Page 29 - Fiji Traveller Issue 10

“I love Fiji, it’s never been out of my heart,” says Jean Bish, the “As hard as it is to hear, I think it's important for all of us to
protagonist and heart of the documentary Fiji Memory, Colonial know,” she says. “Unfortunately, in America right now, we're
Time, part-way through the film. hearing it all the time. It's carte blanche to be as honest about
Jean was born in Lami – just outside Suva – in 1925. A fourth- your racism right now and dislike for others who aren't like you.
generation colonial, she had been away from Fiji for 40 years So I feel that it's very relevant. And the legacy of colonialism right
when her filmmaker daughter Alexandra Lacey, brought her now internationally is very much part of what we're still dealing
back with the intention of making a documentary about her early with in conflicts all over the world.”
life in the the-colony. Fiji Memory, Colonial Time includes interviews with pre-
The film became a labour of love that took some 17 years eminent historians and social scientists, including the late Brij
and three more trips to Fiji to complete, and grew into a much Lal and Ropate Qalo, who provide context and analysis of the
more complex weaving of colonial and personal family histories; impacts of colonialism on Fiji.
political commentary; reflections on aging, nostalgia and the It also features contemporary artist Waqa Dreketi, who
connection between community, person and land; and an artist’s created some of the visuals for the film, and describes how his
journey. artistic practice is connected to his relationship with the land and
Lacey grew up with what she felt was a unique story and a environment.
unique person. Another strong theme in the film is memory, nostalgia and
“My mother is a writer and a storyteller. I grew up listening to aging.
her stories, reading what she wrote about Fiji, and she evokes At one point, reflecting on how different her memories were
this really beautiful, magical but exotic place. And then I also from reality, Jean says: “What made me so teary-eyed was
grew up with these images, photographs of my ancestors, the feeling that this wasn’t real, everything that had been, was
which to me, were very provocative and strange, of these British obliterated, was gone, it didn’t exist anymore. And perhaps I
people, all their heavy clothes, standing in front of a jungle. And didn’t exist anymore.”
they seem so out of place. So, wanting to find out who these This sense of loss is somewhat assuaged when she meets
people were, and also [about] this kind of drive to go across the someone from her childhood. Lacey says this was a profound
world and colonise it, or make your mark, or make your wealth moment for her mother, as she felt seen and so, ‘real’ again.
through the extraction of another place.” A very small team worked on the film during its long life in pre
Narrative friction comes from the fact that her mother now and postproduction. Wynn Newberry, Alexandra’s husband and
holds strongly anti-colonialist and anti-racist views, yet has the film’s coproducer says his role involved “a bit of detective
very happy and nostalgic memories of her privileged childhood work”, finding places, locations and people. “It was a lot of fun
growing up in Fiji. for me. Even though I’m not a movie producer by profession, Fiji
“So that's a tension, and it's something that I wanted to explore was so welcoming and so fascinating.”
too,” Lacey says. They both hope that Fiji Memory, Colonial Time –which has
Tension is also provided through the retelling of the story of only been screened twice so far in Fiji – can be seen more widely
Lacey’s great-great grandfather, the ‘tyrannical’ GH Lee, who and can “provoke discussion” about the legacy of colonialism,
was jailed for shooting an iTaukei man. This conflict demonstrated and “aging, our relationship to place and how it impacts us, and
the wide gulf between the colonisers and Indigenous Fijians in nostalgia.”
understanding the complex relationships between people, land
and the vanua. To learn more about Fiji Memory, Colonial Time, including any
While in story and style there is a strong historical foundation upcoming screenings, visit fijimemory.com
to the film, Lacey feels some of its themes are timely, such as
one confronting scene where an interviewee expresses a brutally
racist viewpoint.

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