South Florida Folklife Center. Indo-Caribbean Community Arts - 1999-2000

This series consists of documents related to a project in which a group of high school students of Indo-Caribbean descent living in South Florida conducted field work in their community using photography and video. Since the 1980s, thousands of East Indians from Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Jamaica settled in South Florida. They continued to practice Indo-Caribbean cultural traditions, while also adjusting to an American way of life. Throughout 1999, ten high school students from the Indo-Caribbean community conducted a year-long project in collaboration with the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) and the Documentary Unit at the University of Miami to use photography and video, which co-produced the project. The students were taught how to use cameras and camcorders, they then documented cultural activities in their community with a focus on Hindu worship and celebrations. Events documented included puja worship services, weddings, interviews, and the Phagwa festival. The project was supported by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Community Folklife Program. Materials include: grant-related documents including proposals and reports; photographic images; an audiocassette tape recording of the student’s responses to a rough cut of a documentary video; and videocassette tapes of original footage and a final version of a documentary based on the project in VHS and Betacam SP formats.

Additional digital formats of audio, image, and project report files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

Arranged into four series by format.

Digital materials available on Folklife Archive external drive.

Finding Aid Authors: Katherine L. Fleming, David Font, Vanessa Navarro, and Katharine Labuda 2014-2016.

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