Bronze
1.3m high x 1.2 m long x 68 cm wide
58kg
2024

Time has a way of corroding history. No description or imagination can accurately impart the suffering or difficulties that another person has endured, especially a century ago.  The sculpture shows the loss of information over time. It commemorates those who sacrificed the familiarity of home and culture (India), had the courage to take themselves and families onto ships to an unknown country and lifestyle, and who had the vision and trust that this new way of life could be better for their descendants in the future.

This sculpture was commissioned by the Victoria Hospital in oThongathi (Tongaat), South Africa, to commemorate the communities ancestors arrival from November 1860, as indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane fields.

The Victoria hospital was opened and established in 1987 by local Doctors, to provide a private health care service to people of colour during the apartheid era. Mediclinic SA acquired shares in Victoria Hospital in 2003.  The original doctors still play an important part in the hospital. The hospital has now been renovated and has a prestigious and important presence in this town.