Pacific Spice performing at Radio Tarana's Fiji Festival in Manukau City. Photo: Josephine Latu/PS

Pacific Scoop:
By Josephine Latu

Pacific Spice – a dance group made up of Cook Islanders, Samoans and Tongans – captivated the audience with a lively Bollywood number at New Zealand’s weekend Fiji Festival hosted by community broadcaster Radio Tarana.

Thousands gathered at the Telestra Clear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau to watch live performances by Radio Fiji personality Bobby Darling, traditional Fijian meke and Māori kapa haka and Indian nail walking.

“New Zealand is a multiracial society and we have Indians from all over the world. This is to bring people together to mingle and know each other’s culture. We wanted to keep alive the taste of Fiji,” said Radio Tarana presenter Sangeeta Mani, who hails from Tavua, Fiji.

The family event began at noon and lasted till 9 pm, featuring both indoor and outdoor entertainment, food stalls serving traditional Fijian lovo dishes, Indian savories and curries, as well as vendors selling jewelry, saris and clothing.

Guests of honour included Labour Party leader Phil Goff and Auckland City mayor John Banks.

Radio Tarana organised the event in response to “public demand” from its 80,000 plus listenership in the greater Auckland area. The community broadcaster caters to diasporic Indians with roots in Fiji, India, and Pakistan.

Summer celebration
Managing director Robert Khan said the event would become an annual “summer” celebration, to go along with the usual Fiji Day held in October.

According to government statistics, about 6800 ethnic Fijians live in New Zealand, making up the fifth largest Pacific Island group. The Fiji-born Indian population numbers about 20,000 .

“We targeted our listeners, who are Hindi speakers. But we reached the Fiji community by word of mouth,” said radio announcer Mani.

She is part of a diverse team of announcers at the Radio Tarana, which comes from various parts of India, Pakistan, and Fiji.

The award-winning station offers free publicity for community events, birthday and wedding announcements, as well as providing opportunities for local businesses to reach a niche market.  It also has a regular mix of news, sports bulletins, music programmes and discussions about cultural issues of public interest.

“We maintain a very professional standard, even with our language and grammar on air, because people from around the world can tune in,” she added.

Indian Pacific flavour
In Fiji, Indians make up about 37 percent of the country’s population, while indigenous Fijians make up roughly 57 percent. Most Indo-Fijians are descendants of indentured labourers brought to the islands by British colonisers in the late 19th century to work in sugar cane plantations.

Over the generations, Indo-Fijians have adapted to the local Fijian culture, while maintaining much of traditional Indian language and traditional practices.

The head of Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Ltd., Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, once told Islands Business magazine  “there are certain things about people from Fiji that is very Pacific, and that is what differentiates [Indo-Fijians] from mainland Indians”.

“We are more relaxed, we are friendlier, our sense of humour is very Pacific,” he said.

The Indian influence has also reached Pacific communities beyond Fiji.

After their performance at the festival, Pacific Spice, described by Tongan founder Carolanne Makakaufaki as “Pacific Island girls with all the right Bollywood moves”, gained an invitation from a member of the FBC to perform at the Fiji “Hope” festival in July.

“This is a great time for all Fijians and different communities to get together, engage, get to know one another for the progress of the multicultural enrichment of our wonderful country New Zealand,” said Alton Shameem of Fiji Club of New Zealand (FCNZ).

“It is food and music that brings communities together and the Fiji Club always encourages and helps in the promotion of such activities as part of nation-building.”

The Fiji Festival was followed by the India Festival held on Sunday.

Josephine Latu is a postgraduate communication studies student from Tonga at the Pacific Media Centre who is also contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch.