Unbound book of datasets, historical texts and ancedotes from my mother, Risograph printed on black cardstock, 211 in x 8.5 in.
After the emancipation of African slave labor in 1833, a system of indentured labor was crafted by Britain which shipped over a million Indian peasants to work British-owned sugar estates in the West Indies, Africa and South East Asia on fixed-term contracts. I began this research to learn more about my Indo-Trinidadian lineage. I found myself with very few answers and more questions. How do we corroborate a past passed down through oral traditions and empirical research? Who gets to corroborate it? What counts as evidence? When I re-tell this past, am I bending it to my desires? Finally, to borrow from Meena Alexander, do we have poetry so we do not die of history?
After the emancipation of African slave labor in 1833, a system of indentured labor was crafted by Britain which shipped over a million Indian peasants to work British-owned sugar estates in the West Indies, Africa and South East Asia on fixed-term contracts. I began this research to learn more about my Indo-Trinidadian lineage. I found myself with very few answers and more questions. How do we corroborate a past passed down through oral traditions and empirical research? Who gets to corroborate it? What counts as evidence? When I re-tell this past, am I bending it to my desires? Finally, to borrow from Meena Alexander, do we have poetry so we do not die of history?
