Coolie: The Story of the Girmityas
Presented by Miss Leading
A chance of a lifetime!
To work and live in paradise, free travel, accommodation and food provided - The Dream.
Or nightmare for 60,000 Indian's kidnapped or taken through coercion & blackmail to faraway countries to replace the gap left by the slavery system for something almost identical but rebranded.
Coolie: The story of the Girmityas is an immersive experience through the Pacific’s untold history of indentured labour from India to Fiji.
In some countries, Coolie is an offensive term. It is the name that indentured labourers were called and affected how they were perceived. This is their story, the story of the Girmityas.
Join poet and music producer Miss Leading (AKA Nadia Freeman) as she performs this composition of live electronic music, poetry and song to tell the story of her ancestors.
“Freeman is an arresting performer, deeply likable and capable of slipping mercurially from one mood to another.”
Post Show Question and Answer - Friday the 9th of June
On Friday the 9th of June, the show will be followed by a 15-minute Question and Answer session featuring Nadia Freeman and special guest Nirmala Balram. Nirmala has a passion for contemporary art and history in particular her Indo-fijian and Girmit ancestry. She is the conservator of ethnographic objects at Te Papa and currently working on her thesis on 'intangible heritage values' with Victoria University.
Content Warning
PG Contains descriptions of physical and sexual violence and human rights violations
Creative Team
Writer / Performer / Composer: Nadia Freeman
Set Designer: Josiah Liston
Stage Manager: Isha Ramitha Bhatnagar-Stewart
Cast: Michael Mckeon
Script Advisor: Sameena Zehra
Voice Actors: Yogesh Chetty, Zilla Joesph, Shamshad Sen and John Thoman
