Indian Heritage Month, commemorated annually in November to mark the arrival of the first indentured workers in colonial Natal in 1860, will be highlighted in celebrations across the country with a special indigenous games tournament to be held at the Made in Chatsworth Market at Depot Road Memorial Primary School on Sunday, 21 November.
Hosted to celebrate indigenous games which contributed to Indians gaining agility, strength, balance, reflexes, hand-eye co-ordination, accuracy, strategy, intuition and patience while not needing much infrastructure or equipment, residents can participate in sport events including tug o’ war, gillie danda, commonly known as goolie ganda, thunee and three tins at the market, from 9am to 3pm.
The 1860 Heritage Centre will put on a display of images and artefacts from its collection for patrons who visit the Indian Heritage themed market. The organiser of the market and esteemed author, Kiru Naidoo, said the idea to include the games and the exhibition is to allow the people of Chatsworth to have the experience in their own hometown.
“People made games and sports activities with whatever they could find.
The goolie and ganda is chipped from scrap pieces of wood yet provides hours of fun. One of my best memories of the Milk Carnival from back in the day was aunties with hitched saris fighting it out for the tug o’ war prizes. We hope to recreate these memories and encourage families to join in the fun,” Naidoo said.
Formerly from Puntin’s Hill siblings, 84-year-old Saras and 87-year-old Muniamma Naidoo, who relocated to Bayview in 1964, said they fondly remembered their grandfather, Sanassy Naidoo, encouraging them to participate in indigenous games and since many of the games did not limit the number of players, they enjoyed when their grandfather extended the invite to neighbours. “Our grandfather was one of them who arrived on the ship.
We asked him about his experiences but he never spoke much about the circumstances aboard the ship. He also didn’t tell us much about why he left India. He was very young at the time he arrived. We look forward to bringing back those memories and hope that residents, young and old, join in the games and interact with each other like we used to do in the old days,” they said. Teams of five can enter the tug o’ war tournament. To enter, send a WhatsApp text to 073-685-5426.
