Namaste New Zealand (7) - Series One, Episode Seven

I am very proud of the fact that Fiji Indian is a very unique identity, and there's a background of Fijian identity together with Indian ancestry. It's this cultural mix that gives us our uniqueness and we should be really proud of it.

– Krish Naidu from the Fiji Girmit Foundation of New Zealand

To me this is her. It reminds me of her, and makes me very close to her.

– Fjian-Indian Aucklander Sushila Jaduram on cherishing her great-grandmother's jewellery

Our people are estranged from their past. I want the successive generations to know about their history. It's as important to them as it is to me.

– Author Rajendra Prasad on his Fijian-Indian community remembering the 'girmit' generation, early in this show

For Girmitiyas, there has been a total silence of material in our curriculum all the way up to now. There is nothing in the text, and students don't learn their history. . . if they don't learn 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.

– Ganesh Chand on honouring Fiji's indentured labourers in a new Fijian museum, Radio New Zealand website, 26 May 2023

Everything we have today is a legacy from our ancestors and we are here because of them.

– Pundit Ram Kumar on honouring the past, on Fiji Girmit Day

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. 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.

– Farzana Gounder explains the origins of the 'girmit' generation, Radio New Zealand, 26 May 2023