Ceylon Roots is my way of tracing the threads of memory, migration, and heritage. Growing up as a Canadian, Sri Lanka lived on in family stories, in the foods we cooked, in the fabrics folded carefully in drawers. I never experienced it as one single narrative, but as fragments with the sight of elephants in old photos, the curve of a coastline, the rhythm of patterns that reminded me of woven cloth.
This free-hand drawing brings those fragments together. The central tree represents the endurance of roots that hold even as people move. Around it, I’ve included imagery tied to land and craft with lighthouses by the sea, palms, elephants, and decorative patterns drawn from textiles. These details speak to everyday culture rather than grand rituals, showing the way people carry beauty, resilience, and memory with them across distances.
Through Ceylon Roots, I wanted to honour cultural diversity as something lived quietly yet deeply. It reflects how identity shifts when passed down through generations, sometimes changing form, but always carrying traces of where it began.