Personal Paradigms |

Family Still in Motion: Goa – Karachi – Toronto

Deepali Dewan

 

The Michael and Colleen D’Souza family photo collection, now part of The Family Camera Network archive at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, contains images tracing the family’s journey from Goa, when it was a Portuguese colony and is now part of India, to Karachi, when it was part of British India and now is in Pakistan, and then to Toronto, Canada. It is an example of the ways images and objects have been used to navigate reconfigurations of family due to dislocations prompted by migration. In the D’Souza family, there were multiple migrations. Big migrations—due to economic opportunity—usually prompted smaller forms of movement— visits back home. Also, the smaller forms of movement didn’t involve people each time, but rather were constituted by the movement of letters, photos, or objects that stood in for people. These multiple forms of movement simultaneously maintained and transformed familial connections.

In the D’Souza family, the first big migration was from Goa to Karachi and was made by Michael’s parents. His father went from Portuguese Goa to British India for job opportunities in the 1930s, and his mother joined him after their marriage. After, Michael’s mother would go to Bombay to visit her siblings who had also dispersed, and sometimes to Goa. After Partition in 1947, the family became Pakistani citizens. The reconfiguration of political borders made Michael’s family foreigners in the place they had once belonged to. Amongst the collection of family photos is a passport image of Michael’s mother with her two youngest children (Michael and his sister Mary Anne), required now to make a journey of several days by boat, down the coast from Karachi. Michael recalls that it became easier for his mother to visit Goa after it ceased being a Portuguese colony and joined India in 1961.

While the family couldn’t afford a camera in Karachi, family photos were made on special occasions such as first communions by either going to the local studio—Lightning Studio—or by inviting the itinerant photographer, H. M. Sammy, into their home. One session from the mid-1970s, soon after colour photography came to Pakistan, was done primarily to send photos to Michael and his brother in Canada, which constituted the second big migration in the family. In one image, Michael’s sister poses with their new television set—a classic Sammy pose, recalls Michael. She usually didn’t wear a sari but had dressed up in one borrowed from her mother for the photo. It was a family joke that their mother only wore blue saris.

Unknown photographer, Wedding portrait of Herman Mascarenhas and Agnes, Michael’s uncle and aunt. Goa, India or Karachi, Pakistan. 1940. Gelatin silver print. 20.3 x 15.2 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.11

 

Left: Lightning Studio, First communion portrait of Hilary D’Souza, Michael’s brother. Karachi, Pakistan. c. 1948. Gelatin silver print. 13.2 x 8 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.15; Right: Lightning Studio, First communion portrait of Mary Anne Eugene, Michael’s sister. Karachi, Pakistan. c. 1961. Gelatin silver print. 12.4 x 7.5 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.13

Eventually, each sibling sponsored the next until all but two had shifted to Canada, permanently relocating their family line once again. All these photos slowly made their way to Canada, either taken or brought back by Michael and his wife Colleen on subsequent visits to Karachi. Many were brought in 1981 after a visit to Karachi in honour of Michael’s parents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration. Others were brought back in 2017-18 after a visit following the death of Michael’s sister. In these ways, the D’Souza family photo collection maps multiple migrations by people and by photos, whose paths are related but not exactly the same. Every family photo contains multiple migrations, whether you see them in the image or not.

Deepali Dewan is the Dan Mishra Curator of South Asian Art & Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and editor of the special issue “Family Photography,” Trans Asian Photography Review (Fall 2018).

 

Michael Cyril D’Souza, Portrait of Mary Leonora (nee Mascarenhas) D’Souza, Michael’s mother, in a traditional Goan dress (vole) to attend church. Karachi, Pakistan. June 1981. Dye coupler print. 12.6 x 8.7 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.41

 

Rita Po, Michael Cyril D’Souza at the airport with his Miranda camera. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Summer 1973. Dye coupler print. 7.8 x 7.8 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.30

 

Colleen D’Souza, Portrait of Michael with his mother Mary Leonora D’Souza. Karachi, Pakistan. June 1981. Dye coupler print. 12.6 x 8.7 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.39

 

M. Sammy, Portrait of Louisa Esmeralda D’Souza, Michael’s sister. Karachi, Pakistan. 1971-72. Dye coupler print. 8 x 8 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.35

 

Unknown photographer, Wedding celebration of Stephen D’Mello and Beatrice, Michael’s sister. Goa, India. 1958. Gelatin silver print. 5.4 x 5.4 cm. Gift of Michael and Colleen D’Souza. Courtesy The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum collection. 2019.82.21