Leaving a legacy for the youth and parents
WITH youth awareness and issues affecting youngsters at a peak this week, community activist Kenny Naicker believes parents should raise children using traditional values.
Naicker, 71, recently unveiled his labour of love, two monuments depicting Indian indentured labourers going about their daily lives. He believes they depict a powerful message for the youth and generations to come.
He called on parents to follow in the footsteps of indentured labourers, who were dedicated, determined and disciplined when raising their children. And some had up to 15 to look after.
The Berea resident commissioned a team of specialists to etch on granite a labourer cutting cane on one monument, and a sari-clad woman with a bundle of cane on her head, her children nearby, on the other.
Naicker, a double amputee, went blind before the artwork was completed. But that didn’t prevent him from forging ahead.
“I see the monuments through the eyes of others. Their expressions of appreciation are good enough for me,” he said.
The more than 2m wide and 1.5m high monuments are mounted on walls in the Hartley Estate Tamil and Telugu Cemetery in Overport, and were unveiled last month.
The cemetery, built on land donated by farm owner William Hartley, is a grave site for indentured labourers.
Naicker, who chaired the cemetery for 30 years, instructed Thomas Keller, a specialist tombstone manufacturer, to create a lifelike work of art depicting sugar cane indentured workers.
But before Keller started to chip away, it required intense research from Naicker to frame the right pictures. He was helped by retired school principal Neelan Raman.
Naicker said he had two motives for having the monuments crafted. He wanted to leave a legacy for the youth and future generations to know and understand the trials and tribulations of the indentured labourers.
“I also want to remind the present generation of parents how their forebears raised children, because parents don’t seem to know how.”
He said that instead of blaming others, drugs and alcohol, parents needed to be more committed to the wellbeing of children and not get caught up with everyday concerns.
For more information, call him at 0312095972 or 083 777 1172.