sugar/cheeni/shakkar/sakarai/chakara/panjasara, 2019 sound perfomance.
Sancintya Mohini Simpson and Isha Ram Das with Indarami Simpson.
Botanica artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson is joined by her brother Isha Ram Das and mother Indarami Simpson to perform a healing and cleansing ritual in response to their familial history. Influenced by Hindu worship practices, they combine prose, song, and ritual to create an experimental sound and sensorial experience.
The artists’ maternal ancestors were taken as indentured labourers from South India to South Africa, where indenture took place from the 1860s until the 1920s. They worked on sugar plantations in Durban, at estates such as Prospect Hall Estate Umgeni Durban Sugar, Armstrong G.S. Emoyeni Phoenix Durban Sugar, and Hill Head Estate Mollieres Snell Sugar.
The workers suffered horrific ill-treatment and abuse during indenture. Their stories and personal histories have been buried, whilst their shame, trauma and loss, continue with each generation. This performance seeks to acknowledge these stories and heal together from this history.
Location: Botanica map #8
