Sandra Brewster b. Canada 1973
The first time the Toronto-based artist Sandra Brewster stepped foot on Guyana’ s soil was in 2008. She was 35 years old. Her Guyaneseborn parents were part of a great migration of the 1960s to the United States and Canada. In the coming years, Toronto would emerge as a prominent node in the Caribbean diaspora as one of the largest and oldest Guyanese populations outside of Guyana.
What then does it mean to be Guyanese, Caribbean, and Canadian all at once? On navigating identity during her childhood growing up in Toronto, the artist shares,“ My sister and I were seen as two little Canadian girls. However, I’ d insist that I was Guyanese simply because of where my parents were born. It didn’ t matter where I was born.”
As a daughter of immigrant parents living in Canada, Brewster grew up hearing her family’ s stories of life in Georgetown that simultaneously gave her a connection to as well as“…. a longing for a home I had never been to,” states the artist.“ They would talk about a place that was once beautiful and productive, then debate over the county’ s troubling economic conditions now.”