This painting came out of a big issue that bothered me ever since secondary school. Both my grandmothers (and a grandfather) were half-amerindian, and their mothers were amerindian, and so it goes. It's the part of my ancestry that fascinates me the most. Most likely because it's the bit of my heritage that was completely lost in time.

In most Caribbean countries, all the amerindians have been wiped out. In Dominica there is a small settlement hidden in the mountains. In Trinidad there is an even smaller group of mixed Caribs. So there's no one really to speak up when we learn in school that Columbus 'discovered' our country.

This is a reminder that before Columbus - before slavery, emancipation, indentureship, independence, everything - there were people here who fought for their land and their freedom. And they lost.

Who knows... if the Spaniards never came, I might still be a Trini