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The Sangat Project brings communities together so that we can learn from
each other. We are dedicated to the preservation of cultures around the
world.
We have worked in the India/Pakistan (Punjab) border region, where cultural heritage
has been sacrificed for political factionalism. Unfortunately, the people
suffer when they are denied access to their own history because
of an accident of geography and government policies.
We try to
document the visible (but vanishing) aspects of traditional Indian/Pakistani
society -- mainly art, architecture, and written work. The heavily-militarized international border
drawn through the middle of the region just us unique challenges. However, professors, photographers,
journalists and artists in both countries have collaborated
with us to make connections that each group could not make on their own.
Although we focus on Punjab, we support the rights of all communities trying to preserve their culture,
language and lives.
We have worked with Tibetan artists who try to promote their own culture while
they live in exile from their own land. We have travelled to Tamil Nadu to record the voices of residents
who live in
polluted villages and struggle to be heard over that of the companies who have poisoned
their land, water and air.
Our multi-national group has produced visual presentations and
radio segments to tell the stories we have heard. Future projects will also include the Punjabi communities
of Afghanistan which have been separated from their homeland not only in distance,
but by the passage of time. We have lost touch with these groups, but
we do know they are struggling to maintain their traditional culture as a minority in
a difficult situation. We do not even know how much of their art or buildings still exist.
The Sangat Project once operated as a branch of the University Community Housing
Project and is now seeking collaboration with a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization in Arizona or California, United States.
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