Mere Porvaj [I am Remembering]
The girmitiyas are gone now, but their imprint is etched indelibly on the landscape of their adopted homes
Brij V Lal from Chalo Jahaji

Mere Porvaj [I am remembering]

My family I am remembering.
My people I am remembering our journeys by water, our struggles on land.
I am remembering our bodies working this land, tending it as though it were our own; for the will of others who continue to forget us and our story.

I am remembering our prayers and our songs.
No longer defined by our loss and our erasure.
These works consider softer moments of building home. Holding our memories in our bodies and in our landscapes.

This is something true.
My Aaji built the house I think of as home. A blue house on a hill. Overlooking a green river…
Her sari is light orange, waving in the wind.

My Nanni built her house. A house with a red puja room with ghosts that breathed in and out as the wind blew. Facing the school.
Her sari is soft pink and green, silk from the south of India a reminder of homelands and weaving through green fields of sugarcane.

The works in Mere Porvaj [I am remembering] speak to a history that has been forgotten, the labour of women, and the love of a land that continues to hold them. The works in this new body of work explores print making, textiles, objects and a song that holds it all together. Offering a meditation on who gets to remember but also small moments of joy and prayer that allow a community to continue and persist.

Shivanjani Lal’s Mere Porvaj [I am Remembering] is one of the inaugural exhibitions as part of Linden’s JUNCTURE art prize. Launched in 2023, the prize supports two mid-career artists in the continued development of their practices and assists in realising new ambitious work.