Alicia's Journey to the Past
Revisiting the Komagata Maru Incident
by Parabjot Kaur Singh

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Alicia, a third-generation Canadian, doesn’t know much about her Punjabi heritage. But that starts to change when she stumbles across a memorial for the Punjabi passengers who tried immigrating to Canada on the Komagata Maru ship. To her surprise, she finds a familiar face in the memorial, and soon she is swept up in a magical adventure to the past to learn the truth about the obstacles her family faced in their journey to Canada. Written in both English and Punjabi, this short explanation of the Komagata Maru tragedy will both educate and entertain young readers about a little-known part of Canada’s history.

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Parabjot Kaur Singh is a high school English and Punjabi teacher. She is a former co-host of the Punjabi children’s radio show, Saade Bache Saada Virsa, and former executive member for PLEA (Punjabi Language Education Association). Her poems have been published in the PULP, a literary arts magazine of Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU). She is also one of the co-organizers for the Dhahan Prize Youth Award. Inspired by her grandfather, who is also a writer, Parabjot’s passion is fueled by a love of reading and a deep interest in Punjabi history and culture. She is also the author of Chewie the Budgie, a bilingual children’s storybook, which was published in 2019. Parabjot lives with her family in British Columbia, and in her spare time, enjoys watching movies, reading books, travelling, and hiking.

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Contributors

Author

Parabjot Kaur Singh

Illustrator

Afton Jane