Some material on this page, including images, also appears and is taken from Chapter 627 of the Orange Book of the Kristang people.
The azuletra aesthetic is the primary aesthetic indexing the modern, revitalised or Progenitor Kristang identity, and is creolised out of the blue and white of Portuguese azulejo combined with the gold of Malay royalty, ornate flower and diamond motifs, and body positivity and neutrality. Other colours in place of blue may also be used in combination with gold to index azuletra. Azuletra is associated with the 2020s in Kristang culture, with dreamfishing further indicating that it will be extant as a primary aesthetic in the culture until the late 2070s.
The intricate, fractal nature of azuletra also highlights our hybridity, irei and ireidi, and our unique Kristang connection to Gaia and the Dreaming Ocean.
In terms of dressing, an azuletra aesthetic usually underscores body positivity or neutrality and consists of a comfortable singlet or tank top and either shorts or long pants, accompanied by floral or intricate motifs for more formal occasions and/or headwear. For more festive or celebratory occasions, or performances, body paint or body suits with rich indigo, gold, sky-blue and white colours showcase our hidden depth and texture, and underscore the beauty of us as brown Creole-Indigenous people.
Deeper connections to our historically-underrecognised Vedic, Javanese and Latinate cues and motifs are also excavatable through azuletra, and showcase both our intercultural connections and roots and how these blend and/or are creolised together to form something new and unique as well. The porcelain origins and motifs of azuletra from azulejo also allude to kinsiuza or Kintsugi, and the Kristang eleidi’s interest in delicate, restorative mental health.
Azuletra designs also convey and embody Kristang’s identity as the Resurrection Language of New Sundaland and the vanguard of grassroots cultural revitalisation worldwide, and further evoke paradox and hybridity, Deep Time history and future mutability, reality and fiction: the places where the Jenti Kristang thrive. The radiance, beauty, wholeness and joy at the core of these ways of being are also fundamental components of the revitalised Kristang identity.