Rama & Sita
Hodder Children’s Books, 2025.
Part of the Little Myths series.
This book shows that sometimes it can be hard to pin down a book to a place.
The myth of Rama and Sita is definitely of Asia origin.
The author, Swapna, was born in London (Europe) and now lives in Aotearoa New Zealand (Oceania).
The illustrator, Darshika Varma, is from Mumbai.
The diaspora is real – and, sometimes, it makes me question where do I personally classify a work.
[Related, but tangential, discussion follows]:
In this case, the subject matter and illustrator helped. But, what about a book created by children of a diaspora, which doesn’t feature the culture they are descended from?
Do they stop ever being an ‘Asian’ creator, and become a creator from their birth country?
I asked these questions at work, too – when asking the ethnicity question on our membership form.
Does my friend’s son – born and raised in Aotearoa – ever get to tick another box than ‘Chinese’? Or workmates, whose family immigrated here over 150 years ago – do they ever get to tick something other than ‘Chinese’ or ‘Indian’?
In a relatively recently colonised county like Aotearoa New Zealand, these questions come up a bit.
There’s a certain ‘something’ about works created by people from Aotearoa, whatever their ethnic background.
And, it’s something that has become more obvious in recent years. There’s less harking back to ‘The Mother Country’ (ie England, generally) and less centring that background or reality.
Anyway, I’ll go back to my hole and try to stay in my lane.
