[Source: Fijian Government]

Fiji is lucky to be blessed with many rich religious traditions and celebrate our different cultures as a nation.

This was highlighted by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama during the 120th anniversary of the first Ram Leela presentation in Fiji and the 143rd Anniversary and the start of the Girmit Era.

Speaking during the 120th Anniversary of Ram Leela in Navua last night, Bainimarama says Fijians are lucky as we can celebrate these traditions on important days of the year.

“Today is both the 120th Anniversary of the first Ram Leela presentation in Fiji and the 143rd Anniversary of the arrival of the ship the Leonidas and the start of the Girmit era. I’ve just come from a solemn event marking that moment. I saw a truly remarkable dance performance that conveyed the story, struggle, and sacrifice of the girmitya which I could never do just with words alone. It is something you must see and experience for yourselves to fully appreciate.”

Last night, we dealt honestly with the reality of the Girmit era while celebrating its cultural legacy.

Whether you are called slave or servant, a thrashing cuts the same, rape is rape, and abuse is abuse. The girmitya overcame it all, and Fiji is stronger for their resilience. pic.twitter.com/H1w7lw9X88

— Frank Bainimarama (@FijiPM) May 15, 2022

[Source: Fijian Government]

The Prime Minister adds that the performance is not only a religious one but also represents a certain aspect of the girmitya’s arrival in Fiji in 1879.

Bainimarama stresses that the Girmit descendants were not given votes or representation at all under the then Legislative Council, a few years after Fiji gained independence.

[Source: Fijian Government]

He adds that the council allowed for greater iTaukei representation that many Fijians lived with that legacy for years post-independence, under an electoral system that left Indo-Fijians with votes of lesser value.

“Despite making enormous contributions to Fiji, their struggle did not end with the indenture. Even after they were free to live their lives as they wanted, the colonial government never accepted the gimritya as equal human beings, much less as full Fijians. What was painfully true for the first girmityas was perhaps even more painful for their descendants, for whom Fiji was the only home they had ever known. This was their country, and they were Fijians. But they were not treated as Fijians.”

[Source: Fijian Government]

Bainimarama also applauded our Indo-Fijians for carrying this tradition forward across decades and generations.

143 years ago, the first indentured labourers arrived in Fiji. They overcame slave-like conditions of work and decades of discrimination to make immense contributions to the country. Their history is Fijian history, and their descendants today are nothing less than proud Fijians.

— Frank Bainimarama (@FijiPM) May 14, 2022

[Source: Fijian Government]

[Source: Fijian Government]