The following panel will be presented at the Pacific Northwest History Conference this Friday, April 16, from 4:30-5:45. Northwest History Network member Mary Wheeler moderates the panel.

Sikhs in Early 1900 Astoria: Film, Fiction, Memoir, and History

On the eve of WW I, Astoria was a dynamic, densely multi-ethnic community with a handful of long-standing communities, including Finns and Chinese, and many new or transitory ones, including Sikhs. The Sikhs were largely farmers from the Punjab and part of an international diaspora, and found their way to the forests, railroads, and factories of the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century, forming a mobile, yet cohesive, community from California to British Columbia. In 1913 in Astoria these men formed the Ghadar Party whose aim was the overthrow of British rule in their homeland and which forever changed both the course of Indian politics and their fates in North America.

This panel includes interdisciplinary perspectives on a significant but often overlooked moment in Oregon history concentrated in early 1900 Astoria. Matthew Stadler’s short story, “City of Wool” looks to the improvised, dynamic terms of social life in pre-WWI Astoria as a precedent for post-national cities of the 21st century. Johanna Ogden’s historical research is grounded in post-9/11 America with its demonization of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians, and asks what the Sikhs story in Oregon can tell us about notions of “belonging” and “otherness.” Erika Surat Anderson’s short, visually lyrical film “Turbans” dramatizes her grandmother’s memoir of Astoria circa 1918, and explores the inner struggles of an Asian Indian immigrant family torn between their cultural traditions and the desire for social acceptance in America. Liisa Penner responds and provides an overview of the rich resources pertaining to this history at the Clatsop County Historical Society.

Johanna Ogden is currently studying for her master’s in history at the University of British Columbia. She has previously written on both Mexican immigrants and conscientious objectors in Oregon during WWII.

Liisa Penner received her MA in Anthropology from the University of Oregon and has live in Astoria for almost 60 years. She has been associated with Clatsop County Historical Society for most of the period since the mid 1980s in the archives and has been editor of their quarterly magazine Cumtux since 1992. She is at present the Archivist and Editor for CCHS at the Heritage Museum. Much of her time has been spent studying the period of the 1870s in the Astoria area and the many ethnic groups that populated the area.

Matthew Stadler is a novelist, essayist, and editor who has won many prizes for his work. He was commissioned by Amsterdam 2.0, a Dutch political group, to write the story “City of Wool” and more recently commissioned by the Oregon Council for the Humanities to research and write “At Liberty,” a brief history of the city of Astoria, which he presented as a “commonplace lecture” at Astoria’s Liberty Theater in February, 2007.

Mary Wheeler (moderator), is a historian (MA/Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan) who has worked in public programs, multi-media exhibitions, professional development for educators, and public policy research.

“Turbans” is available for purchase at the Center for Asian American Film.

Sikh Pioneers, Indian American Pioneers to North America website.

More information on film recommended by Joanna Ogden, Ali Kazimi’s “Continuous Journey” here.