Metonymies and Methodologies: Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan Discuss the Goa Familia Project

Spotlighting the family as a repository of memory and layered histories, the evolving archive of the Goa Familia project was developed under the guidance of curator Rahaab Allana during the Serendipity Arts Festival in 2019. The archival process was spearheaded by curator Lina Vincent and photographer Akshay Mahajan, who worked on documenting familial histories in Goa. For the festival in 2019, the showcase of the archive consisted of photographs and other family memorabilia from ten families, some of which were sourced through social media. Building on themes of religion, migration, dislocation and identity that arose through their conversations with these Goan families; Vincent, Mahajan and the rest of the project team have sought to harness prospects of learning from—and representing—Goa’s complex history through their archive. Their process has grown since 2019, and the project aims at an eventual digital posterity that will ensure the preservation of the collections they have amassed.

Looking at what it means to archive the personal in the contemporary moment, as well as the role and function of family photographs as conduits of history; the Goa Familia project prioritises the potential of collaboration and dialogue in the salvaging of microhistories of communities. In the first of this two-part conversation, Mahajan and Vincent speak to Annalisa Mansukhani, reflecting upon their methodologies, the histories of the Goan landscape and how the project engages with the materialities of family photographs.

_{(Featured Image: A Bharney's float at the Panjim carnival. The story of Bharne Creations, a Panjim business, offers a close look at Goa's history of modernisation. It started in 1904 and grew to import fabric from China and Japan, while also selling pottery and wooden chests from Macau. Originally from Borim in Ponda, the Bharne family moved to Madkai to fill the position of an elder at the Satteri Temple. They came to be known as the Bharney's—or the Konkani "bharta"—which means "to fill." Image courtesy of Goa Familia.)}

Interview taken on 3 August 2021.