Handmade Jamaican Bracelet

Merilyn Hyatt, 2012

Beads, wax, woven thread

Dimensions variable

Originally owned by Merilyn Hyatt

Personal collection

This object is a handmade Jamaican bracelet with beads representing colours of the Jamaican flag as well as colours adopted by the rastafarian movement, a major component of the country’s culture and history. It was created in 2012 by my grandmother, Merilyn Hyatt, as a gift for me to remind me of my true home and culture which my parents left to move to Canada. Created in my first home by one of my favourite people, it became part of my identity in my new home through immigration. Given how much thought and love went into making this object, I wear it everyday to remember what she said which makes it an extremely personal item.

It also highlights my attachment to an imagined community, an idea created by Benedict Anderson, and my ties to a wider Jamaican family and local community where my immediate family still resides. In this community, collecting largely focuses on personal artifacts and heirlooms passed down from generations of life in Jamaica, in effect creating a personal museum of our history. This object is now apart of my personal Wunderkammer, without the actual restraints of a cabinet or walls of a room. The bracelet can not be replaced, and it is a exceptional and one-of-a-kind object - approached like many historians and collectors in the past did as they began gathering meaningful objects to create their own cabinets of curiosities.

In the current climate, objects like these begin to take on even more meaning as we as a society reminisce about past experiences with loved ones that we miss - epitomized in this object for me. It represents how important the past is and how we have to embrace it in the present because this opportunity is not always available. Many objects have been taken from communities of all ethnicities in the past, and are now being returned to the rightful owners through restitution and repatriation. All cultures deserve a chance to tell their story through the artifacts and objects that they deem important and valuable.

Kamrani Doray