THE Gone Turaga Bale na Tui Nayau Ratu Tevita Mara has honoured the girmitiya and their descendants, saying they were not guests but an integral part of the country’s history and future.
In a statement commemorating Girmit Day, Ratu Tevita, saluted all Indo-Fijians, saying their story was not only an Indo-Fijian history but was a shared national history.
The Tui Nayau highlighted his late father Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s recognition of Indo-Fijians and their journey to Fiji.
“The late Turaga Tui Nayau and first Prime Minister of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara understood, perhaps more deeply than any leader of his generation, that Fiji’s greatness could only ever be a shared greatness,” said Ratu Tevita.
“He was a paramount chief of the iTaukei, yet he governed always for a Fiji larger than any single race, any single province, any single faith.
“The multiracial covenant he championed throughout his life was a moral conviction, shaped by the wisdom of his vanua – that a chief’s mana grows by the breadth of those he shelters. He extended that shelter to all of Fiji.
“His partnership with the leaders of the Indo-Fijian community, built across decades of dialogue, trust, and shared purpose, stands as one of the greatest gifts to this nation. It is a covenant the people of Lau hold sacred, and today we reaffirm it.”
He said they honoured not only those who arrived in 1879 but every generation that followed.
“Those who stayed when they could have left, who invested in Fiji when others lost faith, who raised their children to love this land as their own.
“Their loyalty to Fiji has been tested many times. Their resilience is a source of national pride.
“In these trying times in our nation, when division is easily sown and unity must be actively tended, Fiji’s diversity is not a burden to be managed – it is a blessing to be celebrated.”
The Tui Lau also made a plea to Indo-Fijians and the iTaukei community.
“To our Indo-Fijian brothers and sisters, you are not guests in Fiji. You are Fiji. The sacrifice of your forebears has purchased your belonging here, in full and forever.
“No politics, no circumstance, no passage of power should ever cause you to doubt that truth.
“To our iTaukei communities, our identity, our culture, our vanua – these are not threatened by the flourishing of our neighbours. A confident people do not fear the happiness of others.
“Fiji is large enough in spirit to hold us all.”
