Joydeb Roaja
Generation Wish Yielding Trees and Atomic Tree 57
Generation Wish Yielding Trees and Atomic Tree 43 by Joydeb Roaja forms part of the artist’s signature ink drawing vocabulary. The artist’s visual lexicon centers the relationship between body and land to enact a reversal of the power dynamics between the Jumma people (11 ethnic groups Indigenous to Roaja’s homeland in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh) and the country’s Bengali majority. Extending his research on the militarization of Chittagong, this work explores cross-generational struggles surrounding land justice and political ecology. The drawing portrays a woman working the land with a hoe surrounded by a miniature army squadron, some aiming to stop her, and others positioned ambiguously, as if on a death squad or in assembly. Their violent presence contrasts with the resilience of Indigenous people (symbolized by the female figure), and of Indigenous women in particular, who have suffered greatly from numerous waves of militarized nation-building in Bangladesh. Could this be the sketch of a monument for a utopian Indigenous state? Honouring the struggle of people fighting for recognition and rights within the state infrastructure of Bangladesh? Or is it perhaps an anti-monument; challenging the trope of militaristic heroic memorialisation often based on war, blood, and violence?
Joydeb Roaja has an interconnected performance, painting, and drawing practice that highlights the challenging social and political landscape of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts. The area is home to eleven Indigenous groups, including the Roaja’s community, the Tripura. The artist’s work is tied to the experiences of indigeneity, often emphasising the deep and symbiotic connection of these groups with their land, as well as the fight for recognition and rights in a state that has denied them. In his line drawings, figures are entwined with the natural world and at times, share the pictorial plane with army personnel, guns and ammunition recalling the historic military occupation of the hill area. This presence remains imprinted in the communities’ collective memory with Roaja’s works forming an empowering call to demand autonomy and ensure preservation of these minority cultures.