Mission's Kuldip Gill receives honorary degree
When Kuldip Gill looks at the view of Mt. Baker and the Fraser River from her new hilltop home in Mission, she knows that she has come full circle. Back, after 40 years away, to a home that she never really left since arriving in the community as a young girl in 1941.
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Kuldip Gill
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It’s what she did in the intervening years that has led the University College of the Fraser Valley to bestow her with an honorary doctor of letters degree in recognition of her academic career as a social anthropologist, her extensive community work, and, of late, her budding literary career.
Kuldip didn’t start post-secondary studies until she was past the age of 30, after caring for her extended family during earlier years. “My first schooling was watching the teacher write letters on a slate, as I copied them in the sand in India, and I’ve been fascinated with learning ever since,” she recalls. She started at Langara as a part-time student, and entered UBC at the third-year level. “I decided anthropology was what I really wanted to do, and was encouraged to focus on South Asia: India and Sri Lanka.”
After finishing her master’s degree, she was preparing to do fieldwork in India for her PhD when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. “There was great political turmoil and my university said it wasn’t safe for me to go. I was heartbroken.” She regrouped, and turned her attention to the health care beliefs and practices of the women of the Indian diaspora in Fiji, studying their communities and helping to set up a hospital auxiliary while she was there.
“I have always combined my academic work with community development work, and once I got my PhD, used it to influence people -- as a catalyst for change, especially in the area of multiculturalism and diversity.” After earning her PhD she became an anthropologist for hire as well as an active volunteer, teaching sessionally, conducting workshops, sitting on boards, consulting, and generally sharing her expertise.
“I have always believed that we all have a civic duty -- the government can’t do it all, and if we have the privilege of receiving an education we must use it to benefit society.”
Kuldip has never stopped learning and growing, and started only recently, in 1997, to write poetry. “I have always loved poetry, but had never written it. In a time of personal angst and looking back on my life, I started a memoir, but found it hard to find a way to write without talking about people in my midst and the chance of hurting people. Poetry was a form that allowed me to disclose little bits through metaphor without relying too much on explicit narrative. I struggle with how to say certain things, and poetry lets me express it. It’s very forgiving.”
Encouraged by her husband, bookstore owner Jim McIntosh to continue and to send her poetry out for publication, she sent her manuscript to Harbour Publishing and was surprised when they picked them up for a book, which became Dharma Rasa. “Harbour likes writing that’s about smaller communities, and I had never really left Mission behind. I write about ordinary people, the immigrant story of my family who were in the wood industries, so it was right up their alley.”
Dharma Rasa was published in 1999 and won the B.C 2000 Book Award for poetry. Kuldip wanted to learn more about writing and eventually took a Master of Fine Arts degree at UBC, joining a “generous, warm, and helpful” community of writers. She studied poetry, poetry-in-translation, fiction, non-fiction, and advanced screen-writing.
Now, having recently returned to Mission, Kuldip has reached a place in life where she feels “at ease,” and surrounded by serendipity. She’s looking forward to more involvement with her former home community, with UCFV and its Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies and Research, and with poetry and creative writing, while continuing her volunteer work in many contexts.
“We as Canadians are immensely richer for having Kuldip in our midst, and in the Fraser Valley we are doubly blessed to have our daughter return,” wrote UCFV professor Madeleine Hardin when nominating Kuldip for the honorary degree. “She is exactly the kind of role model, lifelong learner, and passionate community member who should be honoured.”
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