In ām / ammā / mā maram, Meanjin (Brisbane)-based artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson continues research into her matrilineal heritage, making visible the histories of indentured Indian women that remain marginal or erased in colonial archives.  

A first-generation Australian and descendant of labourers sent from the port of Madras (now Chennai), India, to work on sugar plantations in the British colony of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa between 1863 and 1911, Simpson’s exhibition traces her family’s journey through the use of materials common to these places and histories – such as sugarcane and mango. 

Through a combination of paintings, sculpture, poetry and scent, Simpson’s speculative archive speaks to the complexities of intergenerational trauma, memory, migration and healing. With a practice spanning painting, moving image, installation, poetry and performance, this is Simpson’s first exhibition in Western Australia. 

Are our mothers 
Mango trees 
Or fruit 
Fallen, slashed 
Are they roots 
Leaves or sap 
Or branches we 
hold onto. 

– Sancintya Mohini Simpson 

Supported by PICA’s Art Commissioners.