Ethical Dilemmas in Representing the Girmitiya Traumatic Past in Fiji

Abstract

This paper examines the ethical complexities surrounding the representation and memorialisation of Girmitiyas, Indian indentured labour employed in a system that operated in Fiji from 1879 to 1916. It examines how the history of these labourers continues to generate ethical dilemmas for contemporary Fijian society, in relation to historical justice, collective memory and intercommunal reconciliation. The paper is a conceptual and interpretive contribution: rather than reporting new empirical or archival findings, it develops a systematic ethical framework through a critical synthesis of the historiography of indenture, memory and trauma theory and transitional justice scholarship. Its central claim is that the Girmitiya experience cannot be adequately addressed by importing frameworks developed for other traumatic pasts. The paper concludes that ethical engagement with the Girmitiya past requires an approach that acknowledges suffering while enabling intergenerational healing and social cohesion in Fiji’s multicultural context, and it derives six principles to guide representation, commemoration and policy.