Diasporic Children of Indenture

We continue talking with Tifa Wine, Mx. Quest, Bijuriya, & Sundari the Indian Goddess, 4 indenture-descendant drag artists in 3 different diaspora sites, about performing gender, being Trinidadian & Guyanese, & the complex questions of identity.

Tifa Wine

Ryan Persadie/Tifa Wine is an artist, educator, performer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. His aesthetic and scholarly work interrogates the relationships and the entanglements between queer Indo-Caribbean diasporas, Caribbean feminisms, Afro-Asian intimacies, legacies of indenture, performance, embodiment, and popular culture. His writing can be found in the Stabroek News, A Colour Deep, Gay City News, and MUSICultures. He also works with and organizes with multiple community groups including the Caribbean Equality Project, and Queeribbean Toronto.

Outside of academia, he also works as a drag artist where he goes by the stage name of Tifa Wine. In this capacity, he uses embodied archives of song, dance, comedy, gesture, make-up, story-telling and fashion to pursue calls of decolonial and feminist pedagogy. He has performed across the GTA and internationally and works across mediums of live performance, video, and photography.

Mx. Quest

Miranda EJ. Warner is a genderqueer, mixed-race, Indo-Guyanese activist and artist of many disciplines. They are the driving force behind queer clown collective #ClownsKillEmpires, as well as a member of Les Femmes Fatales Women of Colour Burlesque. A regular fixture in drag (as Sydney Quest) and burlesque (as Imogen Quest) scenes worldwide, they have spent the pandemic taking #ClownsKillEmpires online, to showcase the most ridiculous QTBIPOC digital art they can find.

Bijuriya

Bijuriya is a drag queen living in Montreal/Tiohtiake, Canada. She's half Indo-Caribbean and half-Québécoise. On-stage Bjiuriya is a dazzling thunderbolt of energy and quirkiness. Bijuriya is inspired by her South Asian culture and appreciated for her proud, festive and humorous outlook on Bollywood and all things Desi! With a background as a musician and interdisciplinary artist, she is currently creating a theatrical solo show to be premiered at Montréal Arts Interculturels in March 2022.

Sundari the Indian Goddess

Under the stage names Sundari the Indian Goddess and International Dancer Zaman, Mohamed Afzal Amin, a native of Guyana, has over 15 years of award-winning experiences as a performer. Both as Zaman and as Sundari, Amin draws on his training in Bollywood, chutney, and multiple Caribbean and classical Indian dance styles to promote Indo-Caribbean arts and culture and the multiple, intersectional identities of LGBTQ+ Caribbean immigrants in the diaspora. Zaman is one of the founding members and the lead choreographer of the Taranng Dance Troupe (Waves of the  Future), a group of diversely trained dancers amplifying visibility and unity within the Caribbean performing arts community in the New York metropolitan tri-state area. And, as an LGBTQ+ rights activist and artist, he has pioneered several historic initiatives leading to queer and drag-centric performance pieces in faith-based institutions and at religious and cultural parades and festivals under both of his ionic personalities. In 2021, Amin bridged the skills, expertise and wisdom of his performer personalities into Zamandari, a consultancy, mentorship and community engagement platform to support new and up and coming Caribbean artists and connect the public with training, volunteer, and community support opportunities.

We continue our discussion with Tifa Wine, Mx. Quest, Bijuriya, & Sundari the Indian Goddess, 4 indenture-descendant drag artists in 3 different  diaspora sites, about performing gender, being Trinidadian & Guyanese, & the complex questions of identity.

Tifa Wine

Ryan Persadie/Tifa Wine is an artist, educator, performer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. His aesthetic and scholarly work interrogates the relationships and the entanglements between queer Indo-Caribbean diasporas, Caribbean feminisms, Afro-Asian intimacies, legacies of indenture, performance, embodiment, and popular culture. His writing can be found in the Stabroek News, A Colour Deep, Gay City News, and MUSICultures. He also works with and organizes with multiple community groups including the Caribbean Equality Project, and Queeribbean Toronto.

Outside of academia, he also works as a drag artist where he goes by the stage name of Tifa Wine. In this capacity, he uses embodied archives of song, dance, comedy, gesture, make-up, story-telling and fashion to pursue calls of decolonial and feminist pedagogy. He has performed across the GTA and internationally and works across mediums of live performance, video, and photography.

Mx. Quest

Miranda EJ. Warner is a genderqueer, mixed-race, Indo-Guyanese activist and artist of many disciplines. They are the driving force behind queer clown collective #ClownsKillEmpires, as well as a member of Les Femmes Fatales Women of Colour Burlesque. A regular fixture in drag (as Sydney Quest) and burlesque (as Imogen Quest) scenes worldwide, they have spent the pandemic taking #ClownsKillEmpires online, to showcase the most ridiculous QTBIPOC digital art they can find.

Bijuriya

Bijuriya is a drag queen living in Montreal/Tiohtiake, Canada. She's half Indo-Caribbean and half-Québécoise. On-stage Bjiuriya is a dazzling thunderbolt of energy and quirkiness. Bijuriya is inspired by her South Asian culture and appreciated for her proud, festive and humorous outlook on Bollywood and all things Desi! With a background as a musician and interdisciplinary artist, she is currently creating a theatrical solo show to be premiered at Montréal Arts Interculturels in March 2022.

Sundari the Indian Goddess

Under the stage names Sundari the Indian Goddess and International Dancer Zaman, Mohamed Afzal Amin, a native of Guyana, has over 15 years of award-winning experiences as a performer. Both as Zaman and as Sundari, Amin draws on his training in Bollywood, chutney, and multiple Caribbean and classical Indian dance styles to promote Indo-Caribbean arts and culture and the multiple, intersectional identities of LGBTQ+ Caribbean immigrants in the diaspora. Zaman is one of the founding members and the lead choreographer of the Taranng Dance Troupe (Waves of the  Future), a group of diversely trained dancers amplifying visibility and unity within the Caribbean performing arts community in the New York metropolitan tri-state area. And, as an LGBTQ+ rights activist and artist, he has pioneered several historic initiatives leading to queer and drag-centric performance pieces in faith-based institutions and at religious and cultural parades and festivals under both of his ionic personalities. In 2021, Amin bridged the skills, expertise and wisdom of his performer personalities into Zamandari, a consultancy, mentorship and community engagement platform to support new and up and coming Caribbean artists and connect the public with training, volunteer, and community support opportunities.

In this episode, we chat with Tifa Wine, Mx. Quest, Bijuriya, & Sundari the Indian Goddess, 4 indenture-descendant drag artists in 3 different  diaspora sites, about performing gender, being Trinidadian & Guyanese, & the complex questions of identity.

Tifa Wine

Ryan Persadie/Tifa Wine is an artist, educator, performer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. His aesthetic and scholarly work interrogates the relationships and the entanglements between queer Indo-Caribbean diasporas, Caribbean feminisms, Afro-Asian intimacies, legacies of indenture, performance, embodiment, and popular culture. His writing can be found in the Stabroek News, A Colour Deep, Gay City News, and MUSICultures. He also works with and organizes with multiple community groups including the Caribbean Equality Project, and Queeribbean Toronto.

Outside of academia, he also works as a drag artist where he goes by the stage name of Tifa Wine. In this capacity, he uses embodied archives of song, dance, comedy, gesture, make-up, story-telling and fashion to pursue calls of decolonial and feminist pedagogy. He has performed across the GTA and internationally and works across mediums of live performance, video, and photography.

Mx. Quest

Miranda EJ. Warner is a genderqueer, mixed-race, Indo-Guyanese activist and artist of many disciplines. They are the driving force behind queer clown collective #ClownsKillEmpires, as well as a member of Les Femmes Fatales Women of Colour Burlesque. A regular fixture in drag (as Sydney Quest) and burlesque (as Imogen Quest) scenes worldwide, they have spent the pandemic taking #ClownsKillEmpires online, to showcase the most ridiculous QTBIPOC digital art they can find.

Bijuriya

Bijuriya is a drag queen living in Montreal/Tiohtiake, Canada. She's half Indo-Caribbean and half-Québécoise. On-stage Bjiuriya is a dazzling thunderbolt of energy and quirkiness. Bijuriya is inspired by her South Asian culture and appreciated for her proud, festive and humorous outlook on Bollywood and all things Desi! With a background as a musician and interdisciplinary artist, she is currently creating a theatrical solo show to be premiered at Montréal Arts Interculturels in March 2022.

Sundari the Indian Goddess

Under the stage names Sundari the Indian Goddess and International Dancer Zaman, Mohamed Afzal Amin, a native of Guyana, has over 15 years of award-winning experiences as a performer. Both as Zaman and as Sundari, Amin draws on his training in Bollywood, chutney, and multiple Caribbean and classical Indian dance styles to promote Indo-Caribbean arts and culture and the multiple, intersectional identities of LGBTQ+ Caribbean immigrants in the diaspora. Zaman is one of the founding members and the lead choreographer of the Taranng Dance Troupe (Waves of the  Future), a group of diversely trained dancers amplifying visibility and unity within the Caribbean performing arts community in the New York metropolitan tri-state area. And, as an LGBTQ+ rights activist and artist, he has pioneered several historic initiatives leading to queer and drag-centric performance pieces in faith-based institutions and at religious and cultural parades and festivals under both of his ionic personalities. In 2021, Amin bridged the skills, expertise and wisdom of his performer personalities into Zamandari, a consultancy, mentorship and community engagement platform to support new and up and coming Caribbean artists and connect the public with training, volunteer, and community support opportunities.

Episode 09c is a post-reading conversation, diving deeper into the questions of identity, language, writing and words.

~ An Indenture Writer’s Round Table  ~

This special three-part episode brings together five diasporic writers with indenture origins from two hemispheres, from Eastern Africa’s Mauritius to the Caribbean’s Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname, to talk about identity, language, these artists’ craft of words, and to read some of their work.

Kama La Mackerel (they/them) - @kamalamackerel, Karimah Rahman (she/her) - @karimah__kr, Rajiv Mohabir (he/him) - @rajivmohabir, Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe (she/her), and Ryan Persadie (he/him) - @tifa.wine graced us with their presence and magic! Give the episode 9 series a listen to hear about how these writers locate themselves and their identities with words and hear their artistry, ranging from poetry and spoken word to short stories and article excerpts.

Working across several time zones and a difference of 6 hours came with some challenges, but we made it happen! However, the universe did not allow everyone to stay the entire recording session. Either way, a HUGE thank you to these 5 writers for joining us!

Episode 09b is where the magic happens. Come listen to Kama La Mackerel, Karimah Rahman, Rajiv Mohabir, Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe, and Ryan Persadie share their writing!

Readings include:

Kama’s “Your Body is the Ocean” from their book ZOM-FAM, Karimah's “Belonging Nowhere but Unapologetically Me: Muslim Indo-Caribbean and More” in Blooming Through Adversity: A Collection of Short Stories, Rajiv’s “Coolie Oddity” from his book Cutlish, and excerpts of spoken word pieces by Siela and a forthcoming article excerpt by Ryan.

~ An Indenture Writer’s Round Table  ~

This special three-part episode brings together five diasporic writers with indenture origins from two hemispheres, from Eastern Africa’s Mauritius to the Caribbean’s Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname, to talk about identity, language, these artists’ craft of words, and to read some of their work.

Kama La Mackerel (they/them) - @kamalamackerel, Karimah Rahman (she/her) - @karimah__kr, Rajiv Mohabir (he/him) - @rajivmohabir, Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe (she/her), and Ryan Persadie (he/him) - @tifa.wine graced us with their presence and magic! Give the episode 9 series a listen to hear about how these writers locate themselves and their identities with words and hear their artistry, ranging from poetry and spoken word to short stories and article excerpts.

Working across several time zones and a difference of 6 hours came with some challenges, but we made it happen! However, the universe did not allow everyone to stay the entire recording session. Either way, a HUGE thank you to these 5 writers for joining us!

Episode 09a starts off the series with introductions and discussions of identity with the five writers of the round table.

~ An Indenture Writer’s Round Table  ~

This special three-part episode brings together five diasporic writers with indenture origins from two hemispheres, from Eastern Africa’s Mauritius to the Caribbean’s Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname, to talk about identity, language, these artists’ craft of words, and to read some of their work.

Kama La Mackerel (they/them) - @kamalamackerel, Karimah Rahman (she/her) - @karimah__kr, Rajiv Mohabir (he/him) - @rajivmohabir, Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe (she/her), and Ryan Persadie (he/him) - @tifa.wine graced us with their presence and magic! Give the episode 9 series a listen to hear about how these writers locate themselves and their identities with words and hear their artistry, ranging from poetry and spoken word to short stories and article excerpts.

Working across several time zones and a difference of 6 hours came with some challenges, but we made it happen! However, the universe did not allow everyone to stay the entire recording session. Either way, a HUGE thank you to these 5 writers for joining us!

We continue our chat with Fazle, Pravini and Siela, three Indo-Surinamese or Hindostanen, about their experiences growing up and living in the Netherlands, at the heart of empire.

Fazle (they/he/she/dem) - @fazle_shairmahomed

Fazle Shairmahomed creates decolonizing rituals, performance art, and dance. Their work is rooted in ancestral work and intersectional activism. Through the urgency of community building their work creates spaces in which different communities are invited to nurture conversations around colonialism and the ways in which it has impacted our histories and the ways in which it exists today. The multi-sensorial approach in their work also challenges the ways in which we perceive the world around us through themes such as death, rebirth, ancestry, belonging, colonial histories, and healing. Since 2013 he is also one of the members of CLOUD danslab, an artist run dance studio which supports research and practice of dance, movement, and performance art in the Hague.

The physcial work and research of Fazle is deeply rooted in ways of approaching the state of trance, through archaic movements and ritual practices mostly inspired and informed by Muslim/Sufi traditions of Gnawa, Zar, the whirling Dervish; Japanese Butoh, Surinamese Winti culture, Hindu rituals, Caribbean Bubbling, Muslim funeral practices, Vogueing, and the Club.

Pravini (she/her/hers) - @pravinimusic

Pravini Baboeram is an artist and activist, creating art to contribute to social change. As an independent artist she has set up her own label Pravini Productions, that has produced 5 albums, 6 singles and 5 international tours. She is co-founder of action committee Holi is not a Houseparty, a campaign against cultural appropriation of the Hindu spring festival Holi, and initiator of the Anti-racism Voting Guide. In addition, she led the campaign Tetary Must Rise, a crowdfunding campaign for the replacement of the statue of colonizer Barnet Lyon by the Hindustani warrior of resistance Janey Tetary. Pravini also set up Indian History Month to celebrate stories and contributions of people from the Indian diaspora. In 2019 she released her new album and documentary “The Uprising”, a film about the anti-racism movement in Europe.

Siela (she/her/hers)

Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe is an anthropologist and sociologist. She has spent the past 20 years working in the field of diversity inclusion, with equity as its foundation. She started within welfare and social work and later on switched to higher education and the public sector at the level of national and local government. June 1st 2021 she started as the Diversity and Inclusion officer at the University of The Arts- The Hague.  She also runs her own company Connecting the Dot’s unlimited where she provides training, coaching and advice and she works as a wordartist. She contributed to several publications such as Superdivers! (2013), Onbeschreven Erfgoed (2017) and Diversiteit in de Samenleving (2017 and 2020), she is editor-in-chief of the latter. Furthermore, she writes a monthly column about diversity and inclusion at the Sarnamihuis and is a columnist for Cultuurpers. With her husband and children she created the podcast Diversity in Check and she is jointly responsible for the podcast ‘Zeg maar gewoon wit.’  She is a supervisory board member for  Mauritshuis, chairperson for Lloyds Company and board member of Het Haags Theaterhuis.

In this episode, we chat with Fazle, Pravini and Siela, three Indo-Surinamese or Hindostanen, about their experiences growing up and living in the Netherlands, at the heart of empire. 

Fazle (they/he/she/dem) - @fazle_shairmahomed

Fazle Shairmahomed creates decolonizing rituals, performance art, and dance. Their work is rooted in ancestral work and intersectional activism. Through the urgency of community building their work creates spaces in which different communities are invited to nurture conversations around colonialism and the ways in which it has impacted our histories and the ways in which it exists today. The multi-sensorial approach in their work also challenges the ways in which we perceive the world around us through themes such as death, rebirth, ancestry, belonging, colonial histories, and healing. Since 2013 he is also one of the members of CLOUD danslab, an artist run dance studio which supports research and practice of dance, movement, and performance art in the Hague.

The physcial work and research of Fazle is deeply rooted in ways of approaching the state of trance, through archaic movements and ritual practices mostly inspired and informed by Muslim/Sufi traditions of Gnawa, Zar, the whirling Dervish; Japanese Butoh, Surinamese Winti culture, Hindu rituals, Caribbean Bubbling, Muslim funeral practices, Vogueing, and the Club.

Pravini (she/her/hers) - @pravinimusic

Pravini Baboeram is an artist and activist, creating art to contribute to social change. As an independent artist she has set up her own label Pravini Productions, that has produced 5 albums, 6 singles and 5 international tours. She is co-founder of action committee Holi is not a Houseparty, a campaign against cultural appropriation of the Hindu spring festival Holi, and initiator of the Anti-racism Voting Guide. In addition, she led the campaign Tetary Must Rise, a crowdfunding campaign for the replacement of the statue of colonizer Barnet Lyon by the Hindustani warrior of resistance Janey Tetary. Pravini also set up Indian History Month to celebrate stories and contributions of people from the Indian diaspora. In 2019 she released her new album and documentary “The Uprising”, a film about the anti-racism movement in Europe.

Siela (she/her/hers) 

Siela Ardjosemito-Jethoe is an anthropologist and sociologist. She has spent the past 20 years working in the field of diversity inclusion, with equity as its foundation. She started within welfare and social work and later on switched to higher education and the public sector at the level of national and local government. June 1st 2021 she started as the Diversity and Inclusion officer at the University of The Arts- The Hague.  She also runs her own company Connecting the Dot’s unlimited where she provides training, coaching and advice and she works as a wordartist. She contributed to several publications such as Superdivers! (2013), Onbeschreven Erfgoed (2017) and Diversiteit in de Samenleving (2017 and 2020), she is editor-in-chief of the latter. Furthermore, she writes a monthly column about diversity and inclusion at the Sarnamihuis and is a columnist for Cultuurpers. With her husband and children she created the podcast Diversity in Check and she is jointly responsible for the podcast ‘Zeg maar gewoon wit.’  She is a supervisory board member for  Mauritshuis, chairperson for Lloyds Company and board member of Het Haags Theaterhuis. 

One last posting for the theme of la francophonie and indenture. In episode 7b, I talk a little on my findings on Guadeloupe, beginning with the end of slavery and start of indenture to life on the island today. For the fall term in 2021, I completed an independent study of Guadeloupean Creole with the French Department of my uni. When you learn a language, you learn a new culture. In episode 7a on my study of creole, I spoke on how that new culture was so familiar to me as a Caribbean person. Something crucially new was learning how colonialism has undeniable impacts on everyday life in Guadeloupe, especially on racial dynamics of the tourism industry, and challenges of everyday Guadeloupeans. People commonly envision a postcard paradise of the Caribbean, but what is the real cost and other side of that image?

Don't forget to subscribe, follow us on instagram (@DiasporicChildrenofIndenture), and turn on notifications! And, while you're at it, check out the digital humanities site (link in ig bio)!

Checkout episode 4a and 4b with Manuela Latchoumaya on being raised in Guadeloupe and living at the heart of empire in Europe.

"A Break in the Clouds" by PNFA (2010)

Continuing with the theme of la francophonie and indenture, I switch things up this episode and chat about my experience learning Guadeloupean Creole as a creole-speaker during the fall term. Guadeloupe continues to be an Overseas Department of France, and out of the francophone Caribbean, the island received the largest number of people indentured from South Asia. The francophone Caribbean was a region I didn't know much about. However, through my study, I've come to learn how much we share as Caribbean people. Byen mèsi a prof chéri an-mwen!

 Enjoy!

Don't forget to subscribe, follow us on instagram (@DiasporicChildrenofIndenture), and turn on notifications! And, while you're at it, check out the digital humanities site (link in ig bio)!

I learned Guadeloupean Creole from French with the textbook Le Créole Sans Peine from Le Méthode Assimil. 

Poullet, Hector et Telchid, Sylviane. Le Créole Sans Peine (Guadeloupéen). Assimil, 1990. 

And here's a dictionary:

Pinalie, Pierre. Dictionnaire élémentaire français-créole. L'Harmattan, 2009.

Podcast Music: 

"A Break in the Clouds" by PNFA (2010)