Remembrance Day

This Remembrance Day, I am remembering my great grandfather Vincent Lawrence, who served with Gandhi in the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps during the Boer War (1899-1902). You can see them both in the middle row, with Gandhi to the right of the Rev. Dr. Booth and Lawrence the second to the left (the Rev. Dr. Booth is sitting in the centre). It took courage and conviction to enter the battlefield without a weapon, to usher the wounded to safety. At the time Gandhi felt that Indians needed to do their part for the empire, because they were citizens. His views changed over time, and he lost his faith in the empire and instead led India to independence using non-violent means. Although war seems to be more popular than ever these days, let us also notice that there are many people patiently using non-violent means to bring about real change, for example, the peaceful student protests in Hong Kong, and the work of First Nations activists here in Canada.

Update: Back to Waterloo Again

I find myself back in the family home where I grew up, to care for my ailing father and aging mother. There have been a number of times that I've found myself back here. This time I am here with my partner, the lady Shannon, and my two boys, Journey (4) and baby Phoenix (10 months). We have been living for the past 3.5 years on the remote islands of Haida Gwaii, first in Tlell, and later up on Tow Hill Road outside of Masset. We decided to move to Waterloo after learning that my dad could no longer feed himself. He is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, which is a terrible and debilitating condition. It feels like he could go at any time. We pulled up sticks in June and made our way here to Waterloo Ontario, and I feel like we are only now finally arriving.

Along the way, I made a short trip to France with my mum, to attend the International Association of Cross Cultural Psychology (IACCP) meeting in Reims. Mum has been involved with IACCP for years. I presented on the intercultural animation project I've been working on, known as Haidawood. I also presented on Healthy Enrichment through the Arts (HEARTs), an intercultural health promotion project I worked on with my sister, Dr. Michele Leslie, one of the rural doctors in Masset. Mum presented on the Indian diaspora in South Africa.

Being home at this time does create an opportunity to finally move the Lawrence Project towards some kind of conclusion. I would still like to make a short movie that explains what the Lawrence Project is all about (perhaps it would include some animation?). And Mum has been talking about writing an article on Vincent Lawrence. 

The latest twist in this family saga is a new book on Gandhi's years in South Africa, called Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha. You can read a review here. In the book Guha asserts that Vincent Lawrence was the Christian clerk in the chamberpot incident, even though we are sure he was not. This same error has been made by Lelyveld in his book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. We contacted Lelyveld in 2012 with what we knew and he removed his mention of Lawrence and published an erratum in the second edition. But it seems the error has propogated, and I'll need to contact Guha as well. Does it really matter to get these details right? Gandhi talks about Truth power (Satyagraha), so it behooves us all to do our best to get it right. Casting Vincent Lawrence as the untouchable Christian clerk who later made good does make for a good story, but the truth is more complicated and less dramatic.