Dialogue Fiji executive director Nilesh Lal says the use of a mynah bird image on a shirt designed for Girmit Day celebrations in Fiji is “highly inappropriate, deeply offensive, and historically tone-deaf.”
Lal said Girmit Day is meant to honour the history, hardships and resilience of Indo-Fijian Girmityas, and using an animal historically associated with racist caricatures against the community undermines the purpose of the commemoration.
He said the mynah bird carries a “direct legacy of dehumanization,” pointing to author James A. Michener’s Return to Paradise, where the bird was used as a literary device to portray Indo-Fijians as an “invasive pest” rather than people escaping poverty and exploitation.
Lal said the Girmit era was marked by systemic abuse, “coolie” subjugation and the stripping away of identity, and featuring such symbolism on celebratory clothing trivializes that trauma.
He also argued that the design perpetuates exclusionary narratives, noting that the bird is still commonly referred to in some circles as the “Indian Mynah.”
“Using it on a shirt reinforces the harmful and archaic idea that Indo-Fijians are permanent outsiders or invasive aliens rather than equal, Fiji-born citizens,” Lal said.
