children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections

by Renee Sarojini Saklikar

"children of air india" is a series of elegiac sequences exploring the nature of individual loss, situated within public trauma. The work is animated by a proposition: that violence, both personal and collective, produces continuing sonar, an echolocation that finds us, even when we choose to be unaware or indifferent.
This collection breaks new ground in its approach to the saga that is Canada/Air India, an event and its aftermath that is both over-reported and under-represented in our national psyche.
"329 deaths. 82 Children. Canada's worst mass murder. The accused acquitted.
What does it mean to be Canadian and lose someone in Air India Flight 182?"
Why does 9/11 resonate more strongly with Canadians than June 23, 1985? The poems in this book search out answers in the "everything/ness and nothing/ness" of an act and its aftermath, revealing a voice that re-defines and re-visions.
Air India never happened. Air India always happens.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Memoir, India, Canada

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2013

About the author

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is a poet and lawyer who lives in Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Her newest book is Bramah and The Beggar Boy, an epic fantasy in verse, (Nightwood Editions, 2021) about a time travelling locksmith, “brown, brave and beautiful,” battling the evil Consortium on a planet ravaged by climate change. Renée Sarojini’s other books include the ground-breaking children of air india, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182 which won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Prize; and Listening to the Bees, winner of the 2019 Gold Medal Independent Publishers Book Award, Environment/Ecology. An instructor for SFU and VCC, she curated Vancouver’s first free Poetry Phone, 1-833-POEMS-4-U and curates the poetry reading series Lunch Poems at SFU. Renée Sarojini was the first poet laureate for the City of Surrey, (2015-2018).

Connect with Renée:
http://facebook.com/bramahandthebegga...
http://twitter.com/reneesarojini
https://www.instagram.com/saklikartar...

More about this author:
Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s ground-breaking poetry book about the bombing of Air India Flight 182, children of air india, won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Prize.
Renée's second book, The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them, edited with Wayde Compton, was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award.

Her book, Listening to the Bees, co-authored with Dr. Mark Winston, won the 2019 Gold Medal Independent Publishers Book Award, Environment/Ecology.

Trained as a lawyer, Saklikar is an instructor for SFU and VCC. She was the first Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, (2015-2018) and was the 2017 UBC Okanagan Writer in Residence. In 2019, Renée served as Writer in Residence for the Surrey English Teachers' Association. Co-founder and curator of the poetry series Lunch Poems at SFU, her work has been adapted for opera, visual art and dance. Renée serves on the boards of Turning Point Ensemble, Poetry Canada, the Surrey International Writers Conference and The Ormbsy Review.

Reviews

[Ryleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Renee Saklikar has taken a difficult subject matter and created a beautiful meditation on pain, and loss, and grief, and beauty. Not only do her written words bring to vivid life the faces of the victims, but her poignant pauses give space for their lost voices to whisper inside each piece. As a book of poetry it is a treasure. As a statement on tragic loss it is a masterpiece.

[THE TORONTO QUARTERLY]

Please check out my interview with poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar as we discuss Canada's worst mass murder, the bombing of Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985 and her new collection: children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2013). Read the interview and 3 poems from the book on my TTQ Blog now. http://thetorontoquarterly.blogspot.c...

[Leena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Renee read from this collection earlier this year and since that time her words have continued to echo with me. Sitting down with this book today, I was pulled in again, twisted inside out, sometimes eager for more, sometimes feeling too much. Public/private language/memory/grief/love and the gaps/erasures/silences that circle and weave through it all - this is a worthy read. The voices of these children have something to say.

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Children of Air India is poetry with a perspective that resonates with the heart and mind. One’s soul aches with the losses of life. Emotions over take the reader as they become entwined with the lives that were being lived and the moment in time when their destinies were sealed by a tragic twist of fate. Beautifully incisive. Renee Sarojini Saklikar bares witness to humanity and the inhumanity of actions taken by some that have a ripple effect. Documentary poetry at it’s finest.

[C.B. Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Renèe this past Wednesday at a book reading in Fanny Bay. I got the chance to hear her read captions of this heart breaking story. I could feel her pain through her words. This is a fantastic read from a wonderful author. I hope to meet her again in the future.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting and tragic collection of poems concerning the Air India Bombing, Canada's biggest mass murder. These poems broke my heart and left me with the deep sense that time is both fleeting and indelible. Both concrete and transitory. Death and time rolls in on itself, as does grief and memory.
A difficult journey through this tragic event in Canadian history, but a journey one needs to brave, for reasons innumerable.
Thank you, Renee Sarojini Saklikar.

[lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely haunting!! i love saklikar’s experimentalism. i love her use of physical space and mixed media. i love her beautiful, sometimes cryptic passages. i love everything!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book of poems on the topic of the Air India bombing of Flight 182 on June 23, 1985. Saklikar's mixture of personal reflections and research render an intensely dramatic body of work that has an amazing cumulative effect. For readers interested in the mixture of history, personal story and tragedy in the great tradition of Neruda, you will find in Saklikar a poet with her own particular style and voice who explores diverse forms in this work of creative non-fiction. A must read.

[Bill Engleson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished reading Renee Sarojini Saklikars powerful and disconcerting book, Children of Air India.
It is not an easy book of poetry to journey through. There is a beauty, a deadly beauty, a sad and painful beauty, a wonderfully agonizing experience...I need to return to it.

[Mala Ashok · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Children of Air India" is a poignant collection of poetry about loss and its aftermath. It tugs at the heartstrings and speaks to the greatest Canadian tragedies of all time. Each of the 82 children aboard Air India 182 who was on board tells a story and Saklikar relates them with finesse.