Road Trips Project: Redefining the Canon
Romanticised in modern literature—primarily by white men—as a metaphor for freedom and adventure, road trips are almost a rite of passage for Americans. Yet, for a long time the open road has not always been open to all. People of colour have been largely absent from American history and popular culture.
In an attempt to address this, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) started the Road Trips Project. Launched in 2017, it is an online crowdsourcing initiative documenting and sharing stories of travel undertaken by South Asian American communities. The project website highlights their intent: “From Jack Kerouac novels to Hollywood movies, American culture is steeped in the mythology of the ‘open road.’ Yet, so much of this imagery has long been limited in who it includes.” By reconceiving the “American road trip” in this manner, the project explores itinerancy and the nomadic nature of identity itself.
In her recent book Unseeing Empire: Photography, Representation, South Asian America, Bakirathi Mani examines the South Asian American community’s desire to see and claim visual representations of themselves as an affirmation of their identity. She examines how photography’s mimetic qualities help to serve as a form of visual documentation of lived experiences of these “racialized subject(s).”
Chitra Divakaruni at Mount Rainier. (Washington, USA, 1984.)
Providing a platform to record and present narratives which are missing from the American road trip canon, the Road Trips Project showcases an eclectic mix of perspectives through photographs and anecdotes received from South Asian Americans, including well-known personalities like filmmaker Mira Nair and author Chitra Divakaruni. Sharing a photo from 1984, Divakaruni writes: “About 33 years back, my husband Murthy and I made a road trip to Washington State… We rented a car because our regular car was too beat-up to withstand a road trip. I remember the feeling of adventure and excitement. We felt so American!”
Veena Mandrekar and Family on the Way to Yellowstone National Park. (Minneapolis, USA, 1961.)
Besides exploring narratives of cultural identity, the posts recount acts of discrimination and the fear of racism. Veena Mandrekar recalls how her family was refused a room in a motel in a small town in Utah or Nevada because of their Indian attire: “This is the only time we felt as outsiders.” In another post, Omar H. Tiwana notes his apprehension about moving to Texas after retirement due to the fear of racism: “I kept reassuring myself that this was ‘America’, with constitutional freedom for all citizens—including Asian Americans—to travel and relocate in any State of the Union.”
Kaumudi Pandya’s Family at a Rest Area on Route to the Yellowstone National Park. (Wyoming, USA, 1991.)
Many other posts convey the more quotidian sensibilities associated with travel. This includes preparing, packing and enjoying Indian snacks like samosas, idlis, puri bhaji and chutney sandwiches or listening to Bollywood and regional music on visits to iconic, touristy sites like the National Parks, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon and the White House.
As each of these road trips is distinct—not just in terms of location, but the experience itself—they provide a novel mapping of the South Asian diasporic community through the idea of the travelogue.
All images from the Road Trips Project, South Asian American Digital Archive.
