Between the coloniser and the colonised: Anglo-Indian culture

Between the coloniser and the colonised: Anglo-Indian culture made visible A small Indian minority community with a fascinating history, Anglo-Indians have been settling in Aotearoa New Zealand since the early colonial days and have a unique blended cultural heritage, including food, dialect and origin stories. Yet Anglo-Indians are near to invisible in public life, often silent due to a double discrimination they have faced. Sitting in their origin and culture between a coloniser and the previously colonised. Otepoti Dunedin based artist and muralist Guy Howard-Smith is setting out to change this. The son of an Anglo-Indian father migrant, in late 2023 he undertook a residency in India with Asia New Zealand Foundation support to explore his Anglo-Indian culture. Howard-Smith graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland in 2003. The result of two years of research is an exhibition at Corbans Art Estate in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, close to where in Titirangi he was born. The works have been also inspired by the famed Amar Chitra Katha comic series he was exposed to while in India. Exhibition Big Seas, Small Waves is on show until April 5.