Television news, Fiji, 28 June 2000
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
George Speight, 2000 coup front man, Fiji,
28 June 2000
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji
The aged photograph is of two Indian-Fijian men. They are most likely early descendants of indentured Indian immigrants brought to Fiji between 1879 and 1916 to cut sugar cane on unforgiving, five-year contracts; or perhaps one of them is an indentured Indian immigrant, and out of indenture given the likely date of the photograph, holding hands with his son. No one is quite sure. I came across it loose inside the back cover of Aren Kumar’s family photo-album.
•
not for sale
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
When Sashi Devi’s children arrived home from school (Sashi is the wife of Aren Kumar who drives the cane lorry for the gang), she at once directed Shayal, her nine-year-old daughter and Shayal’s cousin Kushal, who tease each other continually, to gather Sashi’s goats from the field and tie them up. Next door, just up the hill, Ravindra Kumar lives with his wife, Anjila Devi, and their first baby, Ashna Devi, and fifteen others of his family across three generations.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Saturday, 4 August 2001
It is late afternoon and seventy-eight-year-old Ram Sundar reaches to close a wooden shutter on the house that he shares with his daughter and a grandson. Rajeshwar Dutt, another grandson, spent time in jail after running with the wrong crowd in Suva. When released, his mother sent him to Vatiyaka, to his grandfather and the cutting gang to straighten him out. He lasted a couple of seasons, but finally, after an argument, he left unannounced.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 21 April 2002
Ram Naumi is a Hindu festival that runs for eight nights leading to midday on the day of Lord Rama’s birth. This year, Dharmen Kumar, who, on my first visit to Vatiyaka, was sirdar of the cutting gang, and his wife Padma Wati, each evening hosted readings from the Ramayan and offered the prasad, the blessed food that is eaten after. This Sunday morning, the music began at 6.45, and others began to arrive an hour later to help prepare food for the gathering to come of the extended family. Nirupa Devi (19) washes dishes with a string of cousins and aunts in Padma’s kitchen where the cooking has been done on an open fire and kerosene burner. Nirupa was married in 2005, and now lives in Australia. Her elder sister was married in September 2003, and now lives in California.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
Suman Kumar (32) returns from lunch across his cousin’s, Dharmen Kumar, recently cut top field. The knives he carries weigh about one pound and produce an elegant arc when swung from above the shoulder to the base of the sugar cane. Some cutters are better than others, quicker, balanced and more focussed. Suman and his brother, Salance, could claim to be amongst the better skilled.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 5 August 2001
Ram Khelwan (68), who even now puts in a full day of cane cutting, embraces his granddaughter, Sarina, the daughter of Salance Kumar and Saveena Devi. It is unlikely that Ram Khelwan will live outside Fiji, while, equally, given the trouble in his country of birth, it is expected that the granddaughter he holds will be encouraged to another life in a first world country.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
Sashi Devi leads her calf and freshly milked cow to Dharmen Kumar’s cane field (Dharmen is her brother-in-law) where they will graze on cane leaves removed and discarded at harvest. Most of the cane cutters wear a single leather glove on the hand they use to clutch the cane as they lean in to cut. Cane leaves have imperceptible serrated edges that are enough to tear at your hands.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Monday, 1 September 2003
Kushal offers his mother, Padma, a bite of his 9th birthday cake. It is a small party between the families of Dharmen and his brother, Aren. Earlier in the day, after a visit to Ba, I had been at Satish Kumar and Sujila Devi’s house off Khalsa Road for a goat curry. Their elder daughter, Anupa (20) was married two days before to a young Indian-Fijian man who lives in Hayward, California. In the next few days, she will leave Fiji for the first time to live abroad.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
Shayal spreads her wings across the makeshift football field outside her parent’s house on Vatiyaka Road. Football is the sport of choice amongst the Indian Fijians, and more than once the Ba football team has won the Fiji-wide football competition. Along with her younger brother and followed by her cousin, Kushal, Shayal chases after her father who wants to talk with a group of Fijians cutting cane on the land they own across from Dharmen’s top field. Indian-Fijians can only lease the land they farm.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Sunday, 6 July 2003
From day to day, the cutting gang can fluctuate in number depending on health and circumstance. There are never less than 10 men and sometimes up to 13. Between seasons, the make-up of the gang can vary for one reason or another. For example, this year one young cutter had an argument with his family and left the district; another was jailed for a short while for failing to pay child support to his estranged wife; the first year I came, a cutter sliced his hand while cutting cane. I saw that only once in the five years I returned to Vatiyaka.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 8 November 2001
Balgeet Singh’s father planted this sugar cane. Balgeet, a Sikh, is not part of Dharmen’s extended family, but lives on Khalsa Road and sometimes joins the Kumar cutting gang. He says he has mixed with Hindus for so long that now he seldom wears a turban. In the land lease disorder encouraged by those who came to power following the 2000 coup, his father lost the lease on half the land he had worked and lived on for 30 years. He lost too the crop he had planted and, consequently, the income from it. There were 80 acres, altogether, of which the Fijian owners kept 40 and renewed the lease on the other 40. The Fijian owners have put a fire through the cane to clear weeds before cutting. After burning the cane, the mill insists that the cane be cut within seven days or they will not accept it. Normally, weed clearing would be part of regular farm management, but in the transition between a farmer losing his lease and the Fijian owners taking back the land, crop management can fall away. It turned out that the Fijian owners employed Dharmen's gang, including Balgeet, to harvest the cane.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Wednesday, 1 August 2001
Sharina Kumar (2 months) lies swaddled on the floor of her parents’ home. The toes behind her belong to her mother, Saveena Devi (right) and Shelin (13), Saveena’s niece from next door. Sharina’s father, Salance, this season works with his father, Ram Khelawan (68), as part of another gang. He and his father joined Dharmen’s gang the following year. Earlier in the day, I had been privy to a tense discussion between Dharmen, sirdar of the cutting gang, and the gang’s president, Narend Prasad, who has since immigrated with his immediate family to New Zealand, concerning the size of loads the lorry was taking to the mill. The lorry owner, Aren Kumar, Dharmen’s brother, is paid by the tonne and complained that the loads had been too small to offset the running costs of his lorry. The matter was resolved.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 22 September 2003
Ravindra Kumar (31) calms his first-born, Ashna Devi, during a lunch-break from cutting. The kitchen out-building to his left has been constructed typically using flattened 44-gallon drums. Two years before, Ravindra’s milking cow fell into a ditch and died before it was discovered. He cried that day. Ravindra’s twenty-year-old niece, Jotika, is to be married to a young Indian-Fijian man who has lived in Surry near Vancouver, Canada since he was nine. An arranged marriage can be a way out of Fiji for a young Indian-Fijian woman. Joti is very excited: “He is a nice boy, a nice family.” He has sent her an album of photographs of their first meeting and engagement. He wants a photograph of her for his wallet which she will select from those she had taken at a photographer’s studio in Ba, the nearest town, in different clothes: jeans, a sari and other clothes.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 8 November 2001
Salance Kumar (33), along with his brother Suman, is amongst the best cutters in the gang. He often wears a red, white and blue, stars and stripes shirt sent to him by relatives living in the USA. The blade of his knife, as with those of the other cutters, is razor sharp. At each water break, you see the cutters resolutely running the small flat files they carry in their back trouser pockets along either side of their knife blades.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 8 November 2001
Suman Kumar (32), right, and his brother, Salance, often work a strip of cane together because they are consistently the quickest cutters in the gang. They are tall, slim, agile, strong and experienced and have an ability to focus as if they reset goals several times a day. Ravindra wipes sweat from his face. Depending on whose cane is being harvested and the current mill price, with a few exceptions, each cutter receives about Fiji $7.50 per tonne and will cut and load about two tonne per day. However, most members of the gang lease land and will receive, when their land is cut by the gang, around F$25.50 tonne less lorry cartage at F$3.60 a tonne and the various farm management expenses through the year. Each acre in a favourable growing year, if well managed, will produce about 30 tonnes of sugar cane. Most farmers lease about 10 acres. It is a small living.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Friday, 4 July 2003
Jagdish Prasad repairs his cane lorry, an old Ford that has motored around the irregular roads of Fiji for much of its 170,000 miles. Jagdesh’s father, Bineshri Prasad and Dharmen's father, Brij Lal, both dead now, were brothers. Jagdish’s wife, Maan Kumari, suffered a stroke in 2002, but is now much recovered. Their three daughters all want to leave Fiji.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
Aren Kumar’s lorry, loaded here with around 11 to 12 tonnes of cane, is of the same vintage as his cousin’s, Jagish Prasad. This is his second of two loads today. It’s almost impossible to get Ford spare parts for these lorries, and when they are available out of New Zealand or Australia, they are very expensive. Chinese parts are more readily available, and, consistently, are a lot cheaper.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
Once the lorry is loaded with sugar cane, it must be well secured for its eight-kilometre journey to the mill on the outskirts of Ba. A wire rope connected at the front of the lorry near the cab is drawn over the load to a hand ratchet where as many cutters as can manage get around it, pull, push and stand to lever the rope as tight as possible.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 2 August 2001
Suman Kumar rests during a water break with his cousin, Salen Kumar. Salen is one of three brothers in the gang (the other two are Anup (35) and Bobby (24)) who live together with their immediate family off Vatiyaka Road near Ram Sundar’s home. (Salen died unexpectedly in 2006).
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 28 June 2003
On school holidays, cousins, Kushal and Annal Kumar, lead Dharmen and Padma's milking cow down to where the gang is cutting on Ram Dayal's leased land off Khalsa Road. Even during the school break, Dharmen and Padma insist that Kushal and his brother Koonal spend time with homework and improving their English. Education and competence with the English language are recognized ways out of Fiji for Indian-Fijian children. It will be these children who will reach back after immigration to extract their parents from the country of their birth.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Friday, 3 August 2001
Aren’s lorry labours out of Dharmen’s lower paddock bound for the mill near Ba.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
Shayal, still in her school uniform, and Kushal, after tying up Shayal’s mother’s goats, romp about in an abandoned car up the road at Ravindra Kumar’s house on Vatiyaka Road overlooking the valley to Khalsa Road. Ravindra’s house has a water bore. Not everyone in the valley has one as they cost about F$4,000. If you do not have a bore, you buy water from those who do. Everyday, you will see one or two of the older children with a two-bullock team hauling 44-gallon drums of water astride old car tyres.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 20 April 2002
Chandra Wati, in the polka dot skirt, is Dharmen’s mother. She is visiting from Vancouver where she has lived with Dharmen’s brother, Munen, since the death of her husband and Dharmen and Aren’s father, Brij Lal. Along with others of the extended family, she helps cook over an open fire during the Hindu Ram Naumi festival at what was once her home. Shayal is remonstrated with yet again, this time by her older cousin, Avinesh Prasad whose father, Ramesh is in the cutting gang.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 2 August 2001
Anup Kumar’s wife, Chandra Wati (not to be confused with Dharmen’s mother of the same name), strides across a cane field down the hill from Ravindra’s home. Ravindra’s family leases 22 acres in two leases surrounding the house off Vatiyaka Road that they have lived in for more than 30 years. They successfully renegotiated both expired 30-year leases this year. After the coup, there was an initial burst of refusals amongst Fijian tribal owners to renew leases. When it was realised that this crucial rental income for both government and Fijians was at risk, so successful had the non-renewal programme been, common sense prevailed and Fijian owners were persuaded to renew.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 5 August 2001
Ram Khelawan (68), the father of Salance (foreground), Suman and Arvin, shaves on the stoop of his burri after an early finish to the cutting day. The family has just leased a further 11 acres nearby that had previously been leased by last year’s headman of the cutting gang, Vishnu Deo (52). Vishnu and his immediate family, distressed at what had come to pass, pulled down their home of 30 years leaving only the concrete pad, loaded it onto a lorry, and relocated away from the extended family to the outskirts of Nadi where he has a small plot on which to rebuild. He now sells roasted peanuts door-to-door in Fijian villages.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 5 August 2001
Salance Kumar (33) plays with his two-year-old daughter while the eldest and the most mischievous straddles a water drum. Salance has been married to Saveena Devi for five years. Neither has been out of Fiji even though others of their extended family have emigrated. Their three daughters each with a nickname: Pooja, Xena (after the television heroine) and Daizy will certainly join their cousins, uncles and aunts overseas as part of an inexorable movement by Indian-Fijians away from Fiji.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Friday, 29 August 2003
Aren Kumar’s youngest son, Annal, on the way to Ba with his father, visits Shree Vishnu Mandir, the first Hindu temple in Fiji.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Friday, 4 July 2003
While Jagdesh Prasad repairs his lorry outside, two of his nephews on school holidays watch an old black and white Bombay movie, Do Phool (Two Flowers), a story that was adapted, according to the video case, from Heidi.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 21 April 2002
At the midday conclusion of Ram Naumi, the women collect the garlands that decorated the temporary shrine at Dharmen and Padma’s home, and then, along with some of the young men and boys and with much laughter and commotion, hoist themselves aboard Aren’s lorry to be delivered to a stream a couple of kilometres down Vatiyaka Road. There, amidst singing and cheerful celebration, the flowers are set adrift upon the stream releasing spirits to calmly float to the open sea. At this point, pandemonium overtakes the occasion as buckets are produced and gallons of water are thrown over everyone at hand in a ritual purification.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 21 April 2002
Dharmen Kumar’s mother, Chanadra Wati (right), and his wife, Padma, set the garlands adrift.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 21 April 2002
A drenched and well-purified Anila Prasad (23). Anila's father has a heart condition and is unable to cut cane. They moved this year from Vatiyaka to Vatilolo, a suburb of Ba.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Monday, 6 August 2001
After a field of cane has been cut and the gang has loaded the lorry ready for the mill, a few of them will neatly set fire to the littered cane leaves as the first part of preparation for the next crop. During the cutting season, these fires can be seen throughout the cane growing areas of Fiji warming the deep blue of the evening sky.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Tuesday, 1 July 2003
Aten Kumar’s two children, Artika (6) and Arishna (4), hang out the household washing while their father is in the field with the gang cutting cane. Aten's elder brother, Satish, who farms leased land nearby off Khalsa Road, has come by horse to collect them for the day. Aten and his wife, Binita, have separated and she has gone to live in another town.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 5 August 2001
Beyond the horse that Pooja Kumar (4) tracks along Khalsa Road is the tin home of Vijendra Kumar (51), the cutting gang’s headman this year, and his wife Sharma Wati. Sharma spent the previous year with her brother and sister-in-law in Rancho Cordova, California where they have lived for the past six years. They built the house 10 years ago with 30 44-gallon drums cut down and straightened to form the walls. They have no children. (Vijendra died unexpectedly in 2005.)
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Friday, 9 November 2001
Some of the cutting gang take a water break beneath a mango tree. Left to right: Vijendra Kumar, Ramesh Prasad (with bandanna), Bobby Kumar (at rear) Aren Kumar (making a point) Aten Kumar (the horse is his), Salance Kumar and his brother Suman.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
Ram Sundar (78), despite his age, still ploughs his leased land with two ageing bullocks, but must hire the cutting gang to harvest his crop and clear the road for Aren Kumar’s cane lorry.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 5 August 2001
Two-year-old Devina, Salance and Saveena’s second daughter, plays with a thong at the end of a stick outside her mother’s kitchen. Devina’s spry grandfather, Ram Khelawan (68) has been cutting cane for over 45 years and says if he rests now he will become ill. He's never been to hospital and he’s never been out of Fiji. His father, Ganga Prasad, was born in Fiji, but his grandfather was born in India at a place he does not know, and came to Fiji as an indentured labourer, a girmitiya, to cut sugar cane.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
While negotiating the uneven track out of Dharmen’s lower paddock, Aren’s lorry tipped more than it should have and, as if in slow motion, smoothly shed its load. This calamity happens rarely, if only because the men know that the cane must be reloaded with the usual sweat and grind. Everyone makes certain that the load is well strapped and any potholes in the track are filled. Not so this day. When asked who was to blame, Dharmen replied, “No one to blame,” even if the shouting and body language suggested otherwise, “Just bad luck - but no one died, nothing broken.”
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Sunday, 6 July 2003
By late afternoon, the gang has completed the harvest of Ram Dayal’s crop and the lorry is loaded ready for Aren’s evening drive to the mill. The cutters will now idle up the hill to Ram Dayal’s house where his wife has made aluminium pots of sweet tea. Left to right: Aren Kumar, Ram Dayal, Dharmen Kumar, Bobby Kumar, Aten Kumar, Salandra Kumar, Kushal Kumar (Dharmen's eldest son), Salance Kumar (clutching his US flag shirt), Ravindra Kumar, Ram Khelawan (at rear obscured), Arvind Kumar (sitting at rear), Ramesh Prasad, Salesh Karan, Suman Kumar.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
One member of the gang, generally the least experienced, will be tagged to be the water-boy. He will stop cutting and take a welcome walk to the nearest house to collect water-filled aluminium teapots – sometimes, plastic buckets - and carry them with universal enamelled bowls to the cutters ready for their break. The cutters have been working since 6.30AM and their first break is about 9.00 when they will sit in the field, in the shade if they can, swap roti and curry amongst each other, smoke suki (strong tobacco wrapped very thinly in newsprint), drink water, and sometimes drink yaquona, or grog, as it is commonly termed.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
Anup Kumar’s wife, Chandra Wati, milks her cow after organising her four children to the school bus that comes at 6.30AM. Besides the children's school lunches, she will have made a roti and curry lunch parcel for Anup (35) and his two younger brothers in the cutting gang, Salandra (33) and Bobby (24) who live in the same house near Ram Sundar with their grandmother and grandfather.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 29 June 2003
Swaran Lata eats lunch after she has seen her husband, Ram Dayal, back to the cane field. Some cutters walk home for lunch if they are working nearby. Their elder daughter, Neelam Ashika (24), went to Vancouver on a student visa, and now has Canadian permanent residency. Her twenty-two-year-old sister, Nalini Ashika, still lives at home, but is engaged to a Punjabi who lives in Sacramento. Padma Wati’s brother has arranged the marriage, but Nalini first requires a US visa. If she doesn't have a response to her application in six months to a year, she will apply again. Swaran’s parents went to Sacramento the year after the 1987 Fiji coups.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Tuesday, 1 July 2003
During a lunch break, Aren’s elder son, Nilesh (14), dispenses yaquona, or grog. Indian-Fijians have taken to grog, a traditional and ceremonial drink of the indigenous Fijian, with such eagerness that it is now considered a social problem. A mild narcotic, groups of men - very seldom women - will drink grog into the early hours of the morning, as well as partake most days in breaks from cutting cane. Dharmen and Padma sell grog powder from a small, income-supplementing shop they run out of their home, and find it hard to keep pace with demand. Padma buys bundles of yaquona root at the market in Ba, and spends hours pounding it to powder before spooning it into small, white paper bags for sale at F$2.00 each.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
Ram Sundar’s grandnieces, Roshni Lata (18) and her cousin, Sangeeta Kumar (12), look across to Pandit Genda Maharaj who blows a sunkh during Ram's regular Saturday morning puja convened to pray for the well being of his family. Family groups within the extended family have pujas at the home of one of the group either on a Tuesday evening or Saturday. These pujas are held in addition to celebrating other Hindu festivals dotted through the calendar. Each group will have its regular puja pandit who will lead the reading of the Ramayan punctuated with the group’s zestful singing with music often played by members of the cutting gang.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
Baby Ashna Devi is proudly cradled by her cousin, Sangeeta Kumar (12), Anup's daughter, in the doorway of Ram Sundar’s home. Ashna is the first child of Ravindra Kumar and Anjila Devi.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 8 November 2001
Cousins, Aren Kumar and Ramesh Prasad, rest while waiting to negotiate a contract for ploughing and planting sugar cane with a Fijian owner who is in the field next to them burning out weeds. This was Bhaget Singh’s father’s leased land, until the lease ran out this year. The Fijian owners have decided to keep half and renew the lease on the remainder for 30 years. Aren and Ramesh will help organise the contract to plough and plant after the harvest: F$8 per day to plant, and the tractor at F$110 per hectare for ploughing. “We are going to help him because he is a nice man, eh?” says Aren.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
On the hill across from Dharmen’s house, Aren and his nephew, Kushal, visited Harbindar Singh and his wife, a Punjabi couple in their 50s. They had immigrated to the US a little over a couple of years ago to be with their elder son who is a lawyer and studying part time for a Masters degree and their daughter-in-law who is an accountant. Harbindar found employment in the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant where he remained for five months until he could endure it no longer. He opted to return to “the freedom and lifestyle” of his leased sugar cane farm in Vatiyaka leaving his wife to work on the grill at a McDonalds restaurant. She now visits their home in Vatiyaka once a year.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Sunday, 31 August 2003
A goat is butchered to feed guests the day after the arranged wedding of Anupa Devi (20) and Sandeep Rahul Sharma (22). Rahul, an Indian-Fijian who has just completed a university science degree in the US, has lived with his parents and two sisters in Hayward, California since they emigrated in 1991. Anupa is the elder of three daughters of Satish Kumar (43) and his wife Sujila Devi. Satish is not in the cutting gang, but is the brother of Aten who this year is the joint headman of the gang with Suman. Satish and Aten have a brother in Vancouver while Sujila has four brothers and a sister in New Zealand. Two of her brothers married two sisters a few years apart.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 4 August 2001
The cutting gang has been harvesting on contract some of Ram Sundar’s sugar cane. In appreciation, he has invited the gang to lunch after his morning prayers. The men sat outside, first, on a mat of cut-down jute fertilizer bags to drink grog beneath a sizeable tamarind tree heavy with long, finger-thick pods of seed.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Wednesday, 8 August 2001
Ram Sundar stands in the background with Bobby, Vijendra and Aten during a water-break while harvesting Ram's sugar cane. The man in the foreground to the right of Suman is to immigrate soon to New Zealand to marry a young Samoan woman: “She is very beautiful,” he repeated through the day.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Wednesday, 5 July 2000
Down the road from Vatiyaka near Kings Road, the main north road across Viti Levu, an Indian-Fijian leaseholder—not of the Kumar extended family—has hired a group of Fijians to harvest his crop. Most young Indian-Fijian men have no desire to cut sugar cane. They want to leave the country. This has produced a labour shortage where some leaseholders find it necessary to hire labour other than Indian. On Fiji television news at 10.00 tonight, it is reported that George Speight, the front man of the coup, has been given 48 hours to release the prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry and the other hostages and then leave the parliament buildings, or lose an offered amnesty. Speight is currently serving a life sentence for treason.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji, Tuesday, 1 July 2003
Sumintra Devi (90) was married to the late Binesri Prasad who was the eldest of Dharmen’s uncles on his father’s side. She is living with her son-in-law and daughter, Ramesh Prasad and his wife Manjula Devi and their four children. They moved to their current home in Vatiyaka after Ramesh’s nephew, Narend (who was president of the cutting gang in 2001), vacated the house to immigrate to New Zealand with his wife and two children.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 2 August 2001
Dharmen and Padma’s house stands amongst trees at the end of their field of sugar cane being harvested by the cutting gang. Vatiyaka Road is to the right. Within this gang, the cutters mostly work in pairs. Everyone will cut the same amount of cane, just at different speeds. For instance, brothers Salance and Suman steam ahead of everyone else, strip cutting and, as with everyone else, neatly laying the cane in rows a lorry width apart ready for loading from both sides.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Wednesday, 1 August 2001
Suman and Aten carry rocks from the side of the road nearby that they and the others in the gang will use to hammer at the stacked cane on one side of the lorry to even up the load by the stretch of the hand. If they do not attend to this, there is an increased chance that the lorry will spill its load on the bumpy exit from the field. Salesh Karan at left is the grandson of Ram Sundar.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 8 November 2001
For some reason, Aren Kumar’s younger brother, Sanjay, at right washing his legs and feet, is always to be seen cutting cane while barefoot when everyone else will have some sort of footwear.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Friday, 3 August 2001
Sharma Wati’s husband, Vijendra Kumar (51), is headman of the gang, having taken over from Vishnu Deo (52) who lost his lease last year and moved with his family to the outskirts of Nadi. The headman is the organiser of the gang and must have, Vijendra explains, “Good manners and respect, you must not get angry. Some other gangs throw knives and cut off hands, quarrel and fight—but we are family”.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 5 July 2003
Shayal leans against her father, Aren Kumar, on a clammy evening at home - it is her 9th birthday party. Her brother, Annal, and cousin, Kushal, play fight on the top bunk in the children’s bedroom until Aren cautions them to be calm. Earlier in the day, in a well-appointed house in Ba, I met poet and novelist, Jogindar Singh Kanwal, who wrote ‘The Morning’, an affecting and beautiful novel of triumph based on the indenture system in Fiji at the turn of the century before last. He is a retired principal of local Khalsa College, and much of his material for the story came from conversations over many years with the people of greater Vatiyaka.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Thursday, 3 July 2003
Suman, this year’s joint headman of the cutting gang, deliberates with his wife Sarita Devi over a list of errands before taking the bus into Ba. It is school holidays and his daughter Shalin (11), her cousin Sanjini (6) and Sarita have been absorbed in a Bollywood video. Suman has finished cutting earlier than usual. Sometimes the mill in Ba has more sugar cane than it can process and halts deliveries. As well, every Tuesday during the season, the mill closes for cleaning and cannot receive cane. The various cutting gangs in the region harvest and load their lorries, but it will be a short day. Early the next morning at the mill, scores of lorries wait uncomplainingly in line for hours before sliding their loads into the crusher.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Friday, 29 August 2003
Anupa Devi is to marry Sandeep Rahul Sharma tomorrow at the Vatiyaka home of Anupa’s parents Satish Kumar and Sujila Devi. The second day of the three-day wedding, custom is punctuated with deep ritual, high spirits and preparation for this evening’s distractions for the collected family and friends of Anupa and her parents. The entertainment will focus on two astonishingly enthusiastic singing and dancing transvestites who have been hired for the night. Rahul’s family will not be there. They are in Nadi and will arrive tomorrow morning.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Vatiyaka, Viti Levu, Fiji,
Saturday, 30 August 2003
Her young cousin Artika Bandna pilots Anupa to her wedding closely attended by her two sisters, Anupa (left) and Kartik. Anupa’s mother and an entourage of aunts follow. Seven days after this moment, Anupa will leave Fiji for the first time to live with her husband and his parents in Hayward, California. Marriage can be a way out of Fiji.
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
price by enquiry
160 x 236 mm image size,
boxed complete series of 61,
printed 2007, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
California, USA, 1993
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Auckland, New Zealand
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Sydney, Australia
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Auckland, New Zealand
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Snapshot sent back as evidence of successful migration to the first world, and placed in family photo albums in Vatiyaka, as images of aspiration.
•
not for sale