Organizers are honouring Cambodian Genocide survivors through culture and reflection
A new Cambodian Cultural Centre is planting its roots in Richmond, virtually for now, to bridge intergenerational gaps and revive Khmer traditions.
Peter Heang recently co-founded the Cambodian Cultural Centre with the help of his sister Sophie Heang, a Richmond resident, and a few other team members.
The goal of the non-profit is to preserve and promote Cambodian (Khmer) heritage and culture, according to the sibling duo.
Since the cultural centre is still new, it’s operating online until it finds a permanent location.
The Heang siblings are children of refugees who were impacted by the Cambodian Genocide that resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to two million Khmer people between 1975 and 1979.
This year marks the 50th anniversary since the fall of Phnom Penh, and it’s an important time for many people who are now in their 60s or 70s, explained Peter.
“I would say it’s important in the sense that a lot of the survivors and the people who were directly impacted are getting older, and there was a period where the younger generation had to just kind of survive,” he said.
“It’s time for the younger generation to learn the stories, and for the older generation to pass on these stories to their children so we can remember the past and also celebrate the present.”
To commemorate this, an inauguration event titled Roots of Compassion will take place on Saturday, July 5 at the Richmond Cultural Centre, where there will be digital art, live poetry, traditional Cambodian music and dance and traditional Khmer food.
A Cambodian-Canadian artist from Montreal will be in town to share his story of what it was like during the genocide, and how he was spared.
French photojournalist Roland Neveu, who was in Cambodia in 1974 during the war, has also offered some of his iconic photos for the event.
“It’s an invitation to learn more about Cambodian arts and culture, because it’s essentially been non-existent in B.C. and we’re on a really important mission to revive Cambodian classical dance, which has been a fading art form in Western Canada,” explained Sophie.
Education, awareness and community connection are the key takeaways they are hoping community members leave the event with.
“It’s an opportunity to unite people of all different backgrounds to focus more on our commonalities,” said Sophie.
“There is also an intergenerational connection aspect for the second generation to hear untold stories that they’re curious about learning from their parents.”
Peter added that there is a shared human connection in understanding war, grief and pain, and it is “really about understanding resilience.”
“There is a lot of unspoken trauma within our community… so we want to work together as a community to just have conversations and sometimes talk about difficult things,” he said.
The “wounds of war” have a trickling effect on the children of parents or grandparents who want to move forward in life, explained the siblings.
There isn’t necessarily time to talk about traumatic events when refugees move to a different country, Peter said.
“We look at this as an opportunity, a movement, as part of our initiative to preserve Cambodian culture and heritage in a safe and welcoming space,” he added.
The event on Sunday, July 5 is a ticketed event held between noon and 3 p.m.
However, as of Tuesday, June 24, the event on Eventbrite shows tickets were sold out.
To learn more about the Cambodian Cultural Centre, visit their website.
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