A black and white landscape photograph showing three South Asian boys in front of a thatched building. One boy is stood up, next to a barrel, the other two are seated on the ground; all face the camera. The standing boy wears a light-coloured shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and short trousers with the hems turned up. Bricks or chopped wood litters the floor nearby. Palms trees and another building or shed can be seen in the background. Original caption (within the photograph): ‘Typical Indian Hut / Trinidad 90’.

These boys are almost certainly the children of indentured labourers. The British transported over 140,000 indentured labourers from India to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917. Most lived in poor conditions and performed difficult work on plantations growing sugar or cocoa. These people were often referred to as ‘coolies’, now considered an offensive term.

A sizeable portion of Trinidad’s population today is descended from South Asian migrants.