Balbir Gurm

 

Date of Birth:
1960
Birthplace:
Village Vangta, Punjab
Current City:
Surrey, BC

Balbir Gurm was born in a little village in Vangta, Punjab, India in 1960. Balbir’s great uncle and great aunt decided to move to Canada in 1906 and then her paternal uncle who was very adventurous moved to Canada in 1938. He came here on a student visa to UBC and later sponsored her other uncle and her father in 1960.

Balbir’s father moved to Canada in 1961 by himself and once he was settled he sponsored her mother and herself. She was six years old when they moved to Vancouver, BC. Balbir recalls that she was very excited to see her father but at the same time was sad to leave her grandparents in India. Balbir was put in to school right away once she arrived. Although she was put in grade 1 even though she was in grade 2 in India, by the time she was in grade 4 the school decided she needed to move up, so she skipped grade 4 and went on to grade 5.

Balbir faced a lot of discrimination during elementary school. In addition she remembers as a little girl she wasn’t allowed to wear pants in school and had to wear dresses. It wasn’t until grade 5 that girls were allowed to wear pants. She also remembers how the principal would hit children with a strap. Balbir recalls when she came in grade 1, it was the other Punjabi kids that really supported her and helped her learn English because they could talk in Punjabi and explain things to her.  She remembers experiences of discrimination not just in elementary school but on the street and more so in high school where she would be called ‘Paki’ or ‘Hindu’. She found that there was also discrimination against Indigenous people and people from other countries such as Poland.

Balbir believes that our community has issues with gender equality. She believes that the girls are more suppressed and the boys have more privileges while growing up. Growing up, girls were not allowed to leave the house or go to the movies whereas the males could. She believes gender discrimination still exists these days although it’s more subtle.

Balbir remembers in the early days, everyone celebrated the Gurus’ birthdays and these took place in the Khalsa Diwan Society Gurdwara which was on West 2nd Avenue at the time. She also remembers that everyone celebrated Christmas and would exchange gifts with each other. Balbir recalls everybody knew one another and everybody took care of everyone because not everyone had a car. She remembers when her father bought a car, he would ask everyone if they needed any groceries before heading to Chinatown to grab groceries. In 1970, the first Vaisakhi parade took place and Balbir remembers making plastic flowers with her family and friends to put them on everyone’s car. People across from BC came to attend the parade. Balbir was part of the UBC East Indian Student Association at that time and they also had their own float for the parade.

Balbir went back to India for the first time in 1987 to visit her husband’s maternal aunt. Since then she has visited India several times as she’s involved in volunteer work. At that time, she was on the board of the Canada India Education Society and would visit hospitals and nursing schools in Punjab to help them implement changes and bring them up to local standards. Balbir recalls everyone in the Punjabi community would have good relations with the Indigenous people and treated them as their own family.

Balbir shared a story of how her Tayaji (paternal uncle) moved to Canada when he was only 18 years old on a student visa and got into UBC directly from India. He had a long journey to Vancouver that began with taking a ship from India to Hong Kong and while he was on the ship he got sick. He spent three months in Hong Kong while he recovered. He then arrived in Canada and went to university for a year but sadly, he was unable to afford to continue his education and had to leave the University. He started working in several sawmills on the island and then, later in life, he became the president of the Khalsa Diwan Society, Vancouver. Balbir’s family has always been involved in Gurdwara politics and doing sewa (volunteer work). Because of her family, volunteering has been constant in Balbir’s life.

Another memory Balbir recalls is the Punjabi community being extremely hardworking. She remembers people worked double shifts and would work as many jobs as they could get. Balbir remembers if someone couldn’t find a job they would go to the local farms and berry pick. She believes that even other communities find the Punjabi community to be hardworking people and because of that we have a good reputation.