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> Traditions
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My family's story of settlement
to Canada
By tha REAL of Little
Empire
The earliest steps on the extensive
and prolonged journey we witnessed in coming to Canada were initiated
in 1980, rooting back to the Northern Sri Lankan capital of Jaffna.
Shortly after my birth in 1980, my father departed from Jaffna
to embark on his excursion to Germany, which would serve as the
preliminary stage of our eventual settlement in Canada. Some
time after his departure to Germany, my mother and I ensued on
our travel to Canada by making use of a transit flight via the
United Kingdom. Nevertheless, upon arriving to the United Kingdom,
we were prohibited to progress on our voyage to Canada due to
the U.K. authorities' conviction that my mother, who was pregnant
at the time with my brother, would have her pregnancy come to
term shortly. As a result, my mother and I arrived back in Sri
Lanka once again; however, this proved to be only a minor impediment
on our pathway to Canada. To continue, my father proceeded for
Canada, and in due course, my mother, brother, and I joined him
in 1985.
However, although we found
ourselves in Canada, our journey was far from over. My parents
encountered a multitude of obstacles as they exerted and toiled
tremendously hard in an unfamiliar surrounding; learning English,
having to move from Ottawa to Toronto, as well as engaging in
multiple various jobs until they were employed within a setting
that they were comfortable with. All these struggles were endured
as a means to enable them to advance forward in life, step by
step, ensuring a secure life for the four of us. The arduous
and painstaking hardships associated with relocating to an unfamiliar
environment, and attempting to nurture your family in such an
atmosphere, is a story that has been told in Canada time and
time again, as we live in a multicultural society with individuals
residing here from every ethnicity imaginable. However, the undeniable
acceptance of minorities found in Canada is what had made it
indisputably into our true home; having travelled to multiple
countries across the world, I can unquestionably state that the
amiability and the diversity found within this country is unparalleled
in the world.
Interest in hip-hop
My innate interest in hip-hop
stems from the profound and deep-rooted connection that I share
with what this genre embodies, and the intense correlation that
it shares with the reality of the world we dwell within. Every
hip-hop song connotes a story and alludes to a message, one that
has the ability to interconnect a society and their continuous
battles, hindrances, and tribulations that they must undergo
throughout the course of their life. This inspirational insinuation
is what ignited my perpetual relationship with the hip-hop genre,
as it brought solace to the persistent hardships I endured as
an immigrant working through the evolutionary process of the
recognition of diversity in North America, as at that time, the
Multicultural Act had only been recently passed. Also, hip-hop
embraces the desolate minority population, whether the minority
is based on ethnic heritage, spiritual faith or a core set of
beliefs. As such, this form of artistic expression explicitly
revealed to me the vitality of embracing myself as a part of
a unique minority population, and the dire necessity of not forsaking
my legacy, faith, and principles. As a voice of opposition to
human subjugation and injustice, hip-hop is reflective of the
journey that my life has taken in the past, to the point of where
I stand today, and of the path that I will continue to tread
in the future despite any impediments that may surface.
Another element which sparked
my enthrallment of hip-hop is the identifiable relationship that
it shares with Tamil music. To explain, when listening to any
hip-hop song, one can identify the use of percussion instruments
that are embedded within the melody. Similarly, one can undoubtedly
recognize the utilization of such percussion instruments incorporated
within Tamil music as well. As such, one can ultimately deduce
a parallel and analogous correlation between the two unique genres
of music. Further, ancient Tamil music significantly implements
cadenced rhythms, beats and tempos, which, upon listening to,
initiates the masses to discover a liberating and transcendental
state. Likewise, in listening to the hip-hop genre, I became
cognizant of the parallel ability that hip-hop shares with Tamil
music in provoking its listeners to enter into a placid state
of mind. This connection between the two types of music consequently
triggered and forged for me an instantaneous and infinite connection
with the artistic expression of hip-hop, which encompasses within
it the ability to define myself artistically; as hip-hop moves
and progresses with times and humanity, so do I, as an artist
and individual.
What inspires our musical
art
The passions of our musical art are primarily fueled by the unjust
atrocities being forced upon the countless number of innocent
civilians of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, which is given
greater impetus as a result of the ceaseless and perpetual bond
that we share with our heritage in Sri Lanka. Sadly, what once
was considered to be a paradise has now been darkened with the
bloodshed of a multitude of innocent civilians due to the raging
war that has distressingly clutched Sri Lanka; the war appears
to have a genocidal stimulus, and is fueled by the ideology of
nationalism and is given greater momentum by means of religious
values. By and large, the State Officials, Buddhist monks, as
well as both the police and various security forces knowingly
refuse to acknowledge the severity of the carnage, and in some
instances, have actively taken part in the atrocities that sweep
forebodingly throughout the country.
Further, the government officials
exert a tremendous amount of effort to deviate the world's attention
from the unwarrantable plight that they encourage upon the Tamil
community by utilizing strategic propaganda. As the war continues
to induce excruciating suffering and a terrifyingly vast number
of deaths, the Tamils in Sri Lanka are continually dying at an
alarmingly rapid rate. As the war ensues, inducing a colossal
polarizing effect on the Sri Lankan society by amplifying the
gap between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, there continues
to be no justification to the perpetration of the vehement acts
that befall on the innocent dwellers of Sri Lanka. The Tamil
community, especially those that are dispersed outside of Sri
Lanka, are not adequately informing the rest of the world of
the persisting tragedy and the devastating state of toil being
faced by those still entrapped within the barriers of war in
Sri Lanka.
Through our musical art, we
have found a remarkably creative, informative, effectual and
entertaining method of not only presenting to the surrounding
masses what we truly represent as a community, but as well, the
dire importance of eliminating this crime against humanity and
eradicating the horrors of war, thereby liberating the multitude
of Tamil civilians from unjustified agony, torment, and death.
The uphill battle that we face is attributable to the misleading
stereotypes that continue to be infused within the media by the
government of Sri Lanka. Therefore, the necessity to revolutionize
these disingenuous conceptions and provide support in ending
the unmerited violations against our community serve as a far
greater inspiration than the money and fame that solely, as well
as sadly, inspire and motivate many.
Struggles and challenges
in the industry
Any endeavour that is undertaken
encompasses within it a certain degree of challenge, which, although
serves as a temporary obstacle, can be utilized as an implicit
stimulus to advance forward as well. As relatively new artists,
we are on a path in which we must build everything starting from
the bottom tier, and from that foundational point, escalate our
way up; needless to say, however, no path comes without its hurdles.
Initially, there was resistance in the conviction of Tamils possessing
the ability to successfully rap. Overcoming this opposition and
allowing the Tamil community to recognize that those individuals
of Tamil heritage can indeed skillfully rap was a huge step forward
on this path, symbolizing a milestone of colossal value to us.
Therefore, this breakthrough that we spearheaded in the Canadian
Tamil community, which has the largest Tamil Diaspora from Sri
Lanka of approximately 300,000 individuals, was of monumental
significance in establishing a core audience for our music.
To continue, notable artists
that are accessible in Toronto, and who are recognized within
the hip-hop industry, have expressed their confidence in us as
artists, as well as their conviction that the artistic music
that we produce, and the messages that we allude to within them,
are of substantial validity. It is encouraging to us as new artists,
that often times these veterans in the music industry give us
their consent to work collaboratively alongside with us in the
future. Thus, the fact that our music is genuine in the eyes
of our supporters, as well as our new listeners, facilitates
our continuous desire to overcome perhaps our most significant
hurdle: to combat the false labels that brand the Tamil community
as a result of the misleading media presented by the government
of Sri Lanka.
As such, by utilizing the artistic
expression of music and vocals, we aspire to transfigure the
fabricated perceptions of Tamils, and further, to voice to the
world the inexcusable desecration of our community that presently
persists in Sri Lanka. The distressing struggles that our community
has endured in the past, and continues to face presently, has
fueled our determination to penetrate through the strongholds
of this industry by way of a genre whose foundations are built
on being the voice of oppression. As aforementioned, this path
that we tread does incorporate many challenges and struggles,
however, all these hindrances serve as a method for us to strengthen
ourselves intrinsically and define ourselves as artists as we
aspire to build a niche for ourselves in the upper tier of the
music industry.
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