The Human Face of the Pacific: Fiji. Legacies of Empire

Directed by Dennis O'Rourke

A Six-Part Series

People whose family originated in India comprise just over half of Fiji’s population. Indians came to Fiji in colonial times under an indentured labour system to work in the sugar cane fields. Some indigenous Fijians wish to repossess the land now worked by the Indians and this results in Indians feeling insecure about their livelihood. The film looks at the life of Bechu Prasad, an old Indian man, who has lived in Fiji all his life in a large extended family of which he is now head. We watch him at work on his self-owned sugar cane farm and in his position as well-respected community leader who gets on well with both Indian and indigenous Fijians.