Bad Fiji Gyals Collective logo. Text reads: Bad Fiji Gyals. Sugarcane graphic is on both sides of text.

Viti
We want to acknowledge KaiViti/Indigenous and iTaukei communities across Viti (Fiji) and pay our respects to their elders of the past, present and emerging. We recognise and respect their continuing connection to the Vanua, ocean and community.

Aotearoa
I want to acknowledge the Mana Whenua of Tamāki Makaurau, Ngāti Pāoa; Ngāi Tai; Ngāti Whātua; Te Wai-o-Hua/Ngā Oho; Ngāti Te Ata; and Te Kawerau-a-Maki, whose stolen land I live and work from. As tauiwi (non-Māori) Indo-Fijian woman I recognise that I benefit from living on this stolen land in the settler state of New Zealand. As tauiwi I also seek to honour and commit to upholding Māori sovereignty in Aotearoa through our partnership in He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.


U.S.
I aim to break down all kinds of supremacy within the communities that I come from and that also means accepting how I benefit from living on stolen land in North America. I pay my respects to the Jalquin, Lisjan, Chochenyo and Karkin peoples (Ohlone communities across the East Bay, California) while knowing that all Indigenous and Black communities continue to face genocide, displacement and police brutality across the U.S.

The Bad Fiji Gyals Collective

SEVENTH Gallery Exhibition

Image of textile-making by Quishile. A brown banner is laid out with red lettering and light beige block prints of machete knives. Embroidery in progress of two hands crossed in embroidery hoop is next to the banner in the upper right corner.

SEVENTH Gallery Exhibition — We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, Melbourne, November 2019

Quishile Charan and Esha Pillay. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies: Protest Banner, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Installation: cotton, textile ink, natural dye (aal bark and kumkum seeds). 4930mm x 1170mm.

1920 marked the end of all Girmit contracts under indentured labour. Indenture—the colonial sugar economy built for Empire and colonial states such as Australia and New Zealand—was crumbling under the labour sabotage acts of resistance led by coolies or Girmitiya. The 1920 strike was inevitable: tensions in the country were reaching a zenith as food shortages increasingly affected Girmitiya; the cost of living had surpassed daily wages; Empire was grasping for a control that was, at last, surpassing its reach; state-sanctioned paranoia was growing; and anxieties that the British Empire would introduce a new system of bonded labour spread across the coolie community.

The phrase “we do not have enough to satisfy our bellies” was uttered, screamed, and pleaded throughout historical moments up to and during the 1920 strike. This exhibition re-visited the strike through archival material, secondary sources, oral accounts, and newspaper articles to dismantle the ever-present colonial and patriarchal voices that dominate and steal these narratives from the women who led this strike. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies centres Girmitiya acts of resistance as brave and courageous at a time of increased violence. Quishile Charan highlighted key points of the 1920 strike onsite through hand-made textile banners that adorn and memorialise these acts of resistance. The research surrounding the strike is detailed in the online essay Undoing History’s Spell on Bad Women: Counter-colonial narratives of the female Girmit role in the 1920 labour strike by Esha Pillay and Quishile Charan.

All images courtesy of SEVENTH gallery.

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Left: Sushila’s Letter. Archival document, cotton, textile ink, natural dye: haldi (turmeric) and kumkum seeds. 1360mm x 1300mm.

Right: The Female Horror: Fiji Times Article 1920. Archival document, cotton, textile ink, natural dye: haldi (turmeric) and marigold flower. 930mm x 1430mm.

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Sushila’s Letter. Archival document, cotton, textile ink, natural dye: haldi (turmeric) and kumkum seeds. 1360mm x 1300mm.

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Installation detail: cotton, textile ink, natural dye: haldi (turmeric).

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Oral History: Glass Bangles Broken in Protest at Police Barrier, Nausori 1920. Embroidery thread, handmade Mohar coins, cotton. 1100mm x 1000mm.

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Installation detail: embroidery thread, handmade Mohar coins, cotton. 1100mm x 1000mm.

Quishile Charan. We Do Not Have Enough to Satisfy Our Bellies, SEVENTH Gallery. Melbourne, Australia, 2019.

Installation detail: cotton and embroidery thread. 1100mm x 1000mm.

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Vinaka vakalevu to the ongoing support of the Fiji Museum in accessing archival material and research.

Vinaka vakalevu to our family and friends who have contributed to our work and this collective. Without your support we would not be here today.

Vinaka vakalevu to everyone who contributed to our GoFundMe fundraiser.

© Bad Fiji Gyals 2020