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Local Tamils, students and academics attended a UCLA Law School event marking Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day on May 18. The event, titled “Rethinking the Struggle and Collective Memory of the Tamil Genocide,” featured remembrance, education and discussion.
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The event featured an exhibition of items from the South Asia Conflict Heritage Archive, which is usually kept at Stanford University. Among them were poignant remains collected from Mullivaikkal beach in the aftermath of May 18. There were also burnt photo albums, kerosene lamps and cooking utensils used by displaced people in the final weeks of the war. There were also copies of past editions of The Tamil Times and The Tamil Guardian. In addition to these, the exhibition also included photographs, infographics and posters that tell the story of the struggle and its key stages.
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Organizers said they hoped participants would learn from the sacrifices of past struggles and develop new strategies for resistance. In an increasingly common practice for Tamils marking May 18, participants left kanjhi offerings at the entrance to commemorate the suffering and perseverance of the final weeks of the war.
Participants watched Callum Macrae’s “No Fire Zone,” followed by a panel discussion on political activism and struggle on May 18. The four panelists (Ahilan Arunachalam, Madura Rasaratnam, Nimmi Gowrinathan, and Mario Arulthas) discussed the history of their activism, their experiences in the months leading up to May 18, and their reflections since.
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The day ended with music by Ganavya and Bhi Bhiman.
The event was held along with dozens of others around the world to mark Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, a memorial to tens of thousands of Tamils killed by Sri Lankan security forces in 2009.
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