Fijian-Indians are ‘missing out’
Fijian-Indians are facing an identity crisis and missing out on key support and opportunities in areas like education and health because they are being classified as Asians and not Pacific Islanders in New Zealand, a community leader says.
Krish Naidu, president of the Fiji Girmit Foundation of NZ, said by not recognising Fijian- Indians as a Pacific community, the Government was disqualifying them from sharing any of the resources and support allocated to these communities.
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, in a letter to Naidu last December, said that Statistics New Zealand’s specific classification for Fijian-Indians falls under “Asian” followed by an “Indian” sub-classification”, not Pacific peoples.
“The StatsNZ classification . . . is in line with an ethnographic profile, which includes people with common language, customs and traditions. I am also informed that the ethnographic features of Fijian-Indians are not of a similar profile to those of indigenous Pacific peoples,” Sio said.
He said StatsNZ’s ethnicity definition is used to capture data to understand the people of New Zealand.
“StatsNZ recognises ethnicity as the ethnic group or groups a person self-identifies with or has a sense of belonging to . . . it is not the same as race, ancestry, nationality, citizenship or even place of birth,” Sio said.
Naidu believed the FijianIndian community in NZ was at least 90,000-strong although there was no official data to back this. He said they are the second-largest ethnic community from the Pacific, behind only Samoans and ahead of Tongans.
In the 2018 Census, about 15,000 people identified with the Fijian-Indian ethnic group.
Massey University sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley said there is a strong case for treating Fijian-Indians as Pasifika, given their history and cultural identity.
“I personally would classify them as Pasifika if they come from Fiji. That has been my practice although what is confusing is the way official statistics are collected,” Spoonley said.
“Indians appear in a range of different categories, and it is not always clear that those answering ‘Indian’ also happen to be ‘Fijians’.” Spoonley said there was also no category for those born in New Zealand, but who are members of the NZ Fijian-Indian community. Indians have been living in Fiji for more than 140 years, since the first arrival as labourers under British rule.
Their descendants are referred to as Fijian-Indians or Indo-Fijians, and Naidu said the population had a culture, language, customs and traditions that were distinctively different to other Indians.
Anumber of notable rescues so far this year has highlighted the importance of the Northland Rescue Helicopter working as a team with the region’s other emergency services.
A recent rescue at Rainbow Falls in Kerikeri saw us come together with St John, Fire, Police and Far North Search and Rescue to bring an injured man to safety after he had spent 90 minutes in the water with a broken leg.
This follows a high-profile winch rescue off Mangawhai Heads earlier this year which saw us team up with Lifesaving New Zealand to assist a man after an accident involving a boat propellor.
Northland Rescue Helicopter General Manager Vanessa Furze says: “Successful rescue missions like the one in Kerikeri and the winch off Mangawhai is made possible by all the emergency services and rescue groups working together as one big team to help save lives.”
Despite the recent alert level increase, the Rescue Chopper team have continued to be busy this year attending 108 callouts in February alone, including 10 call outs in one weekend. Numbers continue to be consistent this month.
In the midst of alert level 3 the team had to practice social distancing on the Auckland Hospital helipad after a rescue.
Since being established in 1988 the Northland Rescue Helicopter team has flown more than 21,000 people to safety.
Fundraising, donations and the generosity of our incredible sponsors make it possible for us to keep our choppers in the air and providing our lifesaving rescue service.
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