It was during a casual Friday night stroll through SOHO in London I saw a face that looked familiar! Upon a closer inspection, I realised it was the face of one of the many thousands of former Gurkha veteran and their wives that have now made UK their home. As I quickly took out my phone to take a picture of what I was seeing to Google later, I came to learn that it was a photo exhibition by Danny Bird titled ‘Gurkhas & Aamas: England’s Himalayan Elders‘. England’s Himalayan Elders – I really like the sound of that.
I believe the exhibition at the Tapestry is already over but I still wanted to dig what I could find to share it here and just have it online so if anyone ever was to google it – hopefully they’ll come across it too. The exhibition featured portraits of Gurkhas and their wives, who have settled in the UK after retirement. Danny who also comes from Greenwich first got in touch with the charity Skills & Care who later introduced him to the Gurkha veterans. Many in the UK will know that there is a large population of Nepalese people living in the Greenwich area. As the exhibition outline reads, “Danny was introduced to some of the elders and what followed was an education on the reality of Gurkha settlement in the UK, which gave further purpose to the project. The Gurkha story is well publicised but what is less known are the pension inequalities with their British counterparts and the difficulties faced both financial and integration.”
The sales from the exhibition supported the charity Help Nepal Network and Skills & Care. (More info on the project here).
Shame I missed out on the exhibition. There are so many stories that we come across everyday and so many within our Nepalese community here in the UK – whether it’s the Gurkha veterans, international students from Nepal or the children of the Gurkhas, I hope we get to share our stories and in return foster a stronger community.
