national character.
Mr Singh filed a lawsuit with the Australian High Court and, although his case was initially dismissed, he regained his right to vote after a decade of legal battles in 1925.
"He fought on the fact that as a local businessperson, resident and citizen, he paid tax. He was a landowner, and therefore he had a right to vote,” Ms Gill says.
"But in taking up this challenge, and in fighting all the way to the High Court, he became this justice campaigner in challenging what was very racist law," she says.
As Sikhs in Australia, we relate really strongly with a story like that about seeking justice and standing up for rights even if they're not our own.Amrit Gill, CEO, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
The idea behind Bush Diwan
Ms Gill is one of the few leaders in the art industry from a South Asian background. She is the CEO and artistic director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a Sydney-based art organisation that has been representing and supporting South Asian Australian artists for 25 years.
She says Bush Diwan explores a pivotal moment in Sikh history but also taps into universal themes.
Amardeep Shergill (2nd from left, Amrit Gill (c) and Reina Takeuchi (co-curator of the exhibition) with Shepparton Gurudwara committee members.
"This exhibition is an example of how many wonderful South Asian artists we have working in Australia, and the six artists exhibiting in this project explore their family traditions, stories, ideas and objects through their work to connect with their Australian lives," Ms Gill adds.
She says while planning the exhibition Eric Nash, the Benalla Art Gallery director, became intrigued by the story of Benalla local Mr Singh: hawker, farmer and social reformer.
The exhibition explores how migrant communities form and reform identity in their adopted homes through ceremonial and cultural practices, as well as deal with the racism and erasure that comes with assimilation.
"As an opportunity to actually showcase the diversity of the local community, we partnered with the National Art Gallery to bring this exhibition together."
Aussie Phulkari. Credit: Supplied by Ms Shergill.
'Aussie Phulkari'
Amardeep Shergill is one of the Punjabi artists showcased in the exhibition.
The Canberra-based artist’s photomontage and sculptural works often explore themes of familial and cultural connections, identity and migration, including the complexities of belonging to multiple spatial environments.
She was highly commended at the Contemporary Art Awards in 2018 for her photomontage artwork 'Aussie clouds in Tokyo', while her sculptural work 'Phulkari' was a finalist in the Wangaratta Textile Award and Gippsland Sculpture Prize in 2019.
For Bush Diwan Ms Shergill is showing a newly commissioned piece, 'Aussie Phulkari', which references phulkari, the folk embroidery of Punjab, India.
"This is the biggest artwork I have made in perforated steel,” she tells SBS Punjabi.
“The steel was roughly 2.5m x 1.2m [referencing the traditional length of a phulkari which usually was 2.5m x 1.5m]. The metal was then folded to reference draped fabric of phulkari. The colours used in the work are inspired by Australian wattle trees and Indian canola fields," Ms Shergill adds.
Calling the exhibition “very special”, she says it was a pleasure to capture Siva Singh's story through her work.
"Our community weekend will be a weekend of performances and workshops and gathering on the 15 and 16 October in Benalla,” says, adding that the exhibition will tour around Australia over the next couple of years.
