'Intercultural' Performance in India and Wales: Welsh and Khasi Cultural Dialogues

This paper provided an overview of an intercultural, interdisciplinary project, entitled ‘Welsh and Khasi Cultural Dialogues’, conducted between scholars in Wales and India, investigating the shared cultural history of the Welsh people and Khasi people of north east India and the influence of this history on cultural identities. The context of research is the shared history spanning 170 years, from the arrival of the Welsh missionaries in the Khasi Hills in the 1840s up to the removal of all foreign missionaries from India in 1967, and beyond this to include the continued cultural and artistic exchange between the Khasi and the Welsh peoples.

The project seeks to trace the complex body of intercultural material that includes various manifestations of performance (theatre, musical performance, storytelling, the performance of poetry, religious performances), and utilises creative practice to investigate the ways in which arts practice may be used to further an interdisciplinary understanding of the history of cultural exchange. By engaging in a series of ‘cultural dialogues’, utilising creative practice, the project aims to provide a space to discuss and respond to the way in which both Welsh and Khasi people have chosen to perform their cultural identities in the modern world.