Yellowknife’s Sikh community now has a place of worship

A Yellowknife group has established a designated spot for the city’s Sikh community to gather, pray and meditate.

The Yellowknife Sikh Society, which recently registered as a non-profit organization, has spent months trying to find a location where residents can come together for religious services.

The gurudwara is currently open from 5-7am and 7-9pm daily. The group hopes to extend those hours once more volunteers are available to help operate the space outside their regular jobs.

The group also plans to introduce a free food service known as langar – a community kitchen traditionally offered at gurudwaras – once the necessary resources and permissions are in place.

Members of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome to attend, provided they follow some rules inside the premises: covering their heads, removing shoes and washing their hands upon arrival. Intoxicated individuals are not permitted.

Canada is home to more than 160 gurudwaras, but none are located in the Northwest Territories, leaving the nearest place of worship hundreds of kilometres away. The only other gurudwara in the three territories is Gurudwara Akaljot Sahib in Whitehorse.

Gundeep Singh, a member of the Yellowknife Sikh Society, said the service has been offered in the city for several years, but the new location marks a move toward a formal setting.

Volunteers for years have organized Paaths, or prayers, at places around the city like the multiplex, and some gatherings were even held in private homes.

A portion of a downtown Yellowknife building is now rented on a month-to-month basis with the help of people who pool their money through donations, Singh said.

Singh said he used to use WhatsApp to invite community members for prayers at his own home. While some people attended, others were hesitant to go to someone’s private residence.

Discussions about establishing a place of worship in the city became more concrete in April.

According to Singh, the gurudwara is run entirely by volunteers. Because they each have their own jobs and limited availability, they rotate the responsibility of leading morning and evening prayers.

Singh said they are still working toward an official opening while completing the necessary permissions and administrative requirements. In the meantime, anyone who wishes to take part can join the sessions.

“We have been getting a really good response from the community,” he said, “and the community has been coming up and asking for the seva [selfless service], to volunteer, to do these prayers in the morning and the evening.

“People from the community always come up to us and ask why we don’t establish a proper gurudwara here in Yellowknife. We always get people asking what we are doing about that, and I think that thought has been in the community for a while.”

At present, the group does not have a complete copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scripture of Sikhism. Instead, it uses a two-volume edition to conduct prayers.

Singh explained that it is valuable for Sikhs to understand and engage with Gurbani – not only by listening to and reading it, but also by discussing its teachings and applying them practically in daily life.

The current opening hours are limited to about four hours because all services, including prayers, Gurbani readings and other responsibilities are managed by volunteers.

In the future, as the project develops and more resources become available, the goal is to extend the hours so people can visit more freely, similar to other gurudwaras around the world that are open throughout the day. Singh said the long-term vision is to move to a permanent space.

He gave the example of the Sikh community in Whitehorse, which followed a similar journey and took several years to move from a temporary space to having its own dedicated gurudwara building. A standalone location would also offer more room to organize langar.

“As a basic principle for the Sikh community, it is very important for the Sikhs to go to the gurudwara … It gives us immense happiness that we can do that. We are officially able to do that,” he said.

Singh said the word gurudwara means “the Guru’s door,” with Guru meaning teacher and dwara meaning door. Without a dedicated place of worship, he said it becomes more difficult for children growing up in the community to learn about Sikh traditions, practices and values. 

“If we will have a place, then we’ll be able to answer: This is what bowing in front of Guru Granth Sahib Ji means. This is what the langar seva means. This is the meaning of sitting together in this congregation,” he said.

“That’s what the gurudwara is, and that’s why it’s so important to have a gurudwara in Yellowknife or anywhere in the world where Sikhs reside.”

‘Huge impact’

Bismanjot Kaur said gatherings at personal residences helped strengthen relationships within the community and brought people closer together.

Since moving to Yellowknife, she said, community members had often discussed the need for a gurudwara and spent several months searching for a suitable location. When the current space became available, she said it was a welcome opportunity. 

“It has been beautiful. I think it helps me. It helps everyone practice their religion, be more regular, and try to be more regular in their religious routines,” she said.

“I personally think having a gurudwara in a community is very important, especially for newcomers who are not so familiar with the area and it helps find a sense of belongingness, as well as practise those routines which we may or may not be able to at our individual places,” she said.

“Having a dedicated place where all the rituals happen – the ceremonies are performed, the shabads, the hymns are sung, and especially when we do it as a team, when we do it at sangat – it makes a huge impact.”