2020, archival pigment prints, 16 diptychs, 14cm x 8.5cm.
This series of photographs questions the colonial archive that has stood to represent my family and this history of sugar and indenture – reframing this lens. Acknowledging the archive of images and research from this period – the images that exist take form often as commercial postcards, hand-coloured and selling the industry and agriculture of the region, depicting people as commodities and landscapes. I re-image this archive and the silences present through reframing ownership of this history.
Note: ‘Dhūãna akase mararai’ translates to, ‘So that smoke will go up to the sky’ in South African Bhojpuri.
This project was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, and by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.