Getting the message across through Reggae
View(s):As the head of Sri Lanka’s Survival Reggae Club, Sunil Pathirana likes to keep his motto simple: ‘Sri Lanka Unite, One Nation, One Flag, Peace and Love.’ Sunil has been organising reggae gatherings in Sri Lanka since 1997. He believes reggae music is both innovative and traditional and is rightly termed ‘the music with a message’.
Sunil
Despite dreaming of starting up a club for a while, Sunil says he became really determined when he met Prahlada, a member of Australia’s reggae club. He recalls hearing about the latter’s founding: After Bob Marley and the Wailers visited Australia on their ‘Survival’ world tour in the 1980s some Australians returned the visit, heading to Jamaica to have a one-on-one audience with the ‘King of Reggae.’ When they asked him what they could do to help promote reggae back home, Marley had one suggestion. ‘Start a reggae club and call it the Survival Reggae Club.’ They did and the reggae scene in Melbourne became well known.
Using the Australian club as his model, Sunil began bringing together local fans.The club, which he founded in 2009, has ties with Australia and Japan and has since staged events in Arugam Bay, Ambilipitiya, Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, Aluthgama and Mt. Lavinia. Apart from numerous events in Sri Lanka, they have also played in India in Goa and Bangalore.
Sunil says they’re planning new club events including a Reggae Festival in Arugambay. In the meantime, the club’s two reggae bands and DJs take on private events as well. That having been said, Sunil’s plans for the club extend beyond reggae parties.
He believes in Marley’s vision for reggae as something that could be used to aid reconciliation between different cultures. In 2010 Sunil and Prahlada met Ashan Puspakumara who was developing his ideas to create a youth club based on human rights, now operating as Roar International, representing Sri Lanka at the UN Youth Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 2011. They imagined being able to bring reggae to the north of the island – to use the music to provide healing and a voice to people who’ve lived in a war zone.
Sunil hopes that through the promotion of reggae music it would help to unify all people to grow and live in peace and harmony.For more information contact the Survival Reggae Club of Sri Lanka on survivalsl@gmail.com
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