Radio Fiji Two

"Young Indian woman, Fiji". Pre-1906.
This woman is dressed in all her finery, her gold jewellery prominent. She is wearing a short-sleeved kurti over a longer-sleeved blouse, and a full skirt.

The colonial state believed that women were causing the problems on the estates, yet it also maintained that women were needed to solve these same problems. Thus, most
colonial officials argued that the Colonial Office should seek not only to increase the proportion of women that emigrated, but also to regulate the ’type’ of woman who emigrated.

Thus, throughout the era of indentured emigration, colonial officials attempted to devise ratios in which they believed that the quantity and 'quality’ of women emigrants would be sufficient to improve the moral condition of the estates.

In the early years of indentureship, the planters’ attitudes to female emigration were generally ambivalent. They did not favour recruiting a large proportion of female labourers, because they believed that female labour was generally inferior
to male labour and, due to the difficulties of recruiting women, unnecessarily costly.

However, most planters were not completely opposed to female emigration, because they believed that the presence of Indian women would keep Indian men on the estates. These planters valued Indian women not for their labour but rather as a means to control Indian men. In many cases, the plantation system promoted the sexual exploitation of indentured women.

➡️ Picture retrieved from: private collection of Rod Ewins. // http://www.justpacific.com/fiji/fijiphotos/cards/Indo-Fijians/index.html

➡️ Caption retrieved from: Conceiving the Coolie Woman, by Ashrufa Faruqee

Girmit legacy still shapes Fiji, says academic Professor Shameem says her own life and academic journey were deeply influenced by her family’s Girmit history, including her great-grandmother’s experience as an indentured labourer.