New Zealand’s Labour Party MP, Phil Twyford has said in their parliament that he thinks it is important that as a country and as lawmakers, they can listen to and consider the arguments put forward by the Fiji Indian community that they should be recognised as Pacific people.
While speaking on a Pacific Education Foundation Bill, Twyford says the Fiji Indians are just as much Pacific people, and are not people of India anymore, just like Pakeha people in NZ who have lived there for generations don’t consider themselves to be any more people of Britain.
He says that is a really interesting argument that they need to consider in the super diverse country they live in.
Twyford says there is a live debate going on in Auckland right now amongst the Fiji Indian community which is a fast growing community and they are sons and daughters of the Girmitiya.
He says it was an indentured labour system and they were working in conditions which were far more akin to slavery.
The New Zealand MP says the Fiji Indian people believe they are Pacific people, they have lived generation after generation in Fiji and have helped shape and develop Fiji and are making new life in New Zealand, yet they are not recognised that way by numerous different government agencies.
He says this sparked his interest because one of the provisions is the changes on the definition of a Pacific person and this changes the definition for an Aotearoa Pacific person and the intention here is to ensure that the definition of people who are selected for the board of the Pacific Education Foundation reflect the new diverse reality of New Zealand and refers to a person with indigenous Pacific cultural heritage and expands the list of Pacific places and means more Aotearoa learners and their families will be eligible for support from the foundation.
The Fiji Girmit Foundation New Zealand has said that it has been a request and wish of the foundation for Fiji Indians in New Zealand to be recognised as Pacifica people after being nurtured in the Pacific for 145 years.
