A multimedia exhibition that delves into the untold stories of post-indenture life, gender, and culture through botanical memory was launched by the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus.
Dedicated to the late Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo, The Botanical Afterlife of Indenture: Imaginative Archives opened at the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday.
Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies’ Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Dr. Gabrielle Hosein, said the exhibition was conceptualised over a decade.
The exhibit pays tribute to the legacy of Indian indentureship, particularly women’s roles, resistances, and cultural contributions through botanicals, jewellery, henna, photography, tattoos, and film.
“I began dreaming of this exhibit in 2016 when thinking about what post-indenture feminism looks like. As articulated in collaboration with Dr. Lisa Autar, post-indenture feminism draws on artefacts, symbols, embodiment, culture, tradition, visual archives, the sacred, the sexual, as these emerged from the legacies of indenture.”
The central inspiration for the exhibit came from the late Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo, whose research sparked Dr. Hosein’s vision to shift focus from sugarcane to flora brought by indentured workers.
“Memorialising these very botanicals seems to be a beautiful way of commemorating the 180th anniversary of Indian survival in the Caribbean. The exhibit, therefore, departs from cane, a plantation monocrop, to instead emphasise the botanicals brought by indentured workers, particularly women in their jahaji or jahajin, just the feminine, their jahajin bandals or bundles.”
Participants are invited to take pieces of the exhibit with them.
“These handmade artworks, or Georgie bundles, printed with the very botanicals that they brought, enable the exhibit to be participatory and popular, as these move with us in the very landscape to which they’re connected as a visual archive. These are part of the exhibit which you can take into your life and your journeys. In other words, the jahajin bundles in the back are available for you to take home.”
Dr. Hosein emphasised the extensive collaboration behind the project, praising local creatives for their vision and commitment – from photographer Abigail Hadeed to jewellery artist Mitchum Weaver and mehindi designer Risa Raghunanan.
“When we put out a call for images, we wanted to show how these botanicals remain meaningful to people to date, and 16 contributors from across the Caribbean sent in images and text, which gave this a community component that really makes it grounded.”
The Botanical Afterlife of Indenture runs at the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago until June 21st.