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A most successful and excellent Fiji Girmit Day was held at Mangere East in the Hall breaking at seams with around 1,200 people.
This was perhaps the largest indoor gathering of Fiji Indians in the world, with over 500 Seniors citizen Fiji Indians, to salute their forebears.
The event had magnificent programmes, cultural items, mouth-watering snacks, sumptuous dinner, inspiring and encouraging speeches, skits and plays, music depicting the hardship of Girmitiyas, and calls seeking identity and rights and recognition of Fiji Indians in New Zealand as Pacifica people, saluted the sacrifices, suffering, vision and ultimately the resilience and perseverance of Girmitiyas reflected in the current generation Fiji Indian migrants to New Zealand.
For the first time in History of New Zealand, a New Zealand Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition jointly attended a Fiji Indian Function.
The president Kris Naidu thanked the generous sponsors and welcomed all to the historic largest Girmit Remembrance Day and echoed about recognition and identity of Fiji Indians being bypassed by the Ministry of Pacific Peoples. This plea was to NZ Government, to ensure Fiji Indians come into fold of and under the Ministry of Pacific Peoples and be recognised as Pacifica people, because after Samoans, Fiji Indians comprise the largest number of Pacific people in New Zealand.
This was noted by both the Chrises. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Honourable Chris Luxon spoke and appreciated the difficulties of Fiji Indian Girmitiyas, their suffering and contribution of Fiji Indians in NZ economically, socially and culturally.
But the night belonged to the other Chris, the former Prime Minister, Opposition leader and leader of Labour Party Chris Hipkins. He did not only go out to mix and mingle with the audience, take photos, taste the National drink of Fiji, kava, or Yaqona.
But more than this, he stole the limelight of the stage with his profound message on the historical facts of slavery which was reinvented by the British under the guise of indenture whereby many millions of British Indians were displaced, which included those they had gathered to remember that night.
Hipkins in his presentation displayed a philosophical understanding and appreciation of the indentured labourers he was invited to honour and remember. While unapologetically critical in his criticism of ‘Mother Britain” which he revealed as the culprit involved in this renamed “slave trade”, he wished to correct and retrieve Fiji Indian history.
“It is an honour to be here with you to remember the sacrifices of those who, 145 years ago, who were forced to leave their homes to be enslaved on in a land far away.”
He did not hesitate to name Britain as part of an empire, that until then, had been powered by slavery.
Hipkins added that “Britain officially ended slavery in the early eighteenth century. But the truth, for millions of Indians, and those we are here to remember today, is that slavery ended not in 1807, but in 1916.”
Indenture in Fiji began in 1879 and was forced to finish in 1916.
The mostly Fiji Indians present, were pleasantly surprised and elated by a prominent and respected New Zealand European politician who was so scathing to historical wrongs committed by his ancestral country.
He did not end there in his scornful attack on Britain which reinvented slavery in guise as indenture.
Hipkins continued” Because on the back of the open slave trade, an equally sinister system of labour was built. This is where Fiji’s Girmitiyas history begins. A period of systemic and forced recruitment and displacement of millions of people who never returned home.”
When Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ was originally born and established in 2012, its major objectives were to reclaim, retrieve and reconnect Fiji’s stolen history to its new generation. It was so fortunate to see a former and perhaps the future Prime Minister of New Zealand echoing these objectives
“Part of who you are has been shaped by the greed and exploits of colonial power, and by the decisions taken thousands of miles away more than 100 years ago.”
He commended the hosts in his attack of Britain by saying that “You are the heirs of this spirit. You are the holders and keepers of their stories. Playing our part in remembering them is not about redeeming those responsible for this disturbing and troubling past, but about hearing the stories of the people that went through it.”
He echoed the sentiments of reclaiming the stolen history of Fiji Indians.” We all have a responsibility to make sure the history we learn and pass on to our children includes these realities. We can do this by telling the stories of the people for whom there may be no other record than a single thumb print.”
He reflected his ancestry by saying that the stories of the children who left India with their parents wanting little more than what we want today – to provide for their children, and to give them the opportunities they never had.
Hipkins concluded by thanking and commending Fiji Indians as those carrying the traits of their ancestors in never giving up, being resilient and never forgetting what happened 145 years ago. “
This was perhaps one of the most dynamic, honest and self-examining plights of voiceless people to whom Chris Hipkins had given a voice.
After this beautiful profound presentation, Sam Achary, the Chair of Fiji Girmit Foundation Trustees, and managing Director of Anns Funeral and Cremations profoundly spoke about a serious problem generally in New Zealand and Fiji Indian community-DEPRESSION, and mentioned some seven suicide cases he cremated in as many months. He urged Fiji Indians to use the resilience and compassion of Girmitiyas to tackle this vice in the community and replace the stigma with appreciation and acceptance of depression as real and be vigilante and compassionate.
Indeed, this was a historic night for Fiji Indian Diaspora in the world, the biggest gathering to salute the Girmityas.
The highlight of the evening was honouring and rewarding some 30 Seniors over 80 years for carrying the baton of Girmitiyas and continuing the legacies and history of resilience of the Girmitiyas.
A huge salutation to the Trustees, the Executives, and volunteers of Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ which, like Chris Hipkins, gave voice to the voiceless forgotten Girmityas and reclaimed and retrieved the stolen Fiji Girmit history. – by Thakur Ranjit Singh, he is a third generation Fiji Indian, whose grandfather was an indentured labourer who arrived in Fiji in 1915 from Rajasthan, India. Thakur is a Founding Trustee of Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ which annually organises Fiji Girmit Remembrance Day in New Zealand. The views expressed are his and not of this publication.