Trinidadian Trinkets

‘Trinidadian Trinkets’ is a reflective piece about my experiences as a mixed person of colour and second generation Canadian. With my mother of English descent and my father Trinidadian, I’ve often struggled with identity in a culture that lays increasing importance on heritage and labels. I’ve felt mislabelled due to my light skin tone, but I’ve also often found that white crowds have never fully accepted me. As a Canadian-born woman who married a Belarussian-Ukrainian Canadian man, I’m not often confronted with my Trinidadian heritage. When both my grandparents on my father’s side passed away, I became aware of a part of me that felt like it was slipping away. I decided to honour my grandfather while simultaneously using his story and legacy to share my own. I try to incorporate how I still bear the markings and experiences that come from being Trinidadian despite being so far removed from those tropical shores. I use my physical features (with the exception of the soul) to exemplify these parts of me, these trinkets, which I treasure, and can trace all the way from my grandfather (whom I lovingly called “papa”) to my son, who is even lighter-skinned than me and has never met my grandparents.