This seminar will outline initial research questions for a practice-based interdisciplinary project investigating the shared cultural history of the people of Wales and the Khasi people of Northeast India. This intercultural relationship is rooted in the first instance in the missionary contact established in the mid nineteenth century by the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists mission, and subsequently in the cultural practices that resulted from such interaction.

The project will use performance and film making to respond to the complex and scattered body of literature and performance that represents the historic and ongoing intercultural exchange, including songs, hymns, letters, pamphlets, diaries, travel films, photography, poetry and memoirs, as well as non-archival forms such as memories, stories and anecdotes. These cultural traces will form the basis for a series of 'cultural dialogues’ between Welsh and Indian practitioners, which investigates the influence of such cultural exchange on postcolonial identities.

This is a collaborative research project between Dr Lisa Lewis (FCI) and Indian ethnographer and filmmaker, Dr Aparna Sharma, Associate Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA.