IMA PodcastSancintya Mohini Simpson & Imelda Miller: The legacy of indentured labour

Sancintya Mohini Simpson & Imelda Miller

The legacy of indentured labour

5 March 2020

IMA Belltower artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson is joined in conversation with historian and curator Imelda Miller, bringing to fore the colonial practice of forced and indentured labour and tracing its impacts to the present day.

Simpson and Miller use their own archival research practices and exhibition-making as a tool to bring their ancestral stories to light and act as a sites of acknowledgement, commemoration, and healing.

The discussion explores the often-absented stories of ‘blackbirding’ South Sea Islander communities—a practice of kidnapping and forced labour on sugar cane farms in Australia—and the parallel history of Indian indentured labour forced to work in South African sugar cane farms. Simpson and Miller draw these stories into the complicated narrative of colonialism and contemporary society.

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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