Category Archives: lettering–history

October 5, 2025 · 1:44 pm

Kyle Joustra’s Genealogical Treasure Trove on Ceylonese & Sri Lankans

Michael Roberts

KYLE JOUSTRA lives in Melbourne  and has assiduously pursued his accumulation  of data on Sri Lankan lineages for  decades. I sought information  from him  when subject to a vicious personal attack recently. It strikes me that few Sri Lankans are aware of  Kyle’s store  of information.  The initial clarification of his genealogical researches set out below by Kyle is a belated  introduction to his capacities and the ‘treasures’ he can root out.

MEMO FROM KYLE  JOUSTRA, 14 September 2025

There are those who carry on about my work that I am not a professional genealogist  and that I should give all the information free to everyone. If I were to break this down.

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Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, cultural transmission, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, ethnicity, historical interpretation, lettering--history, life stories, population, sri lankan society, unusual people

August 21, 2025 · 4:51 pm

Yasodara Kumaratunga’s Inventive Mind: Free Verse from London

Michael Roberts in Adelaide, August 2025

Among a small pile of photgrpahs, letters and papers left by my departed elder sister, Estelle Fernando, is a printed ‘pamphlet’ published by Yasodhara  Kumaratunga, the  eldest daughter of Vijaya Kumaratunga and Chandrika Bandaranaike.

It presents thirteen brief  poems coined by Yasodhara when she was “in exile in  London” — as  the Foreword by an unknown person  tells us. These were “written by Yasodhara between the ages  of 8 plus 1/2 years – 11 years” during a period when she  was beginning to learn English after an education in Sinhala.”

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August 18, 2025 · 3:41 pm

Reaching Across the Skies: Young Avishka

Ifham Nizam ✍️in The Island, August 2025… with this title “From Skies to Scripts: A young editor taking Sri Lanka’s stories to the world,”  Published

At just 26, Avishka Mario Senewiratne has already done what many spend a lifetime trying to achieve. A trained pilot, published author, historian, and now Editor-in-Chief of The Ceylon Journal, Senewiratne is fast emerging as a defining voice in Sri Lanka’s literary and historical landscape. But behind the titles lies a story of deep passion, quiet perseverance, and an unwavering love for history – and the written word.

 

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Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, lettering--history, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, outmigration, patriotism, photography & its history, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

August 1, 2025 · 8:38 pm

For Lankan Researchers: An Oral History Workshop

 

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This interactive workshop, led by experienced oral historian Gaya Fernando, will introduce participants to the principles, practices, and power of oral history. Tailored for researchers, journalists, documentary producers, and writers, it will explore how personal narratives and community voices can enrich social and political research.

 

The formal session concludes at 12:30 PM, but participants who are interested are welcome to stay on for an informal discussion with Gaya until 3:30 PM.

15th August 2025

 

9.30 AM onwards

 

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Filed under caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, doctoring evidence, economic processes, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, foreign policy, fundamentalism, gender norms, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, land policies, language policies, law of armed conflict, Left politics, lettering--history, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society

October 20, 2024 · 3:29 pm

The Question Mark — It’s Intriguing History

Wikipedia

The question mark ? (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism[1]) is a punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.

History =  In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used question markers, according to a 2011 theory by manuscript specialist Chip Coakley: he believes the zagwa elaya (“upper pair”), a vertical double dot over a word at the start of a sentence, indicates that the sentence is a question.[2][3]

8th century punctus interrogativus from the Godescalc Evangelistary. (BnF NAL 1203, f. 6v.)

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Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, landscape wondrous, lettering--history, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, politIcal discourse, puncuation, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, world events & processes