The Lotus project aims to make inter-generational social connections amongst Indo-Caribbean women between the ages of 14-80, living in Toronto.
This project seeks to build the capacities of Indo-Caribbean women by creating a space for social inclusion, which aims to foster their civic engagement, engage in existing cultural beliefs that hinders women’s development, and seeks to document their histories.
Taking our name from the Lotus flower, which lives in muddy ponds and emerges to blossom exquisitely against its conditions, the historical legacy of Indo-Caribbean women parallels this imagery/metaphor. Indo-Caribbean women emerged from a history of indentureship, where they were brought as indentured labours from India to the Caribbean. Due to vast political and economic turmoil, there continues to be mass migration of Indo-Caribbean people to parts of North America and Europe, thus they are now a double diaspora. Indo-Caribbean-Canadians can fit into multiple diasporic groups, yet struggle with belonging, as they neither fit fully into the categories of “South Asian”, “Caribbean” or “Canadian”. The cultural group, also lacks culturally specific resources and community programs as their identities are often conflated into one of the two groups mentioned above. We draw from and use this historical legacy and resistance of Indo-Caribbean women who were once indentured labourers to now immigrants/refugees/displaced migrants to build educational based programming. There is a shared history among Indo-Caribbean women that often goes unspoken, so even though there are vast amount of people fitting this demographic, they are disconnected from one another. Lotus aims to build authentic social connection by learning about our shared history, collectively.
Lotus is a grassroots organization focused on building social connections, educational initiatives, and empowering the lives of Indo-Caribbean women in Toronto, with a focus on the Jane and Finch area as it has the highest Indo-Caribbean population in the city. Indo-Caribbean women face various levels of disenfranchisement from a lack of social integration and spaces for women to congregate to share their herstories; a lack of civic engagement, as their voices and experiences are often silenced or overlooked; most significantly Indo-Caribbean women have also struggled through colonialism, gender-based violence, the trauma of sexual exploitation, alcoholism, and displacement/ migration. Our organization was inspired by the Indo-Caribbean immigrant women in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto who are working through these various struggles through art, activism and solidarity building. Lotus is the first and only organization of its kind in Canada.
