WHO THE BLEEP CARES. Weekly column by Selma Carvalho
Who the Bleep cares about Goan culture?

Some years ago when I was living in the United States, I traveled up-country to the North of Minnesota. I had always wanted to see native Americans, more commonly and mistakenly called Red Indian, in action and the Pow-Wow ceremony conducted by the Objiwe Indians of Mille Lac, Minnesota, seemed like an ideal opportunity. Objiwe Indians, like most native Americans, live on reservations, set up by the US Federal government. These proud warriors of the past have refused to assimilate with mainstream America. They march to the beat of their own Pow-Wow drums.

The Pow-wow ceremony is a vibrant affair celebrating any number of things from the arrival of spring to the arrival of a baby. Dressed in colourful regalia, they danced around a plastic pole in what seemed like borrowed costumes. The older men danced proudly, the younger ones it was clear were unfamiliar with the dance and unsteady on their feet. Their memories neither distant nor dim, did not lend themselves to the customs of this dying world. Seated around the ceremonial grounds, on plastic chairs, clearly a twenty-first century corruption, were barely 200 spectators. Most of them bi-racial, Indian mixed with white Americans. Reservation fences might have forbidden assimilation but love has a way of seeping through those fences and embracing human beings different from us.

The Ojibwe Indians are a dying nation. Sadly their uncertain future reminded me of us, Catholic Goans? Are we too a dying race? Are our youth, especially in the Goan Diaspora, unsure of their cultural heritage and uncertain if it is of any relevance to them in the future? Is preservation of our culture important at all? And if it important, do we really know how culture is transferred, absorbed and preserved by communities, especially in countries, where all around another mainstream culture exists? While researching for an article on how second-generation Goans have adapted to life in Britain, I interviewed several Goans who said they were proud to be British and equally proud to be Goan.

Every growing child reaches a point in their life when they begin to ask questions about their past as part of a collective community. Somehow answers about this past are part of the ritual of coming of age and unlocking secrets as to who we are as individuals. For many British-Goan children, the first step to this journey begins at home and at Goan cultural events conducted in and around England by the Goan Overseas Association and other clubs. As much as we dismiss these events as just an excuse to drink, eat and make merry, they are important because they keep us connected to our cultural past and to our community.

Last week, I visited the annual UK Goan festival held at Croydon. I had now been in the UK for over a year. I was no longer a stranger. I had made friends and I felt like part of the community. This feeling of belonging, of being intimately tethered to my cultural past, this sense that wherever in the world I am, I am above all a Goan, somehow gives my life more meaning.

For the official photographs of the UK Goan Festival, click here.

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