Indian Museum attracting many visitors

Tag : indian slipper

AS part of the 161st Indian Arrival Day celebration in TT lastyear, the Maha Sabha opened the Indian Caribbean Museum at WaterlooRoad, Carapichaima, Freeport.
The museum is opened from 9 am as there are scores of people fromoverseas and locals visiting on a daily basis.

This museum displays old items such as rare musical instruments,agricultural objects, cooking utensils, clothing, ancientphotographs and historical books.

Some objects of historical and aesthetic value include a sapat(wooden slipper), jata (grinding stone), boli (gourd bowl), hassawa(grass knife), and aluminium scoop.

On the museums grounds there is a huge copper (cuppa) basin thatwas used for boiling cane syrup in the factory up to the 1930s, butwas afterwards adapted as water troughs for animals and water tanksfor household use.

There is also a dhekhi a wooden contraption used for pounding cocoaand coffee beans as well as corn and rice grains.

This museum is a preservation of the material history of more thanone million descendants of East Indians/South Asians in theCaribbean. The history available at the museum says the firstIndian immigrants came to the Caribbean from India to work asindentured labourers from 1838 to 1917 after the abolition ofslavery.

The museums large collection has been obtained through field tripsby administrators of the institution.

Most items have been acquired as gifts, bequests and loans fromindividuals, families, priests, historians, scholars and collectorsof the island community.

The Indian Caribbean Museum also houses an art gallery, a referencelibrary and a computerised genealogical database.

Soon to be established in the museums outdoor space is a botanicalgarden with some of the rare endangered plants of Indian originlike the satputiya (angled loofah), poi bhaji (Indian spinach),urdi (mung bean), and khakri (wild cucumber).

There is a large permanent screen in a recessed wall of the museumfor the screening of historical films and documentaries.

This history site remains a non-profit organisation withaffiliation to the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) and TheNational Museum and Art Gallery.

The staff at the museum work full-time and part-time and theirprimary responsibility is the acquisition, care and exhibition ofobjects for the benefit of the public.