Being Indo-Caribbean Photo Series

Being Indo-Caribbean is a visual meditation on heritage, resilience, and the everyday rituals that hold the weight of history. Through still-life photography, the series captures objects that are more than objects — they are vessels of memory, migration, and identity. Each element speaks to the intertwined legacies of South Asia and the Caribbean, carried forward in kitchens, gardens, and community spaces.

Dhal — The first image, chosen for the way it embodies weekend ritual. The swirling of dhal in a pot is more than cooking; it is a meditation passed down through hands and generations. Originating in South Asia yet deeply rooted in Caribbean kitchens, dhal bridges continents and histories. Its golden hue holds the memory of women who taught us — mothers, aunties, grandmothers — each stirring the pot in the same patient rhythm, preserving a recipe that is both survival and love.

Masala — An ode to being Indo-Caribbean in America. Born from a moment of erasure — when an interviewer, unable or unwilling to see the fullness of who I am, wrote “Indian” on my résumé. Masala, with its blend of spices, mirrors the complexity of our heritage: South Asian roots transformed in the Caribbean, carrying the scent of home yet shaped by migration and resilience. It speaks to the in-between — the spaces where we are misnamed, misread, and yet still boldly flavor the world around us.

Banana Leaf — A layered emblem of the Caribbean, rooted in histories both painful and sacred. It calls back to the plantations, where indentured laborers and enslaved people were forced to harvest bananas — work that fed economies but broke bodies. Yet, the banana leaf also lives in our rituals and gatherings: laid out as a plate for food, folded into offerings, holding meals in a way that connects us to the land. In its green veins are stories of survival, resilience, and transformation.

Hibiscus — A bloom that carries the adversity of my people in its petals. Vibrant yet delicate, the hibiscus thrives in heat, its beauty shaped by resilience. In Caribbean yards and gardens, it stands as both ornament and offering, woven into ceremonies and moments of remembrance. Its crimson hue recalls struggle and sacrifice, while its openness mirrors the spirit of a people who have endured displacement, labor, and misrepresentation — yet continue to grow, rooted deeply in culture and in self.

Brown Sugar and Rice — Twin symbols of migration and exploitation. Brown sugar, tied to the vast plantations that fueled the transatlantic trade, was the very reason indentured laborers were brought to the Caribbean after the abolition of slavery. Rice, too, carries its own history — cultivated under the same sun, feeding both the colonizers and the colonized. Together, they tell a story of displacement and survival, of people uprooted to work unfamiliar soil, and of how these staples, once bound to systems of oppression, became woven into the comfort, flavor, and daily ritual of Caribbean life.

Through these images — from the swirl of dhal to the bloom of hibiscus — Being Indo-Caribbean holds space for the contradictions of our identity: the beauty and the burden, the ritual and the rupture, the inheritance of both pain and pride. It is a reminder that culture is not static — it is stirred, blended, and replanted, again and again, across generations.