A Generation of Bhutanese in Exile Subject of Wintec Honours Student Documentary

A desire to tell the world about a seldom reported tragedy has shaped the past four years of Rituraj Sapkota’s life. Of Bhutanese Nepalese parentage and now a scholarship Honours students at Wintec in Hamilton, he is about to screen his documentary film.

Entitled "Sharnaarthi, A Generation in Exile" the film is about Bhutanese refugees who fled Bhutan in the late 1980s and early 1990s and who lived in refugee camps in eastern Nepal for more than 18 years before being resettled into third countries including the United States, Canada, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand.

Rituraj says that despite the fact that more than 100,000 people have lived through devastating hardship for two decades, the story is not widely known.

“Most of these people became refugees because the government of Bhutan adopted policies which made it difficult for the Nepali-speaking population who inhabited most of Southern Bhutan,” he said.

“Because of the absence of media and international organisations in Bhutan at the time, few of the large scale human rights violations and crimes against women were reported.”

Rituraj’s mother was a Bhutanese citizen, and many of his relatives became refugees. His father was a Nepalese citizen, so the immediate family was spared the refugee camps, although many of his extended family were housed there. His mother became involved in education provision in the camp which the family lived close to.

He began his documentary while studying Mass Communication at Loyola Academy in Hyderabad in India in 2005. He interviewed people in the camps, talking to children and the young people and learning about their aspirations for the future. As he attempted to learn more from official sources, several doors, he said, were shut on him.

“In late 2005 however, the United States announced it would resettle a majority of the refugees. Other countries also volunteered to take in small numbers. I continued my documentary filming and in 2008 I was given the opportunity to study at Wintec’s School of Media Arts on a scholarship so I’ve continued to interview Bhutanese refugees who have been resettled in New Zealand.

The premier of his documentary will screen on Tuesday 24th of November in the Gallagher Hub on Wintec’s city campus. Entry is free.

ENDS