lal davies

Mae themâu mudo cadarnhaol Castell04 yn cyd-fynd yn agos â syniadau ynghylch mudo; cof ac ymerodraeth yn ffilm Lal; celfyddyd weledol ac arferion ysgrifennu.

Yn ganolog i'r naratifau y mae hi'n eu harchwilio ymhellach ar gyfer Castell 04, mae mudo Taid Lal, John Devamanikkam, Tamil Madrassi o Dde India. Daeth i Ogledd Cymru yn y 1930au i briodi a magu ei deulu gyda Mam-gu Lal, Manikam/Monica, a ddaeth ei hun i Ogledd Cymru o Dde India yn blentyn ifanc iawn ym 1919. Yn ystod yr Ail Ryfel Byd ymrestrodd yng Nghaernarfon ac ymunodd â'r Peirianwyr Brenhinol ar ei ffordd i wasanaeth gweithredol yn India a Japan fel deiliad pasbort Indiaidd gyda dinasyddiaeth Brydeinig o dan y Raj Prydeinig. Ar ôl dychwelyd, gweithiodd yn y diwydiant lleol yn Hotpoint nes gadael yr ardal ar ôl ysgariad nain a thaid Lal.

Mae Lal wedi archwilio rôl Cymru yn yr Ymerodraeth a'r cysylltiadau rhwng diwydiant copr Cymru a gwneud pres Indiaidd yn ystod y cyfnod trefedigaethol drwy straeon mudo lens ei nain a'i thaid yn Sawl Cam o Buro/Buredigrwydd, arddangosfa 6 mis yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau, Abertawe. Yma, canolbwyntiodd bron yn gyfan gwbl ar straeon ei nain, gyda'r rhai hynny'n fwyaf perthnasol i'r gwaith hwnnw.

Yma, mae hi'n trafod y gwaith gyda charfan o ymgyrchwyr gwrth-hiliol, awduron; artistiaid ac academyddion o bob cwr o Gymru:

https://vimeo.com/1082976776

Ar ôl marwolaeth mam Lal yn 2023, etifeddodd ddogfennau ei Thaid gan gynnwys ei bapurau cofrestru o Gaernarfon; ei gofnod gwasanaeth; ei fedalau; a'i CV gwaith yn manylu ar ei gyfnod yn Hotpoint. Mae gan Lal hefyd y llythyrau ysgrifenedig â llaw a darluniadol a anfonodd fel plentyn o'i ysgol yn Bangalore, De India sy'n dal i fodoli - mae'r bechgyn yno yn dal i wisgo'r un wisg ag ef. Ymwelodd Lal â'r lle a ffilmiodd yno yn 2024. Mae'r lluniau, y delweddau a'r wybodaeth hyn o'i archif bersonol yn sail i'r gwaith yn Drawing for Peace.

Mae straeon bywyd fy Nhaid wedi'u cuddio mewn distawrwydd; bylchau; blynyddoedd coll; dychweliadau dramatig ac ailymddangosiadau. Mae llawer o'r straeon hynny'n gysylltiedig yn agos â mudo i Ogledd Cymru; â hanesion cudd milwyr lleiafrifoedd ethnig yng Nghymru ac â straeon cymharol anhysbys pobl a oedd yn gweithio i gyflogwyr diwydiannol lleol fel Hotpoint.

The positive migration themes of Castell04 are closely aligned with ideas around migration; memory and empire in Lal’s film; visual art and writing practices.

Central to the narratives she explores further for Castell 04, is the migration of Lal’s Grandfather, John Devamanikkam a Madrassi Tamil from South India. He came to North Wales in the 1930’s to marry and raise his family with Lal’s Grandmother Manikam/Monica, who herself had come to North Wales from South India as a very young child in 1919. During WWII he enlisted in Caernarfon and joined the Royal Engineers on his way to active service in India and Japan as an Indian passport holder with British citizenship under the British Raj. On his return, he worked in local industry at Hotpoint until leaving the area after Lal’s grandparents’ divorce.

Lal has previously explored Wales’ role in Empire and connections between the Welsh copper industry and Indian brass-making during the colonial era via the lens of her grandparents’ migration stories in Several Stages of Purification/Sawl Cam o Buro/Buredigaeth a 6-month exhibition at National Waterfront Museum Swansea. Here she focussed almost entirely on her grandmother’s stories, with those being most relevant to that work.

Here she discusses the work with a cohort of anti-racist activists, authors; artists and academics from across Wales:

https://vimeo.com/1082976776

After Lal’s mother’s death in 2023, she inherited her Grandfather’s documents including his sign-up papers from Caernarfon; his service record; his medals; and his work CV detailing his time at Hotpoint. Lal also has the hand-written and illustrated letters he sent as a child from his school in Bangalore, South India which is still in existence – the boys there still wear the same uniform as he did. Lal visited and filmed there in 2024. This footage and images and information from his personal archive form the basis of the work in Drawing for Peace

The stories of my Grandfather’ life are shrouded in silences; gaps; missing years; dramatic returns and reappearances. Many of those stories are intimately connected with migration to North Wales; to the hidden histories of ethnic minority servicemen and women in Wales and to the relatively untold stories of people who worked in local industrial employers such as Hotpoint.