The team
The project was conceptualised, created and curated by Kannan Arunasalam. Kannan is a multimedia journalist focussing on narrative journalism. Originally from Jaffna, he grew up in England and returned to Sri Lanka in 2004 where he now lives and works using new media, radio, photography and documentary. His video portraits about resilience in Jaffna (“Koothu, Kerosene and Paper”) have been screened at international film festivals and broadcast on Al Jazeera. He is a regular contributor to Radio Netherlands Worldwide and a qualified media and human rights lawyer.
Kannan also took the photographs on the site.
The website was designed by Cezar Neaga, a Romanian who used to live and work in Sri Lanka, and who now lives and works in London.
The first series became a family affair, with my wife Sweta Velpillay and my father – whose hometowns are Jaffna, but are now part of the internal and international diaspora communities – contributing their time, helping me with interviews and translations, and motivating me to finish my journey that lasted over a year. In Kandy, Menika van der Poorten, whose ancestors are from the Kandyan provinces, helped me find elders there and some of the photography for Kandy and Galle. Gayathri Lokuge and Ketharasarma Ledchumanasarma guided me in selecting elders in their hometowns of Galle and Jaffna respectively.
In many ways, it was a journey for us all, discovering our roots through engaging with the wise men and women we met. Seeing my father learn more about the Muslim expulsion from Muslims who had now returned to Jaffna was important to me. Their narratives displaced the version he had been led to believe.
The project is funded by the American Center in Colombo, and I am grateful to Glen Davis and Jeff Anderson who supported me throughout the first series, giving me the freedom to explore these regions and characters with full creative control.
I would like to thank those helping behind the scenes who directed us to stories and storytellers. There are too many to mention, but I would like to particularly thank Gurupuran Kumaradivel, Dr. Tissa Jayatilaka and Sabri Khalid, who directed us to characters from their hometowns of Jaffna, Kandy and Galle respectively.
And finally, but not least, to the characters who let us into their lives and who had the patience to allow us to collect their stories and pictures.
The second series is just beginning, with many more people to thank.
i find this initiative amazing. would like to link up however way i could. thanks for the efforts!
i love it! would love to help in anyway possible!
Love it… some people do amazing things like this once in a while. You are one of those people.
Excellent piece of work. I am so grateful. Thank you. (Sydney, Australia).
You give hope where there was none.
A different discovery, different perspective, and a different purpose. Superb! All the best!
Words won’t do justice to explain how I feel to know that Krishna (Kannan) is working to change the narratives – a way to transform the conflict – which is the need of the day in my country.
This is pretty cool >> The team: http://iam.lk/the-team/
Outstanding photography, brilliant concept, superb execution. Congratulations and keep it alive!
Excellent work, Kannan. Keep on keepin’ on…
Brilliant!
Your efforts are very inspiring and thought provoking. For me it’s a forum in which many divisive societal structures can be transcended. Greetings for a fruitful new year.
Amazing. I am quite literally mindblown by how well this has all been put together. Just a few minutes ago I was lamenting over the apparent death of the Sri Lankan blogosphere from how it used to be, but now it seems as though it’s only making room for projects such as this.
Perhaps this is the next step for anyone attempting to communicate, one doesn’t always have to be the one talking, you can simply be the medium. You guys are doing an amazing job, this has been the highlight of my “online experience” so far this year. Kudos!
Amazing idea, refreshing design and fabulous content. The photographs are nothing less than creative and eye catching. Congratulations to the creators of this project. Keep it up. I promise to spread the word.
Great initiative! Well done! Unless these things are published, the community will not be aware what each of these people have gone through in their lives!
If it wasn’t for this team these stories would not be told and would have been lost in the mists of time. Thank you for a great project and I look forward to more stories.
BUT, I hope and wish this beautiful project may not turn in to an ugly political project in the future…