The 217th victory day of Pandara Vanniyan, the last sovereign of the Vanni chieftaincy was commemorated last month with fanfare across the Tamil homeland in the North-East. 

Proceedings began early morning in Vavuniya in the presence of Urban Council Chairman E. Gowthaman who also organised the event last month. 

Sri Lankan troops have been deployed at the Nallur Kandasamy Temple in Jaffna this week, as the temple’s annual festival – thiruvizha – began last month.

The new moon in Aadi (July) is one of the three most powerful new moons of the year. Devotees honour their ancestors by observing fasts, feeding crows and bathing in large bodies of natural water to rid themselves of their sins.

The annual Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple ‘Ther’ was held on Friday. The historic temple festival was celebrated in its traditionally spectacular fashion with the day commencing with the “Vasantha Mandapam Pooja” at 7am, followed by the chariot being transported to offer blessings to the devotees. 

The historic Oddusuddan Thanthondreeswarar temple hunting festival (Vettai thiruvizha) was held in Mullaitivu on Wednesday to conclude the temple's annual Thiruvizha.

Human Rights Solidarity commemorated refugee week and world refugee day by speaking to Gayathri Thivyaa, a medical student at Imperial College London and the child of Tamil refugees who fled the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Tributes have poured from across the Tamil Canadian community for 52-year-old Surendran Thambirajah, who passed away earlier this month after he stopped to help another driver who had crashed their car in     Ontario.

Thambirajah had stopped at the scene of a crash to offer his assistance, after another vehicle has crashed into a hydro pole. He passed away after being struck by a downed wire.

The following pieces are by Yhalisai and Kulalisai, both escaped the war in the Vanni in 2009 and now live in the diaspora. 

18th of May 

Our hopes and dreams, they did betray.
For all their cruelty, they must pay. 
For our freedom, it's a long delay.
We didn't want war, but there was no other way. 

Some people think Sri Lanka's a display, 
A "beautiful" island for their holiday.
But they only see what the government portrays,
Not the truth that's hidden away. 

I had the greatest honour to design Quebec’s Tamil Heritage Month stamp for 2020.

Designing is something I love to do and I am so grateful that it is a huge part of my life. As someone who is Tamil, when I was asked to design a stamp that represented my culture and heritage, I did not think twice.

The following pieces are reflections from Tamil children who all survived the massacres at Mullivaikkal.

Eleven years later, they are telling their stories around the genocide they faced and are reclaiming the narrative.

They have all lost at least one family member during the massacres of 2009. All are now living in the diaspora.