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December has always been special for Goans and it’s not because of all the lavish Christmas dinners or the celebrations that come with it and especially not because of the hordes of tourists hovering around their homes. It is special because this is when the ships dock and this is when a lot of families get to meet their loved ones after they’ve been away at sea, sometimes for as long as 10 months. Being a ‘shippy’ is something that is considered a very glamorous profession. A status symbol, a profession that pays well and spending time on a luxurious ship while witnessing breathtaking sunsets. What could possible be the downside of this profession?
These notions are challenged by ‘The Shippy’s Paradise’ — a series of portraits by photographer Christopher Pereira that is being exhibited at Tatva, Goa. Before getting into the intricacies of the project, the one question that needs to be answered is — who are shippies? The easiest way to answer this is that shippies are people who work at sea. Anyone who works on a ship in any capacity is called a shippy. It could be a cruise, a cargo ship or a Merchant Navy ship. Being a shippy is a very popular choice of profession in Goa as it pays considerably better that jobs on land. So, for many people, it came as a surprise to many that a project titled ‘The Shippy’s’ was in fact targeted at creating mental health awareness.
Talking about what led him to do the project, Pereira said, “My grandad passed away 6-7 years ago, it was then that I came to Goa as an adult and got to explore on my own. I made quite a few friends who were my age and most of them were shippies. Our conversations would automatically drift towards what we do for a living. Before that, my family put shippies on a pedestal — everything was about how it was great profession, how it paid well and how it commanded respect as it was not an easy job. No one spoke about the down side of it. However, with friends it was a different environment. They were more relaxed to talk about the negatives. About how they were trapped at sea with 40 other men. Once, they pulled up in Bristol and I went to meet them there, I went on the ship and got a chance to see their living conditions that aren’t what we imagine living on ship would be like. It was really interesting to see, but when I first saw it, it was a massive shock. Also, it often seemed like my friends were looking for a release and dreading going back on the ship. That was the inspiration.”
Pereira’s need to bring about mental health awareness through the project was something that overlapped with Tatva’s goal and extensive work towards reducing the stigma attached to mental health. “In India, if there is any kind of mental health problems, its kept within the family. A lot of our work is to normalise that India has got one of the biggest rates of depression in the world and we need to start having conversations and start talking about it. That’s what caught our imagination that he actually approached us as a mental health organisation and said ‘I like what you’re doing and could I collaborate with you?’” said David Stanton, co-creator of and consultant at Tatva, while talking about how the collaboration came about.
Tatva is one of the few international residential psychotherapy and recovery communities in the world. Managed by mental health professionals, Tatva aids self exploration by using unconventional methods such as creative arts, inclusive experiential practices, travel, nature therapy, social justice and cultural immersion while simultaneously working towards trying to do away with stigma attached to mental health.
The exhibition launch was held on January 9, 2018 at Tatva. In attendance were shippies, their families and the locals of Goa. The launch wasn’t just about viewing the portraits, but was followed by a group session. “There is a marked difference between just viewing the exhibition and then really sitting down and participating in a group. I think an exhibition like this needs to be curated with conversation every single time in a structured way, so that people can interact every time they come. People were initially walking in and being polite and friendly, but when people sat down after, half of the people opened up about somebody that they knew was struggling. They didn’t feel the need to just make polite conversation when they were given a chance to talk about it. The group helped a lot — the way people chose to relate to the other, the way they listened to each other in silence and the way no one felt the need to justify and simply said “I miss this person when they go away,” stated Kripi Malviya, co-creator of Tatva, who is also a psychologist, experiential psychotherapist and mental health advocate with a Masters in Clinical Psychology and an International Certification in Addiction Counselling and Training.
She adds, “Also, there was a woman Shippy in the room as well, which is quite rare, but it was great to get her perspective and she said how freeing and amazing it is and at the same time how limiting it is for stability and how there needs to be more space to talk about it because there have been instances of suicide in the shippy community. Also, there were all age groups from a 15-year-old to an 80-year-old.”
According to Malviya what stood out the most about the series of portraits was how in all the photographs, the subjects are looking at the camera and smiling, which is completely contradictory to people’s general perception of depression. There isn’t a hint of sadness, vulnerability or weakness visible in any of the photographs. Behind the smiling faces you’d never question the condition of someone’s mental health. The series very effectively convey how “people don’t necessarily need to look like they are struggling, but can still be dealing with something very difficult”.
“The idea of the project was that anybody could be battling with depression. You don’t or can’t know just by looking at them. You can’t if behind closed doors they might just be battling something completely different,” said Pereira when asked about his unconventional approach towards the subject.
In Goa alone, there are many communities like the shippies in which mental illness is not recognised as a problem. An example of one such community is Goans who have moved to the U.A.E. for better work opportunities. Malviya adds, “They work under really really bad conditions and usually get paid very low wages, but they never really talk about the hardships. It’s all about the good things and there is money attached to it or there is a sense of ‘I worked abroad so I must be better.’
Another thing that people don’t talk about is the high rate of alcoholism and the high rate of domestic violence attached to it. “It is only taken to spiritual or religious leaders in churches but never really see the light of day,” said Malviya who then goes on to talk about how it can be helped. A poet herself, she says, “This is where artists and the art community has a responsibility of being as grounded as possible instead of being very elitist and I think that is something we need to be very careful of in Goa because it is massively gentrified at the moment. On the other hand it is the therapists who have a responsibility to go and seek out communities so that we can be the bridge in the conversation between the art and community. We don’t need to be talking about poor mental health, we need to talking about mental health in general.”
The photo series has now been converted into a photo book titled ‘The Shippy’s Paradise’. With only 40 prints for grabs, it will be launched this summer and all the proceeds from the sales will go to charity.
The exhibition wraps up on September 23, 2018. Viewing is now by appointment only and if you’re interested you can drop in an e-mail at- contactus@tatva.center.
This article is part of Homegrown’s month-long campaign called #HGHeadspace leading up to Mental Health Awareness Week. If you’d like to share your mental health journey with us, write in to editor@homegrown.co.in
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