Welsh and Khasi Cultural Dialogues

Abstract

This short essay is an opening statement for the research project, 'Welsh and Khasi Cultural Dialogues: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance Project', funded by The Leverhulme Trust that explores the starting point for an investigation into the cultural dialogues between the Welsh and Khasi peoples of northeast India. This is a relationship established through missionary contact in the mid nineteenth century, and one that has persisted beyond the closure of the mission into a relationship of cultural exchange. The project's particular standpoint stems from the understanding that the modes of exchange between the Welsh and Khasis are inseparable from the location of both communities at the edges of empire. The article begins by enquiring about the scope and the forms of encounters between peoples of different cultures through colonialism and proceeds to consider how performance in the broadest sense might offer a lens through which we may critically explore these encounters and cultural relationships. The article proceeds to explain how performative documentary and live performance may be used as approaches that enable a dialogue across cultures and between peoples.