As a child I never gelled with Sri Lanka. I was a second-generation immigrant kid, and the thought of visiting the homeland of my parents every other summer filled me with dread. I was cut off from my friends (ancient times y’see, no WhatsApp), the food didn’t taste right, the TV reception wasn’t great, everything felt old, there were power cuts, bugs, stuffy mosquito nets, and it was HOT. ALL. THE. TIME.
As an adult, my perspective wasn’t much better. I had moved here for the foreseeable future, I sank into depression, and I didn’t realise that things like eating rice with a spoon and wearing ankle boots would rub others the wrong way. Imagine making minor faux pas over and over again, unwittingly building the aura of being an incredible snob in someone else’s eyes.
Me and Sri Lanka have come a LONG way since then.
In the last 20+ years I’ve worked in various offices, got to know different kinds of people, and grown up quite a bit. The country has changed too, along with attitudes towards ankle boots (very important). I worked on my communication skills and calmly let go of my past life, which was quite a relief.
Then I became a student again and suddenly felt the need to represent Sri Lankaness to the rest of my international cohort. It didn’t happen overnight. It started with an assignment on orientalism in our first module and sort of spiralled from there.
Now, illustration has somehow become my gateway into understanding my country through a more relatable lens.
The Map
I was referred by a friend to an organisation looking for an illustrator to create a quick district map of the island that represented their research on produce. It was very slap-dash and some of the districts had no data, but there was no time to be fussy about it — sometimes a cantankerous1 printer has a 12 noon Sunday deadline and that’s that.
The map was educational for me, particularly when researching imagery. Bit by bit I was finding out more about the island I inhabited, just random facts that slowly built a richer picture in my mind. I shared it on IG as an example of how jobs like these helped me gain a better understanding of Sri Lanka.
Then, someone asked for a print. Since it wasn’t a piece I could sell, I decided to make my own map, this time with a more landmark-y cultural theme with more people and animals. And definitely NO big pointy purple tower that most Colombo residents are sick of seeing2.
I tried to keep some favourite iconography (e.g. a leopard for one of the districts that Yala National Park is located in) and entwine some that were not as widely known (like the Singing Fish of Batticaloa), along with nods to the island’s often underrepresented minorities.
Apart from sitting and reading about these things, I find that drawing them also widens my understanding of the subject, especially with architectural sites like the Ambuluwawa Tower and Monaragala’s Galabedda Biso Pokuna (queen’s pond).
It’s heartening to hear why people are buying it too. The most popular reason is to gift it to someone leaving Sri Lanka — something to remember us by.
Would you have guessed that this keepsake was created by someone who used to feel completely out of place here?
🔹🗺️🔹
I don’t think they were really cantankerous, but it’s just how I imagine printers to be in general, especially if they have to work on a Sunday.
You know what I’m talking about (the spire that shall not be named).
This is so cool!