Heidi McKenzie, First Wave, Artist statement

My studio practice engages issues of race, identity, and belonging. These works, from my “Indentureship” series, explore notions of archive and ancestry, migration and memory. After the British abolished slavery in 1833, a million Indians were shipped from 1838 to 1917 into indentured servitude. They replaced the African slaves post-emancipation in the Caribbean to work the plantations.

First Wave represents the Fatel Rozack, the first ship that carried 222 Indians to Trinidad in 1845. The sails carry the images of the recently released archival manifest, the “portholes” are images of British and Indo-British coins from 1845.

I ask the viewer to consider, acknowledge, understand and transmute in contemporary times the historical barriers of class, caste, race, migration and colonialization.