Bhakrodi To Woolgoolga

10 July 2023

by Len Kenna & Crystal Jordan

NEW RELEASE: Bhakrodi To Woolgoolga by Len Kenna & Crystal Jordan

This book examines Moti's journey to Australia and the unexpected events that followed. when he set out on his journey Moti wanted to increase his family's wealth and land holdings in the Punjab and to continue his Sikh way of life.

This book had a strange beginning in that it wasn’t a planned project it came about following a chain of events. While the Sikh Museum in Woolgoolga was being curated the only photograph of Moti disintegrated during cleaning and preparing the photograph

for display. As a result of this Crystal and I visited Kirpal Husna and were asked to locate another photograph of Moti and we agreed. This was much more difficult than expected. During the search for this photograph, we were lucky enough to find a second

photograph and other interesting facts on Moti and his descendants. At this point Kirpal Husna told us he had family photographs, Moti’s damaged passport, and other information about his family’s history. Kirpal asked Crystal to collate the information found

during the research together with his family’s history.

Moti achieved his main objective: he increased his familiy's wealth and land holdings in the Punjab, but instead of continuing his sikh way of life in the Punjab he stayed in Australia occasionally returning to his village for long periods of time staying on some occasions several years before returning to Australia, in that way he developed a dual nationality. In his village he lived the life of a wealthy Sikh and each time he returned to Australia he lived the life of an itinerant worker and when he was reaching retirement age his sons Husna and Kabul, joined him in Australia. With the passing of time, he returned to his village and died among family and friends. This was the beginning of Moti's dynasty in Australia. His descendants lived in two worlds: in Australia and in the Punjab.

this dual existence is an area of study not previously examined and should be of interest to all Sikhs and people interested in the Punjab and things Sikh.

Bhakrodi to Woolgoolga was launched on 22 October 2023 by Gurmesh Singh MP. The book and included a photograph of his great grandfather Bella Singh when he travelled back to his village with Moti Husna and other Sikhs from Grafton, NSW. Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan have been asked by the main Sikh Families that settled in Woolgoolga to research and write the history of Sikhs in Woolgoolga and the biographies of the main Sikh families that settled there including Bella Singh and his family. We researched many other files and photographs of Bella Singh and other Sikhs from Grafton and Woolgoolga while researching Moti's journey along with added information about Woolgoolga and this research will be published in the near future.

Gurmesh Singh MP. Bella Singh Family Woolgoolga NSW.

One of the earliest files and photographs we found and paid to open was of Bella Singh it was on his Certificate of Exemption to the Dictation Test at the National Archives when he returned to India in 1919. His family had not seen this photograph before and were amazed at the likeness to Bella Singh of some of his descendants.