Joy in the Dirt
I was born in South Africa, as were my parents and grandparents. We have descended from people who had been brought to South Africa through indenture, a colonial labour system that introduced alien agricultural methods and an alien workforce from India, to optimise monocultures like sugarcane. My v...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Alberta
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Art/Research International |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/29688 |
| _version_ | 1797985378028748800 |
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| author | Pralini Naidoo |
| author_facet | Pralini Naidoo |
| author_sort | Pralini Naidoo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
I was born in South Africa, as were my parents and grandparents. We have descended from people who had been brought to South Africa through indenture, a colonial labour system that introduced alien agricultural methods and an alien workforce from India, to optimise monocultures like sugarcane. My very presence here is, therefore, entangled with colonialism’s domestication and mastery over land, plant, and people (Indigenous and indentured). I have never felt alien here. Why was that? What about the indenture stories of people, land and plant, beyond empire’s mastery and control—my ancestral wild places? And was there room within these wild places to heal colonial wounds across our ethnic and racial barriers? What was lost? Could my PhD2 research transcripts address some of those losses? This paper contains poems that emerged from PhD research interviews, my fieldnotes, my father's memoirs, and letters from my ancestral archives. A poetic lens gave me a decolonial language to inspect the archives and transcripts with some of these questions in mind.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T07:16:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-db110712de224c10aa78c12d797fc3c3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2371-3771 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T07:16:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Alberta |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Art/Research International |
| spelling | doaj.art-db110712de224c10aa78c12d797fc3c32022-12-22T04:37:56ZengUniversity of AlbertaArt/Research International2371-37712022-12-017210.18432/ari29688Joy in the DirtPralini Naidoo0University of the Western Cape I was born in South Africa, as were my parents and grandparents. We have descended from people who had been brought to South Africa through indenture, a colonial labour system that introduced alien agricultural methods and an alien workforce from India, to optimise monocultures like sugarcane. My very presence here is, therefore, entangled with colonialism’s domestication and mastery over land, plant, and people (Indigenous and indentured). I have never felt alien here. Why was that? What about the indenture stories of people, land and plant, beyond empire’s mastery and control—my ancestral wild places? And was there room within these wild places to heal colonial wounds across our ethnic and racial barriers? What was lost? Could my PhD2 research transcripts address some of those losses? This paper contains poems that emerged from PhD research interviews, my fieldnotes, my father's memoirs, and letters from my ancestral archives. A poetic lens gave me a decolonial language to inspect the archives and transcripts with some of these questions in mind. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/29688erasureindenture soilwomenjoypoetry |
| spellingShingle | Pralini Naidoo Joy in the Dirt Art/Research International erasure indenture soil women joy poetry |
| title | Joy in the Dirt |
| title_full | Joy in the Dirt |
| title_fullStr | Joy in the Dirt |
| title_full_unstemmed | Joy in the Dirt |
| title_short | Joy in the Dirt |
| title_sort | joy in the dirt |
| topic | erasure indenture soil women joy poetry |
| url | https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/29688 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pralininaidoo joyinthedirt |