ABSTRACT
Journeying in search of one's ancestors can be seen as an act of fictionalising both the past and present, of performing a movement through place which seeks to reconnect specific lost memories or events to specific sites. We hope to connect with the spectral geographies of our ancestors and touch moments they had experienced, through re-embodying their journey, but we were aware that this very spectrality could unsettle and regenerate our existing modes of being. Taking the photographs, we were not aiming for historical accuracy or 'token-isomorphism' but rather an intentional citation of our families' past, in reference to Butler's ideas of performed identities, learning the postures and performances of our ancestors through re-producing them. As migrant, diasporic families, so much of our culture comes from the act of journeying, the act of adapting oneself to changing environments, negotiating language, gender roles, and cultural practices.
