Exploring the Fusion Panel Series
The Exploring the Fusion Series is a panel discussion hosted at the Odisha Society of the United Kingdom’s annual convention.
The series considers and platforms how different people in the Odia-Brit community experience symbiosis with the world around them, through sharing feelings and ideas that have thoughtfully and spontaneously been offered to the audience and each other as food for thought, focussed by one pre-determined theme per discussion. Previous years have included multiculturalism and reclamation.
The Exploring the Fusion Series holds space for honest (often multilingual) conversations, stories and dreams in the moments that hold the potential to bridge day-to-day worlds with the future. Each discussion opens the doors to different experiences and ways of thinking by simply listening. Talking and listening to the 4-5 panellists on the essences’ of what makes them feel human and what makes them feel extraordinary, whether that be their communal identities, folk tales, learning journeys, recalling old adventures, current guilty pleasures or whatever else it is that moves the speakers in the moment. Letting their imagination and provocations breathe, allows them to live in the fusion in wonderful, unique ways of their own, and also through the one sociocultural community they all have in common. Exploring the Fusion hopes to continue sparking open conversations, and perhaps more importantly, opening listening.
This was launched in 2022 and continues to be hosted and produced by Artistic Changemaker Akshita Brahma (she/her).
2022 - Multiculturalism
2022's panel in Manchester covered personal experiences and opinions on ideas of multiculturalism, as people of multicultural societies, with traditions and lifestyles rooted in Odisha and the UK. The panel explored what these themes look like through lenses of mental health, the arts, the sciences, literature, language, family, friendship, travel, lived experience and the future.
The 2022 panellists (left to right); OSUK Expert Mr Biswajit Pradhan (he/him), Acclaimed Singer Mrs Anandita Das (she/her), host Changemaker Akshita Brahma, then Internationally Accredited Film Maker Mr Jitendra Mishra (he/him) and Acclaimed Psychiatrist Dr Sanjukta Das (she/her).
2023 - Reclamation
2023's discussion in London on reclamation covered fashion, language, taught history and community heritage, religion, food and parenting in environments and cultures different to your own experience. Another resounding success with many audience members getting involved and excited by the provocations, offering questions and answers of their own during the q+a section of the panel, but also long into the convention after the panel had ended!
The 2023 Panellists (left to right): Potli Indian Market Kitchen Founder Mr Uttam Tripathy, Clinical Director and GP Partner Dr Lipi Pradhan, OSUK Veteran Dr Nishebita Das, host Artistic Changemaker Akshita Brahma and NHS Consultant Dr Bibhu Mishra.
2024 - Belonging
2024's discussion in Cardiff was framed in a different style to previous iterations. 2024 saw the panel become even more of a collaborative discussion, facilitated by Akshita, but with complete open audience participation rather than specific panellists. The conversation looked at colonial and decolonial stories, nutrition choices, the institution of marriage, parent-child-school dynamics, language friction and fusion, secularism and practical ways of weaving different cultures together through music, movies, games and sports congregations. The conversations provoked wider discussion around expression and how people can be embracing of themselves and those around them through nuance and through active effort rather than passivity.