Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Lionel Pieris

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Lionel Pieris, Lionel Wendt, The Past is Another Country

The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.

Lionel Pieris is the son of Harold Pieris, who lived at the famous Alfred House and turned it into a centre for drama and other cultural activities. He was the brother in law of George Keyt and the confidante of the photographer Lionel Wendt, in whose memory he built the Lionel Wendt Theatre. His son Lionel describes the commitment of Lionel Wendt, as well as his father, to cultural activities that promoted a Sri Lankan identity.

Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Laki Senanayake

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Diyabubula, Laki Senanayake, The Past is Another Country

The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.

Laki Senanayake is the son of Florence Senanayake, one of Sri Lanka’s first women legislators, and the brother of the distinguished lawyer Nimal Senanayake. Laki however was an artist, who collaborated for many years with Geoffrey Bawa, and designed some of the most remarkable features of Bawa Hotels. He was also a partner of Ena de Silva, and describes working with her to develop distinctive Sri Lankan designs in the sixties and seventies. The interview is conducted at Diyabubula, his idyllic rural retreat near Dambulla.

Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane with Tamara Kunanayakam

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SriLanka, Tamara Kunanayakam, The Past is Another Country

The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20th century.

Tamara Kunanayagam was born of Tamil parents from two different communities, who were both radical in their outlook. Educated in the Sinhala medium at Ladies College, she also studied for a while in Jaffna when radicalism was developing there during the sixties. Having travelled overland to Europe in her teens, she studied there and worked in Human Rights in Geneva, before being appointed by the present government as Sri Lankan ambassador in Cuba and then in Geneva.