Channa Wickremesekera: A Biographical Introduction

Channa Wickremesekera is a Sri Lankan born writer. He was born in 1967. He

migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka. He has been living in Australia since 1990. He
completed his PhD in History at Monash University in 1998. Apart from being a
writer he is also a military historian. He is the author of historical monographs and
works of fiction. He teaches at a secondary school in Melbourne. According to
Suvendrini Perera Channa Wickremesekera is among the most astute, inventive and
courageous of Sri Lankan diasporic writers today.
His published works comprise two historical monographs: Best Black Troops in the
World: British Perceptions and the Making of the Sepoy 1746-1805 and Kandy at
War: Indigenous Military Resistance to European Expansion in Sri Lanka 1594-1818.
He has also written three works of fiction: Walls, Distant Warriors and In the Same
Boat and a number of articles and book chapters on South Asian History.
The novel Walls (2001) is about a Sri Lankan diaspora family in Australia, the
Abeywickremes. The Abeywickremes left Colombo and migrated to Australia to
navigate and to ensure a favourable future for their only daughter Ishara. This
unfortunate dislocation from their home land and culture turns out to be a huge event
and they experience culture shock in Australia. In essence, the novel scans the angst
of identity with great depth and intuition.
In his second novel Distant Warriors (2005), Channa Wickremesekera captures the
eternal antagonism and biases between the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan
Sinhala diaspora communities in Australia. The conflict reaches its zenith at a
fundraiser organized in Melbourne to facilitate the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka. The
author amusingly and delicately dichotomizes the hypocrisies and preconceptions that
supervene Sri Lankan diaspora communities into their hostland.
In the same boat (2013) is a story about illegal border crossing. A group of asylum
seekers fleeing from their ravaged and war-torn homeland. The travails of the escape
disclose the asylum seekers to be sufferers and perpetrators of conflict. They carry
with them their prejudices and fears which ultimately turn the boat into a
battleground. Channa Wickremesekeras writing has a profound insight which delves
deeply into the psyche of the displaced people. He expertly crafts the notions of
displacement and deracination.
Best Black Troops in the World': British Perceptions and the Making of the Sepoy
1746-1805 (2002). This book inspects the part played by the British perceptions on
Indian culture and Indian soldiers in the formation of English East India Company's
sepoy army. It examines the influence of British perceptions on the sepoy's place from
the barrack room to the battlefield, articulating that prejudice was a cornerstone in the
creation of the Company's Indian Army.
Kandy at War 'Indigenous Military Resistance to European Expansion in Sri Lanka
1594-1818' is a praiseworthy accomplishment in the field of research as recounts to
the history of the Kandyan kingdom. It focuses on the Kandyan military establishment
and its functioning in the face of the successive attempts by the Portuguese, Dutch
and English to overthrow indigenous resistance to foreign occupation.
References
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Black-Troops-World-
Perceptions/dp/8173044260/ref=la_B001JX9UEO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=139
5745417&sr=1-1
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/channawicks
http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A137013
http://www.palmerhiggsbooks.com.au/books-by-author/books-by-author/books-by-
author/louisa-isaac-1/channa-wickremesekera/in-the-same-boat.html
http://tormel.brinkster.net/distant_warriors.html
http://community.sinhalajukebox.org/article.php?story=20050716102555510