Page 23 - Fiji Traveller Issue 4

A Disappearance in Fiji

By Samantha Magick experience would be in a fictional setting, where you can sort of
get immersed in the world and hopefully move through it as the
A new detective novel set in Fiji brings to life a time rarely characters move through.”
discussed beyond academic texts; the experiences of Indian Writing A Disappearance in Fiji involved deep research at the
labourers under Girmit. Fiji National Archives, and hours and hours of reading The Fiji
A Disappearance in Fiji follows Akal Singh, a 25-year-old Times on microfiche there. Modified snippets from the paper
Sikh police officer, sent to Fiji in disgrace after an indiscretion appear at the start of each chapter. For descriptions of the time,
in his previous posting of Hong Kong. He does not want to be such as the ‘lines’ or living quarters of the Indian families, she
in Fiji, and his new boss does not want him there either. Then relied on official documents regulating their size and structure,
he is given the task of investigating the disappearance of an writing from missionaries and some photos. A bigger challenge
indentured Indian woman, Kunti, and is quickly exposed to was understanding what the workers and their families would
the complexities of local politics, the indenture system and have been feeling. “That I've had to imagine basically, based on
its injustices, perceptions of women in this world, and deeply all of the things I've heard of what actually happened; I had to
entrenched racism. imagine what their reaction would be,” Rao says.
Writer Nilima Rao was born in Fiji, migrating to Australia with By the end of A Disappearance in Fiji, Akal has begun to think
her family when she was three years old. She says growing up about Fiji differently. Life in the Indian communities he visits
she did not know much about the lives or stories of her ancestors. during his investigation stir memories of home, and he finds
In writing A Disappearance in Fiji, she was focused on depicting friendship with a fellow policeman and a crusading doctor.
Fiji for readers with little understanding of the country’s history, Similarly, writing the novel has changed the way Rao now
and who might wonder ‘why there are so many Indians there’. thinks about Fiji and her connection to the country.
So what does she hope local readers might take from the “I think I have more deeper understanding of the experience of
novel? Indians, and to a lesser extent, I hope that I understand iTaukei
“I would hope that for the Fijian Indians, or the Indians like me people a little bit better,” she told Fiji Traveller. Her two months in
who are descended from the Girmitiyas , that it would give, not a Fiji in 2016 researching the novel “was the first time I went to Fiji
sense of pride necessarily, but a sense of an acknowledgement on my own, without my parents, as an independent adult. And
of that history, that it's important and relevant and not something I got a much greater appreciation of just how to how to function
to be ashamed of. I don't know if that sense of shame is in Fiji. I would never have said before that it felt like home and I
something I have correctly interpreted, but that was the sense still wouldn't necessarily say it felt like home, but it feels more like
that I always got, that it's just something we don't talk about home than it used to.”
because it's negative and it's in the past and so let's just move
on from it.” A Disappearance in Fiji is the first book in a trilogy set in Fiji. To
Rao adds: “I know that there's plenty of academic texts out read more about Rao’s writing process and her books to come,
there that talk about [the Girmit experience] but this is a little visit fijitraveller.com.
bit different in the sense that it's trying to imagine what that

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