Intro
sugar & freedom
Marooned by history
Intro
sugar & freedom
Marooned by history
The Agreement is about the modern day Fijian Indian communities who have descended from indentured Indian migrants who were sent around the world to work on sugar plantations after the African slave trade was abolished.
More than a million people left India and most never returned. They were marooned by history. They share a culture from India, but they are now also Fijian, African & Carribbean.
Their story is one of opportunity and proud hard-won success after extreme struggle, servitude and brutal back breaking work in cane fields.
But there is also racial intimidation and uncertainty. Even after any direct connection has long since disappeared they have faced the call to 'go home' and a denial of their right to be citizens in the country of their birth.
Images – Labasa, Viti Levu, Fiji.
Rama
“After the coups, they didn't want to renew the leases. In the morning they told me, pack & go. My father was born here. I have been living here 76 years, my whole life”.
Rama
“After the coups, they didn't want to renew the leases. In the morning they told me, pack & go. My father was born here. I have been living here 76 years, my whole life”.
Kandi Sami
“This is my land. My father's land. My grandfather's. He came from India, I don't know where, he wouldn't talk about it”.
Kandi Sami
“This is my land. My father's land. My grandfather's. He came from India, I don't know where, he wouldn't talk about it”.
Kandi Sami – Family
“I have seven brothers and five sisters and they have all emigrated overseas, to Canada, Australia and the United States, I want my children to have a future in Fiji”.
Kandi Sami – Family
“I have seven brothers and five sisters and they have all emigrated overseas, to Canada, Australia and the United States, I want my children to have a future in Fiji”.
End
When the term of their agreement ended, they knew how to farm sugar and this was a chance for independence and freedom.
There was also the promise of a better life.
The agreement meant a contract was signed and terms had been laid down and instead of accepting a paid passage home they could use that capital to start a new life.
But as their communities grew and flourished, ethnic tensions developed.
Bought there by the colonialists who have long since moved on, there’s no clear agreement about their rights to be there. Or anyone to hold to account.
Just the right to belong, born on the sugar-farm.
End
When the term of their agreement ended, they knew how to farm sugar and this was a chance for independence and freedom.
There was also the promise of a better life.
The agreement meant a contract was signed and terms had been laid down and instead of accepting a paid passage home they could use that capital to start a new life.
But as their communities grew and flourished, ethnic tensions developed.
Bought there by the colonialists who have long since moved on, there’s no clear agreement about their rights to be there. Or anyone to hold to account.
Just the right to belong, born on the sugar-farm.