The Girmit Day celebration will be as authentic as possible, says Girmit Day celebration committee chairwoman Sashi Kiran.
She said this in response to questions from this paper about whether the celebrations would stay true to the girmitya experience.
“When we say authentic, for us it’s the girmitya authentic,” Ms Kiran said.
“When people came from India, they were people from different parts of India – North, South, and there were very simple dishes used to be done at that time because they did not have the resources they had in India.
“So, our authentic Fiji-Girmit food was like the tavu baigani (fire-grilled eggplant), tavu karela (fire-grilled bitter melon), very basic food that they could eat in the early days.”
She said even some of the food eaten post-Girmit was very simple, and these were the types of food they would like people to experience at the celebrations.
“We wanted to just remember some of the foods we had, how healthy it was, and showcase some of that.
“We’ve had a very good response and I’m told that all our stalls are full.”
Ms Kiran said the aim was for people to taste and experience some of those foods that were eaten by the forefathers of Fijians of Indian descent, 50 to 100 years ago, which the present generation may not remember now.
