Uncovering the story behind some of the first discovered objects of the Caribbean.
I like everything I design to have meaning. Jewellery should be beautiful but its real value is in the story that makes it personal to you.
Often stories that people feel connected to personally are based on the way they live and where they come from. I have always wanted to make something that acknowledged a cultural aspect of the Caribbean region and its heritage. It was only when I paid a visit to the Barbados museum that I discovered a little, and then later a lot more, about the first indigenous inhabitants of the islands: the Amerindians.
The story of the Amerindians is told through the artefacts on display: evidence of how they cultivated the land, how they hunted for fish, how they travelled around the islands and the rituals and ceremonies they performed. One of the objects amongst these really caught my attention- shaped like an isosceles triangle, sometimes quite crude in nature- the Three-Pointed Zemi, or Trigonolitos, speaks on a deeper level of the connection the first peoples had with their ancestors, the land and the sea.
The Amerindians believed deities and their fore-fathers inhabited the animals, trees, stones and other aspects of their surroundings and that these spirits must be appeased in order for their people to thrive. The best way they knew to do this, was to create representations of the spirits through painting, carving and weaving, the resulting Zemi becoming an embodiment of the spirit that must be protected and revered -even fed.
The creation of a Zemi was not taken lightly, it was a ceremonial affair involving the political leader, who would enlist the help of the ritual specialist to identify the spirits, and the master artist whose job it was to translate their vision into physical form. All of this took place under the influence of the hallucinogen Cohoba, the physical effects of which can often be seen in the Zemi itself: the pained expression, the watery eyes and signs of fasting.
The Three-Pointed Zemi
The simplicity of the early Three-Pointed Zemis makes them no less significant. It is thought the three points represented Cassava tubers, Cassava or Manioc being the main food staple at the time, each point on the Zemi symbolising the development of a new bud. These sacred objects were often buried in the soil to help with the growth of crops.
Another perception is that the Zemi acknowledged a supreme being: the Lord of the land, sea and man, who brought together the three basic values of Amerindian life.
Delving deeper into the early spiritual creations of the Amerindians inspired me to create a necklace that would pay homage to the strong belief that an object, however simple in nature, can be powerful and hold intense meaning for the people who created and looked after it.
My Zemi necklace brings together three elements: animal, land and sea; the woven sea island cotton has been grown and hand-picked in Barbados, Sargassum Seaweed found washed in from the sea close to my home, has been used to dye the cotton and recycled brass has been beaten and shaped by hand and positioned to resemble a hummingbird wing.
