Gary Kirkham & Chea Han-Kirkham
My connection to Gary Kirkham and Chea Han-Kirkham is deeply rooted – in some ways, it feels predestined. However, there’s a part of them that’s beyond my comprehension. Before we met, both of them experienced profound trauma in their lives.
Living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in the mid-1970s, Chea was forced from her childhood home by the radical, communist Khmer Rouge. To escape forced labour and likely death, she and her family embarked on an arduous journey across the country before finding refuge in France.
In his 20s, Gary lost his closest friend in a terrorist attack on an airplane in 1988. The Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing Gary’s friend along with 258 other passengers and 11 people on the ground.
Despite these events – or perhaps because of them – Gary and Chea approach life with a radical pragmatism, an urgency to embrace the unknowable and make the best of it.
Gary is a playwright and multi-media artIst that I’ve collaborated with over the years. Here are some links to some of the work we’ve done together:
- There’s No Place Like Home – a mockumentary made as part of an awareness campaign for Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region – an agency that supports women and children who are experiencing intimate-partner violence.
- Doggie POV – video test of a GoPro mounted on Gary and Chea’s Old English Sheepdog, Sasha
In EPISODE #5 of “How the Light Gets In” Gary and Chea share their thoughts on love, hope and the chaos of life.
Let me know in the comments how you find light, love, and joy in your life.
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Visually Speaking 
I laughed when Gary said he creates chaos because sometimes we’ve created chaos together, working on art projects with my students at the school for the blind. The chaos usually ends in really creative art installations! I didn’t know about all the loss and grief in your lives so thank you for telling your stories. I find light in music- singing with my quartet or listening to music at The Jazz room in Waterloo…