I was a student, about to start my Fine Arts degree at Reading University. When I arrived at Gatwick from Kenya in the late 1970s, I had no thought about a life in the UK, it was just the next stop in a journey that started from childhood. My mother was a compulsive creative, introducing me to all forms of artistic-making from clay pots to textiles. My father’s passions came out in a different way. He was a plumber, and he built our beds and our furniture from pipes. We made toys. ‘Making’ was our pleasure, our entertainment, our life.

In England, I stayed with my brother who was already here, and I tasted freedom. Not just of expression, but personal freedom. I was empowered. I worked at a women’s refuge and learned about women’s struggles in domestic spaces. It gave me huge political insight and led to a shift in my aesthetics. I realised the value of portraiture in telling the stories of these women – their bodies told the stories.

The mid 1980’s into the 1990’s was an interesting and fertile time with lots happening within the mainstream and in the South Asian Arts Visual Arts scene. I joined collectives including the Open Hand Studios in Reading and was a founding member of Panchayat, a voluntary group of artists committed to promoting the work of South Asian Artists through exhibitions. We were creating an educational resource, carrying out practical teaching discourses, and delivering workshops in schools and public spaces like museums and Art Galleries. The Panchayat archive is now held by the Tate Gallery.

In 1992 Panchayat organised a touring exhibition called ‘Crossing Black Waters’ with selected works by artists living in Britain, India and Pakistan. The title referred to the ‘Kala pani’ (black waters) a term seen as taboo and suggesting that going abroad meant breaking ties with ones’ family and the community at large.

My own family has always crossed waters. The painting, My Grandfather’s Passport, reflects that. My grandfather’s passport was given to me by my uncle when I made my first journey to India in 1989 and met family in Delhi and Punjab. It is extremely precious to me as my grandfather twice journeyed from India to Kenya to work, returning home to settle. My own father stayed on, taking Kenyan citizenship when Kenya introduced its Africanisation policy and running our family business with two of my older brothers.

The painting was started for the exhibition, ‘Crossing Black Waters’ and not submitted at the time, as to me it was still incomplete. Invited to be part of the SADAA’s 25th anniversary online publication prompted me to revisit the painting and work on it. The painting traces my grandfather’s journey to Kenya with elements from his passport alongside my mother’s collaged profile portrait on the right.