Forty years after the Air India bombing, McMaster researchers are bringing together scholars, community members and victims’ families for a special conference and the launch of an archive that commemorates the victims and honours their families’ grief and activism. 

Remembering Air India Flight 182: A 40th Anniversary Conference is being held at the university on May 24 and 25, a few weeks before the anniversary of the 1985 tragedy that killed 329 people on the flight from Canada to India.  

The Air India bombing was the largest act of mass murder in Canadian history, but remains relatively unacknowledged in the national consciousness, says conference organizer and English and Cultural Studies professor Chandrima Chakraborty. She’s worked with Air India families for more than a decade, amplifying their voices and advancing public awareness about the tragedy.  

Even though the judicial inquiry and government apology brought the bombing into Canadian public memory in 2010, “the grief of those who lost loved ones continues to be unacknowledged,” she notes. 

“It is not merely the grief of losing one’s child, wife, husband, friend or neighbour that remains invisible, but the grief of not being recognized as Canadians and the loss not being recognized by the Canadian government and fellow Canadians as a loss worthy of public mourning.” 

The memory archive 

The conference will begin with the introduction of the Air India Flight 182 memory archive, an open-access repository of digitized interviews, scrapbooks, memorial books, photographs, letters, published and unpublished art work and more. Shared by the families and friends of those who were killed on AI Flight 182, the archive documents their loved ones’ lives as well as their own experiences and memories. 

“The idea for a possible archive was prompted during one of my interviews where a family member expressed their desire to donate boxes of materials he had gathered on the AI tragedy to assist with my research,” says Chakraborty 

She is the driving force behind the project, co-created with the families and friends of Flight 182 victims, who shared their stories and memorabilia.  

“This project is geared toward creating multiple opportunities for AI families and friends —those who have been impacted by the tragedy and others who are unfamiliar with it — to collectively explore their shared past,” Chakraborty says. 

The archive also offers educational resources, creating opportunities to promote public conversation about the tragedy and its aftermath to educate the greater public about a key part of Canadian history. 

“This will be a significant contribution to Canadian history and public memory, as there is no archival repository currently collecting primary or less commonly available secondary material related to the bombing or its aftermath within the South Asian community or Canadian society generally,” Chakraborty says. 

The archive was created with the support of McMaster University Library’s William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections and the Sherman Centre of Digital Scholarship, as well as funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  

Additional support is vital to continue the archiving work, Chakraborty says, to ensure that the stories of those lost will be remembered, and to encourage deeper engagement with the tragedy and its aftermath. Click here to learn more or to support the project.   

Chakraborty and her colleague Amber Dean are the key organizers of the conference, which will also feature round table and panel discussions with family members who lost loved ones in the bombing, as well as a classical dance performance called Commemorating the Air India Tragedy through the Arts; and a screening of excerpts from the film Calorie. (Find the complete agenda below.) 

Organizers chose to hold the conference at McMaster so the families could have the opportunity to develop a connection to the site that will permanently house their important family records, Chakraborty says.  

Here are the key events at the conference this weekend:

Saturday, May 24 

Opening Remarks
Chandrima Chakraborty and Amber Dean, McMaster University; Bal Gupta, Air India Victim’s Families Association (AIVFA); Shachi Kurl, Angus Reid Institute.  

Air India Archive Launch
Presentations by the archive team on building the Air India Flight 182 memory archive.  Presenters: Chandrima Chakraborty, Alejandro Franco Briones, Maia Lepingwell-Tardieu, Jil Shah, and Frank Wang, McMaster University.

Air India Families Roundtable
Family members reflect on their experiences, organizing, and efforts to keep the AI tragedy in public memory.  Presenters: Susheel Gupta, Anita Dhanjal, Deepak Khandelwal, and Nisha Thampi, Jayashree Thampi. Moderated by Amber Dean, McMaster University.  

Air India Narratives in Teaching, Media, and Government Discourse
Reflections on educating students and the public about the Air India tragedy, and on how Air India is represented in media and government discourse.  Presenters: Farah Moosa, Vancouver Island University; Jessica Young, Santa Clara University; Meera Nair, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology; and Maya Seshia, Athabasca University. Moderated by Steve Hewitt, University of Birmingham.  

Commemorating the Air India Tragedy through the Arts
Commemorative performance created and performed by Sampradaya Dance Creations; poetry reading by Renée Sarojini Saklikar; featuring Lata Pada. Moderated by Elan Marchinko, York University.  

Sunday, May 25  

Memorializing Air India
Panel of family members and scholars discuss remembrance of loss through memoirs and memorials, reflecting on visions for cross-cultural solidarity and justice.  Presenters: Sanjay Lazar (family of AI 182 crew on his memoir On Angel’s Wings), Rajiv Kalsi (on creating family memorial picture books and a radio documentary), Amy Fung, Carleton University (on AI memorials and the materiality of mourning), Angela Failler, Canada Research Chair in Culture and Public Memory, University of Winnipeg (on the cultural afterlife of Air India).  

Remembrance as a Difficult Return: Envisioning an Air India Public Exhibit
Nisha Thampi and Angela Failler discuss how a new curatorial project on the Air India bombings might serve as a site for learning, witnessing, and healing

Screening of excerpts from Calorie, a new feature film written and directed by Eisha Marjara
 Calorie follows three generations of women whose present and past lives collide during an emotionally packed summer trip in India. Including Q&A with Eisha Marjara.  Moderated by Amber Dean, McMaster University  

Closing remarks
Chandrima Chakraborty and Amber Dean, McMaster University