When Surinder Takkar and his parents left their home in Punjab, India, for a new life in Mackenzie, B.C., in 1981, there were about 85 other Sikh families living in the small community between the Rocky and Omineca mountain ranges.
Takkar’s is now one of the only Sikh families left there.
“We try to keep up the gurdwara but when COVID happened, we [had] to close it,” said Takkar.
He said over the years it became increasingly difficult to maintain the building, constructed in the early 1980s once serving nearly 400 Sikh residents.
“There’s only four or five [Sikh] people living in Mackenzie, right? So our community decided we have to do something about it because four people cannot handle that building,” he said.
Now as small town demographics change, the once bustling gurdwara is finding new life as the future home for many of Mackenzie’s local community groups.
Mackenzie was established in 1965 to support the development of two saw mills and a pulp mill but in 2008, the town of about 4,000 experienced significant mill closures that saw over a thousand forestry workers lose their jobs.
“The Sikh community was a very, very important part of our community for many, many years,” said Mackenzie Mayor Joan Atkinson.
She said that since the mill closures, many of the Sikh families relocated to the Lower Mainland, retired or followed their children who moved away for post-secondary schooling.
“Most of them have left the community.”
Community centre
Takkar said the Mackenzie Sikh Society asked the District of Mackenzie if any organizations could use the gurdwara. At the same time, the Mackenzie Community Arts Council happened to be looking for a new building.
“The building was falling into a state of disrepair and wasn’t being used,” said Community Arts Council president Michelle Bobrel. “But as artists we kind of just saw the potential.”
Now, they’re busy renovating the gurdwara to make a home not only for the arts council, but for other local community organizations including the local potters guild and the Mackenzie Men’s Shed, a support group for men.
“This is a place where you can learn and do things and meet people. That’s what I’m excited about,” said Men’s Shed volunteer Knut Herzog.
Although the Sikh population has drastically declined in Mackenzie, Sikh communities are growing in other parts of northern B.C.
“I would say part of me is a little sad to see some of that community move away from the north,” said Gurkirat Kaur Kandola, who grew up in Prince George but spent time travelling to Mackenzie and other communities in northern B.C. for religious events.
She now travels across the north as a locum pediatrician and has noticed growing Sikh communities in places like Fort St. John and Terrace.
“It’s also equally as heartwarming and incredible to see that a lot of the young generation and newer immigrant population is choosing to call northern B.C. their home and create another sense of community among the Punjabi Sikh population.”
Kandola said she’s not surprised the Sikh community in Mackenzie has donated the gurdwara so that it could remain in use for the community, as selfless giving is a core principle of her faith.
“I’m very proud to see that happening,” she said.
Retaining the building’s Sikh history
Bobrel said that although the arts council is making major changes, they want to retain elements of the building’s history and are naming it after Herb Singh, one of the first Punjabi Sikhs to come to Mackenzie in the late 1960s.
“We can help the community and pay forward the gift that we’ve been given,” said Bobrel. “We’ll make sure that everyone knows what made this possible.”
Betty Chahal, Herb Singh’s daughter, said her father was instrumental in establishing the Sikh community in Mackenzie, often spreading news of work opportunities in the local mills to friends and family in the Lower Mainland.
“I think he would be quite honoured to know that he was being remembered as somebody that lived there for a long time,” she said.
Chahal said she has good memories of the gurdwara, but admits it needs a bit of TLC.
“It’s exciting that it will be able to be used for something else and not just kind of go to waste because it is such an important building in our religion.”
On Aug. 23, the arts council will celebrate the project with a groundbreaking and a mural unveiling.
“It’s building the community so that in 10 years or whatnot, we’re thriving and people won’t be able to say ghost town because of the closures, curtailments,” Bobrel said. “I’m here to say that this town is an underrated treasure of the Rockies.”
