The co-founder of Auckland’s Fiji Centre is concerned that Indo-Fijians are not classified as Pacific Islanders in Aotearoa.

This week marks the 146th anniversary of the arrival of the first indentured labourers from British India to Fiji, who departed from Calcutta.

On 14 May 1879, the first group of 522 labourers arrived in Fiji aboard the Leonidas, a labour transportation ship.

That date in 1987 is also the date of the first military coup in Fiji.

More than 60,000 men, women and children were brought to Fiji under an oppressive system of bonded labour between 1879 and 1916.

Today, Indo-Fijians make up 33 percent of the population.

While Fiji is part of the Pacific, Indo-Fijians are not classified as Pacific peoples in New Zealand; instead, they are listed under “Indian” and “Asian” on the Stats NZ website.

Lasting impact on Fiji
The Fiji Centre’s Nik Naidu, who is also a co-founder of the Whānau Community Centre and Hub, said that he understood Fiji was the only country in the Pacific where the British implemented the indentured system.

“It is also a sad legacy and a sad story because it was basically slavery,” he said.

“The positive was that the Fiji Indian community made a lasting impact on Fiji.

“They continue to be around 30 percent of the population in Fiji, and I think significantly in Aotearoa, through the migration, the numbers are, according to the community, over 100,000 in New Zealand.”

However, he said the discussions on ethnic classification “reached a stalemate” with the previous Pacific Peoples Minister.

“His basic argument was, well, ethnographically, Fijian Indians do not fit the profile of Pacific Islanders,” he said.

Then-minister Aupito William Sio said in 2021 that, while he understood the group’s concerns, the classification for Fijian Indians was in line with an ethnographic profile which included people with a common language, customs and traditions.

Aupito said that profile was different from indigenous Pacific peoples.

StatsNZ and ethnicity
“StatsNZ recognises ethnicity as the ethnic group or groups a person self-identifies with or has a sense of belonging to,” Aupito said in a letter at the time.

It is not the same as race, ancestry, nationality, citizenship or even place of birth, he said.

“They have identified themselves now that the system of government has not acknowledged them.

“Those conversations have to be ongoing to figure out how do we capture the data of who they are as Fijian Indians or to develop policies around that to support their aspirations.”

Naidu believes the ethnographic argument was a misunderstanding of the request.

“The request is not to say, like Chinese in Samoa, they are not indigenous to Samoa, but they are Samoans, and they are Pacific Chinese.

“So there is the same thing with Fijian Indians. They are not wanting to be indigenous.

Different from mainland Indians
“They do want to be recognised as separate Indians in the Pacific because they are very different from the mainland Indians.

“In fact, most probably 99 percent of Fijian Indians have never been to India and have no affiliations to India because during the Girmit they lost all connections with their families.”

However, Naidu told Pacific Waves the community was not giving up.

“There was a human rights complaint made — again that did not progress in the favour of the Fijian Indians.

“Currently from . . . Fiji Centre’s perspective, we are still pursuing that.

“We have also had a discussion with Stats NZ about the numbers and trying to ascertain just why they have not managed to put a separate category, so that we can look at the number of Fijian Indians and also relative to Pacific Islanders.”

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told RNZ Pacific that as far as Fiji is concerned, Fijians of Indian descent are Fijian.

Question to minister
Last year, RNZ Pacific asked the current Minister for Pacific Peoples, Dr Shane Reti, on whether Indo-Fijians were included in Ministry of Pacific Peoples as Pacific people.

In a statement, his office said: “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is undertaking ongoing policy work to better understand this issue.”

Meanwhile, the University of Fiji’s vice-chancellor is asking the Australian and British governments to consider paying reparation for the exploitation of the indentured labourers more than a century ago.

Professor Shaista Shameem told the ABC that they endured harsh conditions, with long hours, social restrictions and low wages.

She said the Australian government and the Colonial Sugar Refinery of Australia benefitted the most financially and it was time the descendants were compensated.

While some community leaders have been calling for reparation, Naidu said there were other issues that needed attention.

He said it had been an ongoing discussion for many decades.

“It is a very challenging one, because where do you draw the line? And it is a global problem, the indenture system. It is not just unique to Fiji.

“Personally, yes, I think that is a great idea. Practically, I am not sure if it is feasible and possible.”

Focus on what unites, says Rabuka
Fiji is on a path for reconciliation, with leaders from across the political spectrum signing a Forward Fiji Declaration in 2023, hoping to usher in a new era of understanding between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians.

Rabuka announced a public holiday to commemorate Girmit Day in 2023.

In his Girmit Day message this year, Rabuka said his government was dedicated to bringing unity and reconciliation between all races living in Fiji.

“We all know that Fiji has had a troubled past, as it was natural that conflicts would arise when a new group of people would come into another’s space,” he said.

“This is precisely what transpired when the Indians began to live or decided to live as permanent citizens.

“There was distrust as the two groups were not used to living together during the colonial days. Indigenous Fijians did not have a say in why, and how many should come and how they should be settled here. Fiji was not given a time to transit.

“The policy of indenture labour system was dumped on us. Naturally this led to tensions and misunderstandings, reasons that fuelled conflicts that followed after Fiji gained independence.”

He said 146 years later, Fijians should focus on what unites rather than what divides them.

“We have together long enough to know that unity and peace will lead us to a good future.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A new production called Coolie: The Story of the Girmityas is shedding light on the lesser-known history of the Indian indentured labourers.

Poet and music producer Nadia Freeman’s latest work gives life to the hidden voice of her Indo-Fijian ancestors through electronic music and theatre.

“I just felt like I was losing more of my ancestry and my ethnicity, and I wanted to look more into it to understand,” Freeman says.

The show opened on Thursday at the Kia Mau contemporary Māori, Pasifika and indigenous arts festival.

“Coolie”, which is used in the production’s title, was a derogatory term used by British colonial supervisors when addressing the workers in Fiji.

“I want people who are outside that community to know what happened, to know more about,” she said.

Who were the Girmityas?
The Indian workers were called the Girmityas, which in Hindi means “agreement”. The agreement was initially for five years, but it was extendable.

On finishing five years abroad, they were permitted to return to India at their own expense or serve 10 more years and return at the expense of the British colonial government.

Some workers returned home, but many could not afford the return journey and were stuck in Fiji.

“We are still quite an angry community … angry because we haven’t healed,” says businessman and community advocate Nik Naidu.

His grandfather, M.N. Naidu, was an indentured labourer who was on a ship to Fiji in the early 1900s.

Like many Indians who were sent to Fiji, Naidu’s grandfather was also looking for a better life.

“They were living in dire poverty and were looking for money to support their families, so that’s how my grandfather got on the ship,” Naidu says.

Challenging life
Life in Fiji was challenging.

The journey took months, and many did not even make it to Fiji. That was not the end of their struggles.

“There was hardship and there were difficulties,” Naidu says.

“In the beginning, it was the harshness of plantation life, poor living conditions, you know, resettlement, displacement, realisation of not being able to return, inability to participate in their religion properly, and, you know, the caste system that existed, the difficulties and, of course, lack of women.”

Finding a companion was a challenge for many young Girmits. The disproportionate sex ratio meant there were only 40 women for every 100 men.

Journalist Sri Krishnamurthi has also heard many stories about the Girmityas from his grandparents.

Working sugar canefields
“My grandmother, Bonamma, came from India with my grandfather and came to work in the sugar canefields under the indentured system,” Krishnamurthi says.

“They lived in ‘lines’ — a row of one-room houses. They worked the cane fields from 6am to 6pm largely without a break. It was basically slavery in all but name.”

Krishnamurthi remembers the story about his grandfather, who was sent back to India, “because he thumped a coolumbar sahib” (a white man on horseback who made sure the work was done) who was whipping the workers.

Naidu says: “I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet my grandfather. I was 2 years old when he passed away and he went back to India and passed away in India.”

His family is now running the organisations that his father started, including schools.

“The colonial administration at the time did not want to educate the Fijian Indians,” he says.

“They wanted them to stay in servitude, as small farmers who were always dependent on the sugar cane plantations and uneducated.”

Addressing new challenges
A few weeks ago, the community celebrated the 144th Girmit Remembrance Day in New Zealand.

“We remembered our forefathers, who had contributed towards this development of the Fiji Indian community,” says Krish Naidu, president of the Fiji Girmit Foundation.

“It is a day where we honour and remember their struggles and sacrifices, but we also celebrate their resilience.

“It’s important our young people in particular actually understand who we are, where we come from.”

In 2023, a new challenge emerged for the Indo-Fijian community in New Zealand. The government’s decision to classify them as Asians rather than Pacific Islanders is stirring criticism within the community.

“Because we, as people with Indian biological traits, are not considered by the Ministry of Pacific,” Naidu says.

Naidu thinks that the government’s move is “unfair”.

“We get emails and messages from students because they miss out on specific scholarships,” he says.

However, he was delighted for the newly announced Girmit Day, a national holiday in Fiji.

“We were the actual architects of it because we’ve been pushing for the holiday since 2015 in Fiji,” he says.

“We are absolutely overjoyed.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

In a significant step toward preserving and commemorating Fiji’s rich history, efforts are underway to establish the country’s first living museum.

This unique institution will focus on capturing the era of the British colonial government’s indentured system in Fiji, shedding light on the arrival of Fijians of Indian descent to the Pacific Ocean.

The initiative aims to honour the contributions and struggles of the indentured labourers, known as Girmitiyas, who played a pivotal role in shaping Fiji’s economy.

Behind the vision is the Global Girmit Institute, whose board of trustees chair Dr Ganesh Chand told RNZ Pacific the museum had great significance for Fiji.

Dr Chand said that many Fijians were unaware of their country’s history and the way of life under British rule in Fiji, noting that Fiji-Indians were even unaware of their origins — the Girmitiyas.

Fijian-Indians make up about 37 percent of the country’s population.

“For Girmitiyas, there has been a total silence of material in our curriculum all the way up to now,” Dr Chand lamented.

“There is nothing in the texts, and students don’t learn their history.”

He said that if schools fail to teach local history, it could be detrimental to that nation as a whole.

“If they don’t learn in these in schools, then they grow up thinking that their house and day-to-day life is their entirety in the country.

“But that is not a very good state for nation-building. For nation-building, people need to know the history,” Dr Chand said.

The museum aims to rectify this by providing a “comprehensive and immersive experience” that educates visitors about the Girmit era.

The Global Girmit Institute living museum will be co-located within the GGI Library at its headquarters in Saweni, Lautoka, on the country’s main island.

Work has already begun, with the collection of artefacts intensifying in preparation for the anticipated opening of phase one next year.

Travellers who crossed two oceans
The gallery will feature a range of artefacts and recordings of the oral history of people from different linguistic backgrounds and cultures.

Objects relating to farming and the sugar industry, lifestyle, music, food, clothing and religious events will also be displayed, along with objects that record the impact of colonialism on the islands.

Dr Chand said visitors will have the opportunity to witness and understand first hand the living conditions and lifestyle of the Girmitiyas.

“The living museum will feature a fully furnished residence from the era, and our workers will live there and depict how life was in those days under British rule,” he said.

So, how did a group of South Asian people — the Girmitiyas — arrive in the Pacific Ocean?

It was the abolition of slave labour in the early 19th century that gave rise to the Indian indenture system.

This saw an influx of labourers transported from India to various European colonies, including Fiji, to work in plantations.

The system was established to address the labour shortage that followed, explained academic and linguist Dr Farzana Gounder, a direct Girmitiya descendant and a representative of Fiji on the UNESCO International Indentured Labour Route Project.

“The term ‘Girmit’ is derived from the word ‘agreement’ and was used to refer to the system of indentured labour that brought Indians to Fiji between 1879 and 1916,” she said.

“Under this system, Indian labourers were recruited from British India to work on sugar plantations in Fiji, which was then a British colony. During this period, more than 60,000 Indians were brought to Fiji under indenture and became known as Girmitiyas.”

The indenture was seen as an agreement between the workers and the British government, and over the next three decades Girmitiyas were shipped across two oceans to work the lands in Fiji, where a jarring reality awaited them, explained Dr Gounder.

“The Girmitiyas faced many challenges when they arrived in Fiji, including harsh working conditions, cultural and linguistic barriers, and discrimination from both European and indigenous Fijian populations.

“They worked long hours in difficult and often dangerous conditions on the sugar plantations and were paid very low wages.”

The Girmitiyas were instrumental in the development of Fiji’s sugar industry, and this museum aims to tell these stories.

Fiji’s Peace Village to host historical stories
The government of Fiji is also commissioning a living museum in the central province of Navilaca village in Rewa.

Assistant Women’s Minister Sashi Kiran announced that this gallery would pay homage to the relationship between the Girmitiyas and iTaukei people.

“Navilaca village is significant to the history of both the indigenous people and the Indo-Fijians,” she said.

Kiran recounts the heroic efforts of the indigenous people in 1884 who, in the absence of immediate assistance from the colonial authorities, led the rescue operations, saving many lives when a ship named Syria, carrying around 500 Girmitiyas, became wrecked on the Nasilai Reef.

This village thus served as an apt location for the museum, paying homage to the resilience and humanity displayed during that challenging time, she said.

“The village of Navilaca had done the rescue when the Syria was wrecked, and villages there had not only rescued the people but buried the dead in their chiefly ground. They had also looked after all the injured until they healed.

“The fisherfolk had been rescuing people, and the archives also say that there were only about 100 out of almost 500 passengers left by the time the colonials came, so most of the rescue was actually done by the indigenous people.”

The village has since been declared a place of peace with an offer extended to host teaching of each other’s rituals, ceremonies, and customs.

“It will be a space where both cultures can be taught through artefacts and storytelling,” she added.

It will also be open to tourists and the diaspora.

Both living museums promise to be vital cultural institutions, providing a platform to remember and honour Fiji’s history.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Sunday — May 14 — was an important date for Fiji.

It is recorded in history as a day set aside to commemorate the Girmitiya.

Sometimes we need a reminder to appreciate the importance of history, and what it means to us as a nation.

We need to be reminded about events that contributed to making Fiji the nation that it is today.

So Sunday was about reflecting on history.

It was about appreciating the role history has in shaping our future.

We live in a country that was shaped through hard work, through blood, sweat and tears and tightly woven in there is the history of our Girmitiya.

It was on 14 May 1879 that the first group of indentured labourers arrived from India, into our waters.

We have grown as a nation and we should be appreciative of the place of the Girmitiya in how our nation has turned out.

It may be difficult to understand what transpired then.

It may be difficult to appreciate the sense of uncertainty, frustration, fear and shock when the first lot of indentured labourers sailed away from their motherland.

They were headed for a new beginning.

Life was very different from what they were accustomed to back home.

There was the weather to contend with, the food, and an environment they weren’t familiar with.

But they survived, and they adapted to a new way of life.

Yesterday was about acknowledging their sacrifice, hard work, and contribution to the development of a young nation.

We remind ourselves of the importance of history because it can help us appreciate what we have now.

History can reinforce our appreciation of who we are as a people, and as a nation.

To move forward, let’s get our bearings through history and take care never to repeat mistakes of the past.

The Girmit era should invoke in us a sense of appreciation of the early years of our economic progress as a nation.

It should also acknowledge the great sacrifices made by every indentured labourer.

History teaches us values.

Today let’s be reminded about something former US President George Bush said in a speech on 17 September 2002 which has deep meaning.

He told Americans: “Our history is not a story of perfection. It’s a story of imperfect people working toward great ideals.

“This flawed nation is also a really good nation, and the principles we hold are the hope of all mankind. When children are given the real history of America, they will also learn to love America.

“Ignorance of American history and civics weakens our sense of citizenship. To be an American is not just a matter of blood or birth; we are bound by ideals, and our children must know those ideals.”

They were powerful words which stood out then as they should today.

They are relevant and should serve as a reminder for us to remember our history.

On Sunday, emotions were on over-drive.

Tears flowed and we captured that on the front page today and inside.

There was a great feeling.

There was acceptance of the need for reconciliation.

There was forgiveness!

We remember thousands of people had an impact on the birth of our nation.

We remember the Girmitiya.

This Fiji Times editorial was published on 15 May 2023 under the original title “Girmit Day – We remember” and is republished here with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

History unfolded live at the Vodafone Arena at Laucala Bay in Suva yesterday when the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma and descendants of the Girmitya exchanged apologies and forgiveness in a solemn church service marking the fourth day of the inaugural Girmit Day celebrations.

An emotional Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, fought back tears as he sought forgiveness for the hurt and pain inflicted on Fijians of Indian origin during the colonial era and the political upheavals of 1987 and 2000.

“I am not making this confession as Prime Minister of Fiji, as I do not hold the government accountable for my actions of 1987,” he said.

“I do not claim to be making this confession on behalf of the vanua of Navatu, I am not Tui Navatu and I am just a member of the Yavusa Navatu of Cakaudrove.

“But I make this confession on behalf of all those that took part with me in the military coup of May 14, 1987.

“We confess our wrongdoings, we confess that we have hurt so many of our people in Fiji, particularly those of our Indo-Fijian communities at that time and among them were sons and daughters of those that were indentured as labourer from India between 1879 and 1960.”

Rabuka said they had every right to be angry about what was done to them.

‘I ask for your forgiveness’
“I stand here to confess and ask for your forgiveness. I have made our confession to some who were affected by our deeds in 1987.

“To those I did not reach, I hope [this is] coming through for us here, please forgive us.

“As you forgive, you release us and you are released. You are released from hatred and from your anger and we begin to feel the peace of God coming to our beings and our lives.”

In an emotional response, former prime minister and Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry said it was a great day for the nation and worth celebrating.

It would go down well in history and everyone must build on it.

“I am deeply honoured by this gesture. Prime Minister Rabuka, I also accept your apology. In your personal capacity you apologised,” he said.

“I accept the apologies of the Turaga na Vunivalu na Tui Kaba, Marama Roko Tui Dreketi and the Tui Cakau. Thank you very much for your magnanimity.

“I think the spirit is there now, that we can all work together, may God bless Fiji.”

‘One nation of different beliefs’
Fiji Times journalist Navnesh Reddy reports that on Saturday Prime Minister Rabuka spoke at the Western Girmit Day Remembrance Celebration held at Churchill Park in Lautoka.

“Today I am wearing the Hindu salusalu and have accepted the ‘tika’ on my forehead because we are now one nation of different beliefs.

“We are now one nation of different cultures and rather than offend the young student who put that on me, I accept it because my custom now is acceptance and to co-exist harmoniously.”

Rabuka said that as the nation moved forward, there was a need to create more awareness on how Fijians could overcome their differences.

“The underlying theme of the new Girmit Day holiday is about unity and I believe we all — the descendants of the Girmitya, the indigenous people and the chiefs — [must] live in harmony and we have to lay that foundation now.

“Our children need to know that we cannot build a new future by relying on our vision and beliefs from the past.”

He also acknowledged the organisers for putting together a programme that envisaged what the Coalition government believed in.

“This morning we came together and worshipped in three different religions and heard prayers from the Pundit, Reverend, and also the Imam.

“This is a very special time for Fiji because we are now coming together as a nation to observe the first public holiday to acknowledge and honour the Girmitya of India, who came to Fiji between 1879 to 1916.”

Arieta Vakasukawaqa is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Methodist Church of Fiji is seeking forgiveness from the descendants of Indian indentured labourers, or Girmitiyas, for the transgressions of the last 36 years.

The racially motivated violent coups of 1987 and 2000 and the military coup d’état of December 2006 have left a permanent scar on race relations within the country.

The 1987 and 2000 coups were supported by the church’s then-leadership.

But in a historic move, the church is launching a 10-year campaign to heal the wounds of the past — starting with an apology to coincide with the inaugural Girmit Day celebrations next Sunday.

Reverend Ili Vunisuwai is leading the official apology at the national reconciliation service on May 14 as the head of the largest Christian denomination in Fiji.

“The time is right to launch a campaign for national reconciliation and give the people of all races a chance to confess their weaknesses,” Reverend Vunisuwai said.

“Let’s seek forgiveness from those they regard as their enemies. We strongly believe that by confession with pure hearts and humility, our transgression can be forgiven,” he said.

“As we look back, the dark days of social upheavals of coups of 1987, 2000 as well as 2006, and then, unfolding events of hatred and discrimination, which resulted in fear and uncertainties, I think there’s a lot to be done by the church to bring the two races together.”

The timing of the event has much significance as the country of under a million people marks 144 years since the arrival of the first of more than 60,000 indentured labourers or Girmitiyas as they later came to be known.

Girmitiyas were brought to Fiji between 1879 to 1916 by British colonial rulers to work in plantations across the island.

As a result of the indentured labour system, Fijians of Indian descent make up the second largest ethnic population in Fiji today — slightly over 34 percent, while the iTaukei or indigenous people comprise 62 percent.

Chair to the Girmit Celebrations, Assistant Minister for Women Sashi Kiran, is calling the apology efforts a start of a peaceful future for the nation.

‘We acknowledge the pain’
‘I’m very humbled, and I’m very, very touched at the strength of the Committee and of the leadership of the Methodist Church,” Kiran told RNZ Pacific.

“They’re willing to look at the problem in the eye and say, ‘Well, let’s talk about it. We apologise, we can’t change the past, but we are sorry for the hurt that we have caused’.”

But while Kiran accepts the apology from the church, she acknowledges that many in the Indo-Fijian community may not be ready.

“Any pain cannot be underrated,” she said. “What people went through was their pain, and it’s their journey so by no means can we judge what people are feeling or going through”

“We acknowledge the pain. We acknowledge the pain of the past,” she added.

However, she admits that events of the past cannot be undone, and the way forward is through healing.

“In the interest of healing the nation, in the interest of future generations that they born into a healed nation…we ask you to please open your hearts and open your inner feelings,” she appealed to Fijians.

“Let’s talk about it [past atrocities], and let’s work on healing and come into that space.”

She said it was also “okay” for those people who still “need time” to heal from the racial troubles, adding “at least we begin to talk about this.”

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who has publicly apologised for his actions in 1987 repeatedly, accepts that many will still remember the dark past that made him notorious worldwide.

“The man that we did not want to know about, we shied away from his name, addressed us…and he does not bite, he’s not an angry young man,” Rabuka told the 12th World Hindi Conference in Nadi in February.

“He is just an old man who understands the feelings of the descendants of the Girmitiyas who are now his age, looking at their grandchildren and children growing up in the land they now call home.”

RNZ Pacific asked Reverend Vunisuwai why it has taken the Methodist Church of Fiji 35 years to apologise to the Indo-Fijian community?

“The current government has allowed the celebration of the Girmitiyas, and that’s probably a good time for national reconciliation regarding all the upheavals of the past 30 years or so.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“My Fiji
I offer a vision which sees this beloved land of ours united in its diversity, forged out of its adversity, and built on trust. I offer you a vision of Fiji which historians will say that, in the midst of tragedy, we found courage and wisdom, and foresight and determination to lead the nation away from the precipice into a prosperous future. I can only hope that my vision for this most wonderful of nations will fulfil its promise. I can only pray that we who have the moment at hand will find the courage, the strength and the determination to let the past be the past and build a nation that will stand not just to 20/20, but down through the centuries.”
— Jai Ram Reddy, 1993

This moment asks a lot of me and all of us. I write these words with a heavy heart but also a sense of great pride and privilege which is only afforded to me because I happen to be the daughter of the lawyer, judge, and Indo-Fijian statesman, Jai Ram Reddy, who died in Auckland last night aged 85.

Historians, political commentators, and analysts will define their narratives about my father. I am a daughter who simply seeks to celebrate and mark his life and legacy with a personal perspective about him, his legal and political career.

I am conscious that many of those who will read this piece are, like me, the descendants of indentured labourers “Girmitiyas”, who were brought from India to Fiji during colonial rule.

Like many of their generation, my grandparents, Pethi and Yenkatamma Reddy were farming folk who wanted a better future for their children. They worked the field and saved with a view to sending their eldest son, Jai Ram, to study law in New Zealand.

Their dreams were realised, and my father was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1960.

Further to his admission to the New Zealand bar, Dad returned to Fiji and enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a lawyer. He was the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of Fiji (during the short-lived Bavadra Labour government of 1987) and President of Fiji’s Court of Appeal in the early 2000s.

I never did have the opportunity to observe my father in the courtroom, but I have heard and read much about his formidable advocacy skills and forensic legal mind. His areas of practice were broad, but he was particularly invested in criminal law and practice.

Unwavering commitment
I understand he could be a pit-bull in the courtroom and had an unwavering commitment to his clients.

In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly elected Dad as a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He was based in Arusha, Tanzania, and my son and I visited him in 2007.

He was sitting on a bench comprised of two other international jurists, one of whom was the President of the Tribunal, Judge Eric Mose. The four defendants were military men accused of genocide against the Tutsi population in Rwanda during the early 1990s.

On the day we attended his court room, I distinctly recall Dad challenging one of the Canadian advocates on a technical point to which the advocate responded, “Judge Reddy always asks the difficult questions”. He was considered one of the finest judges there.

As a lawyer, I found the proceedings fascinating and as a daughter, I felt very proud.

Of course, none of us are defined solely by our professional life or public profile and it would feel incomplete not to mention some of my father’s other interests. He loved the odd gamble on the horses and as a young child, I recall being dragged to the Ellerslie races on more than a few occasions.

Dad also loved literature, philosophy, and comedy. Those who knew him intimately will recall his reverence for the prose of William Shakespeare and his uncanny ability to recite Shakespearean sonnets and soliloquies — even when his Alzheimer’s was quite advanced.

Interest in philosophy
As a young, idealistic student, he developed an interest in philosophy and his outlook and perspectives were shaped by both Eastern and Western writers and intellectuals. Possessing a dry, acerbic wit, he enjoyed satire and comedy — particularly the British variety — and was an ardent fan of all things involving Monty Python and other comics of that tradition.

He also liked old Hindi songs but loved ghazals the most. He wasn’t the greatest singer but after a couple glasses of red wine, he would sing along to those old melodies with much gusto at dinner parties. It made him happy.

Like all of us, my father’s life was punctuated by both highs and deep sadness. My dear brother Sanjai’s untimely death was devastating for Dad, as it was for all of us. Despite his own grief, he remained a devoted and supportive father and grandfather to his three surviving children and five grandchildren whilse continuing a demanding role as a jurist at the ICTR.

It cannot have been easy in the circumstances. Dad undoubtedly had an intellectual disposition and for much of his life, his interests and preoccupations were principally cerebral in nature. However, with age, he became less preoccupied with such matters and his renowned social reticence, and “short fuse” receded and was replaced by a person who was more relaxed, emotionally accessible and at ease with communicating on a more personal level.

I will treasure the memory of some of conversations we shared in his later years.

As to his political life, Dad was initially a senator in the early 1970s before his election as Leader of the Opposition in 1977. Politically he was a social democrat with liberal instincts. Throughout his long political career, he argued for equity, social justice, and racial equality.

Vehemently opposed to the death penalty on the grounds it offends the inalienable right to life, he, among others, advocated for its abolition in Fiji. He also supported the legitimatisation of same-sex unions and led the parliamentary debate against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Committed to multi-culturalism
I suspect; however, my father will ultimately be remembered for his commitment to the values of multi-culturalism and pluralism.

When reflecting on his political legacy, I am cognisant of how urgent and prescient my father’s brand of politics might feel given the rise and global reach of ethnic nationalism and identity politics. Dad firmly believed that leadership in the Fijian context required moral courage, an empathy for “the other” and an acute appreciation of how history and context shaped the political and social fabric of the country.

It is through him; I developed an understanding of the importance of adopting a pluralist approach and working across the political aisle for the greater good of all communities in Fiji.

Similarly, I developed an appreciation of how the colonial legacy of divide and rule cultivated and fostered the deep racial divide, mistrust and communalism which have featured so tragically in Fiji’s political landscape. An appreciation of context is obviously so important, but Dad’s message was that we all share a collective responsibility to reflect, critique and overcome the historical legacies, structures and values which impede the art of empathy and compromise.

Following the military coup of 1987, my father had the singular honour of being the first Indo-Fijian to be invited to speak to the Great Council of Chiefs. It was a seminal moment as Fiji was on the precipice of ratifying a progressive new constitution. In that speech, he talked about the respective fears and interests of both the indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities.

He also spoke of the importance of power-sharing in the context of a politically and socially fractured Fiji following the military coups in 1987. I quote Dad’s final words from that speech:

“In one of his nation’s darkest hours, that courageous and visionary leader, Franklin Roosevelt, said, and I quote: ‘to some generations much is given; of other generations much is asked. This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.’

“Much was asked of Ratu Cakobau’s generation of Chiefs. Much is asked of this generation of Chiefs. Much is asked of us all.

“Let us therefore gather our courage and set ourselves united to the finishing of the noble task to which our history, our heritage and our motherland now call us. This generation must keep its rendezvous with destiny. And to future generations, much will be given.”

Defining moment squandered
From the perspective of many, that defining moment was squandered and the tragic events which have taken place in Fiji over the past two decades speak volumes. I know how profoundly disappointed my father was that his vision of an inclusive society was mercilessly rebuked by what he described as “narrow-minded partisanship”.

Of course, another military coup then took place, and the rest is history. Notwithstanding those events, may the arc of history bend towards that rendezvous he spoke of on that hopeful occasion.

May his dream of a fully democratised Fiji be realised and let it be a Fiji with fair and accessible rights to political representation, education, and economic parity for all its people.

On this saddest of occasions, it feels fitting to conclude with a quote from that great, visionary civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr:

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right”.

Rest in Peace my dear father.
Om Shanti
Gole ena vakacegu

Helen Nalina Reddy
London

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad has questioned the motive of the FijiFirst government to continuously highlight the 1987 coup during the girmit celebrations while refusing to mention the devastation brought about by the 2000 and 2006 coups on Fijians.

He highlighted this issue during a rally in Tadevo, Navua, on Saturday.

“They are talking about 1987 coup which happened 35 years ago, but they never mention anything about the 2000 and 2006 coup,” Professor Prasad said.

“They are talking about the 1987 coup because they want to stoke fear in the minds of people, especially on the Fijians of Indian descent voters.

Professor Prasad said the government should also apologise to the family of the late Professor Brij Lal for banning him from the country of his birth and who died at his home in Brisbane, Australia, last year.

“Every government minister and every government member in the FijiFirst party, if they have any shame left in every girmit function that they organise, they should apologise to the family of late Professor Lal and to all the descendants of the girmitya in this country on how they brutally banned him from Fiji.”

He said it was hypocritical for the Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Premila Kumar and other senior government officials to be parading and giving speeches about the struggles of Fijians of India descent, yet forget the extremely shameful act of banning the historian who had written everything on girmit about Fijians of Indian descent.

“It’s obvious they are using the situation to campaign for the next general elections by highlighting what happened in 1987 and forgetting what happened in 2000 how people were terrorised, forgetting who was a RFMF commander at that time, forgetting the 2006 coup, how many people including women were brutally treated by those were in power at that time,” he said.

Professor Prasad said the girmitya would be “turning in their graves looking at how the shameless government used this occasion for a political gimmick”.

Questions sent to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama remained unanswered when this edition went to press.

Arieta Vakasukawaqa is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“No matter how we come to be in Fiji, or how long we have been here …we all part of the land. It is the land of our birth or land of our adoption, the land to which we belong” – The late archbishop Petero Mataca.

When a New Zealand youth, an eighth generation Indo-Fijian, recently spoke out against education policies that exclude some Pacific Island people from Pasifika programmes and scholarships as unfair, he did not realise he was opening a thorny debate that goes back to 1879.

That was the year Indian indentured labourers were introduced to the Pacific with the first forebearers being brought aboard the Leonidas and their descendants have become part of the diaspora, or in the case of Aotearoa New Zealand become part of the double diaspora.

Between 1879 and 1916, 87 voyages were made by 40 ships by the British bringing in the Girmityas or the people of the ”Agreement”.

As the venerable Professor Vijay Naidu of the University of the South Pacific in Suva attests to that: “Indo-Fijians or Fiji Indians or Fijians of Indian descent are descendants of the 60,500 British Indian indentured labourers who were transported between 1879 and 1916 to establish and work on the plantations of sugar, coconut, banana, tea, and rubber and sugar mills owned the Australian Colonial Sugar Refining Company”.

As he says these Girmityas lived in “lines” comprising of single rooms and worked in atrocious conditions in which has been called a new system of slavery, and “narak” or hell.

“In Fiji their roots lay in cultivating the land as small holder tenant farmers in mainly indigenous Fijian owned land. There has been more than a century of this relationship with i’Taukei, mostly cooperative and beneficial, and occasionally conflictual,” as Professor Naidu points out.

Reinforcing their culture
Through the 100 years and more they managed to reinforce their culture and religions while doing away with the caste system and gone too were dhowry for marriages.

Indo-Fijians have migrated to other countries such as Aotearoa NZ, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States all for a better life.

However, so too have the indigenous i’Taukei, all in search of new opportunities using both military service and rugby as a means to settle abroad.

But it is the better of two pursuits that makes for a good Fijian – i’Taukei or Indo-Fijian.

As children’s book author Ryan Gounder believes, all young people need role models to look up to.

Gounder, who was born and raised in Fiji and now lives in Aotearoa NZ, is writing a new series, starting with Rugby Superheroes Volume One, published in Fijian with English translations this year.

In Fiji, rugby players are like superheroes for many children and the lessons they teach us can strongly impact children in the community, Gounder says.

Developing ‘tangible resources’
“We need to develop more tangible resources for our young Pacific people that resonates with their identity as Pasifika people, and which will empower them and help develop resilience to be the ‘best versions of themselves’ – a famous phrase often using within the Rugby Sevens circles in Fiji,” says Gounder, whose first name resonates with Ben Ryan, the coach of the winning Rugby sevens team in Brazil in 2016.

The irony of Ryan Gounder is that he is a recipient aof the Languages Innovation Fund set up by the Ministry of Pacific People, despite being an Indo-Fijian. I will come back to that later in this article.

However, the i’Taukei, in the process of seeking better opportunities for their children and themselves too have lost their identity as they pursue the dollar.

While language remains one of the strongest senses of identity, so to are culture and religion that makes a person know where his or her Turangewaewae (standing place) is.

“In the Fijian community, it is often discussed at our annual gatherings how language is being lost,” Gounder says of the more serious discussion around the kava bowl.

It is not just the loss of language but traditional culture that displaces the I’Taukei and the Indo-Fijian, who has had to adopt new ways to cope with being in a new environment.

While the proponent of the coups in Fiji in 1987, which caused thousands of Indo-Fijians to emigrate, making them a minority in Fiji once more, Sitiveni Rabuka tried to reconcile with a democratic constitution review with joint sponsorship of the bill with Opposition Leader Jai Ram Reddy in 1997.

Constitution ‘unfortunately unilaterally revoked’
“It was unfortunate that the 1997 constitution was unilaterally revoked in July 2009 by the [Voreqe] Bainimarama-led military regime,” Rabuka wrote in a column in The Fiji Times in the lead up to the 2018 election.

“For me personally I have three reservations about the adoption of the 2013 constitution of “Fijian” as our common name.

“Firstly, the people were never consulted. It was imposed just like the Bainimarama regime’s repudiation of the 1997 constitution and the abolition of the Great Council Chiefs (GGC) – the Bose Levu Vakaturaga – in 2012.”

His second reservation was the allowing of dual nationality which he said diluted patriotism even if it paved the way for the reversing of the brain drain which took place after his 1987 coups.

The third reservation was most concerning for him was that which ignored the group rights of the indigenous I’Taukei and Rotuman people.

To him it was unacceptable that the 2013 constitution presumed there was no differentiation between the people.

“For an indigenous i’Taukei to be called a Fijian means more than being a Fijian citizen. It means being registered in the i’Taukei Vola ni Kawa Bula (VKB) as a member of a customary landowning Mataqali. (Traditionally, each Fijian villager is born into a certain role in the family unit or Tokatoka. Various heads of the family will administer and lead the family unit within the village community. Each chief of the village will in turn lead the people to fulfill their role to the Vanua.)

Mataqali and land rights
Each village will have several family units/Tokatoka  which are part of one clan or Mataqali. Several Mataqali will make up the larger tribe or Yavusa. Several Yavusa will belong to a certain land mass and comprise thereby the Vanua (confederation of Yavusa)..

Fiji social scientist Dr Asesela Ravuvu described the Vanua as:”The living soul or human manifestation of the physical environment which the members have since claimed to belong to them and to which they also belong. The land is the physical or geographical entity of the people, upon which their survival…as a group depends. Land is thus an extension of the self. Likewise, the people are an extension of the land. Land becomes lifeless and useless without the people, and likewise the people are helpless and insecure without land to thrive upon.”

Therein lies the dilemma for the I’Taukei who no longer recognises the Mataqali he or she belongs to in Aotearoa NZ, having been away from the family clan.

With that comes the loss of identity and a reversion and accession to the Western World and hence that brings its own problems.

As Niuean Dr Collin Tukuitonga, who left Fiji after the 1987 coup, assesses: “People feel disconnected from their social norms and traditional values, family connections are disturbed and of course that is almost an inevitable consequence that young people in particular would turn to drugs and crime. That is why I see languages as a protective element for our people.”

The impacts of the loss identity can be devastating, but HOPE party leader Roko Tupou Draunidalo, stepdaughter of the 1987 Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra, has a different take on the subject.

“I am otherwise of the view that every Fijian born in Fiji or anywhere in the Pacific or with Fijian ancestry that lived in the Pacific with Pacific cultures and interactions is Fijian and therefore a Pacific Islander,” she says with conviction.

Culture alive and well
“I’Taukei have not lost their culture, it is alive and well and you need to go any village or I’Taukei home to realise that.”

However, that is not case in Aotearoa NZ. That Ryan Gounder was recognised for his work by the Ministry of Pacific Peoples despite being Indo-Fijian is a rarity rather than the norm.

The Search for the Indo-Fijian identity will require an act of Parliament so that they are differentiated from Southeast Asian Indians.

Currently they have to tick the Indian box in the census and are not recognised by some universities as Pasifika Peoples.

As Professor Vijay Naidu explains: “In response to a letter from Lorraine Pillay in early 2000 which inquired whether Indo-Fijians were ‘Pasifika’, the then PM Helen Clark’s office responded strongly in the affirmative.”

Pillay raised this identity question when she was told in a Wellington workshop for senior teachers and principals of secondary schools that Indo-Fijians were not eligible for scholarships as they were not considered to be “Pasifika”.

In sharp contrast to this standpoint, when I joined Victoria University of Wellington, Pasifika staff and students, and the wider community welcomed me as a “Pasifika” person.

As Professor Brij Lal has stated, generations of living in Fiji have changed our identity and outlook. We are indeed children of the ‘Pacific’!”

This article was first published in Fiji Dynamics, the new magazine for the Fiji diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, and has been republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz