Girmit is derived from the word ‘agreement’. Indians who came to work on the sugarcane, banana and copra plantations in Fiji from 1879 to 1916 are called Girmityas. I am the fourth descendant of Girmityas. Slavery was abolished in the 1830’s however, the British administration wanted to continue using Indian people as labourers in their colonies to work on plantations renamed the term ‘slavery’ with the word indenture. The difference was that slavery was for lfe and indenture was for a period of 5 years. After the abolishment of the indenture system in 1920, Indians’ agreements to work on the plantations were cancelled and they were given the opportunity to choose to go back to India or stay back in Fiji. After having spent so much time building Fiji, a lot of them decided to stay. Most of them did not have enough money to pay their ship-fare back to India.

My art project on Girmit mostly focuses on the lives of the Girmit Women of Indenture in Fiji. .

To see/buy prints of my Girmit artworks please click here.