Dal Puri Diaspora, Richard Fung (2012) (EMPIRE LINES x Museum of London Docklands)

Curators Shereen Lafhaj and Makiya Davis-Bramble unwrap the underrepresented history of Indian indenture in the British Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries, through Richard Fung’s 2012 documentary film, Dal Puri Diaspora. Plus, artist Salina Jane, and Chandani Persaud, tuck into contemporary Indo-Caribbean and Trinidadian food and culture in London today.

In Dal Puri Diaspora, filmmaker Richard Fung travels from Toronto to Trinidad, and Guyana to India, tracing the migrations - and many variations - of a dish often called Caribbean or West Indian roti. After the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, British and Dutch Caribbean plantation owners still required cheap labour and, having successfully petitioned the British government, recruited indentured workers from India. Over 450,000 men and women would make the five month journey by boat, working for three to five years in return for transport, a minimal wage and some basic provisions, until the scheme’s end in 1917. Yet whilst 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Windrush migrations, these stories of Caribbean migration remain comparatively overlooked in British histories.

Shereen Lafhaj and Makiya Davis-Bramble, curators of Indo + Caribbean, explore the reasons why workers decided to leave India, and how we can curate complex histories of opportunity, restriction, and resistance. They share personal experiences informed by caste, gender, and women’s agency, and how museums might use AI to fill the gaps in the archive. Artist Salina Jane highlights how Indo-Caribbeans connect with their heritage today, sharing sugar cane and cocoa drawn from her own growing allotment, and Kew Gardens in South London. Plus, Chandani Persaud looks at the evolution of food and labour in the local community - from suppression to celebration and commercialisation in Western cultures - highlighting how colonialism still shapes tastes and identities.

Indo + Caribbean: The creation of a culture runs at the Museum of London Docklands in London until 19 November 2023.

For more on Trinidad, hear Gérard Besson’s EMPIRE LINES on The Magnificent Seven (Port of Spain), Trinidad (c. 1902-1910): https://pod.link/1533637675/episode/8d33407d49e5d371cb5d4827088d896c

Part of EMPIRE LINES' Windrush Season, marking the 75 year anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush's arrival in the UK from the West Indies. Listen to the other episode with curator Isabella Maidment on Barbershop, Hurvin Anderson (2006-2023): https://pod.link/1533637675/episode/5cfb7ddb525098a8e8da837fcace8068.

WITH: Shereen Lafhaj, Curator at the Museum of London, and Makiya Davis-Bramble, Curator at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum. They are the co-curators of Indo + Caribbean. Salina Jane, a British artist of Indo-Caribbean descent making art about the experience of her family's journey from India through indentured labour to Guyana. Chandani Persaud, founder of Indo-Caribbean London.

ART: ‘Dal Puri Diaspora, Richard Fung (2012)’.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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