Fringe Festival

Audio Art, Music, Spoken word/storytelling

The Girmit

A chance of a lifetime! To work and live in paradise, free travel, accommodation and food provided - The Dream. Or nightmare for 2 million Indians kidnapped or taken through coercion and blackmail to faraway countries to replace the gap left by the slavery system for something almost identical.

In partnership with The Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ, the National Library of New Zealand and Pātaka Art + Museum, Nadia Freeman presents an immersive experience through the Pacific’s untold history of indentured labour from India to Fiji. Nadia tells the story of her ancestors using live sound sampling techniques, poetry and recording narrations of first-hand accounts researched through the National Library of NZ.

This presentation will be conducted in two locations
- a sensory relaxed performance at Pātaka Art + Museum alongside the ‘Cry of The Stolen People’ exhibition.
- a performance at The National Library of NZ on Thursday the 27th of February at 6pm

Recreations of the song from The Girmit will be available for purchase to download, accompanied by a Lyric Book.

The Girmit was developed with support from APRA AMOS Art Music grant and Kia Mau Festival. It won Outstanding Technical Achievement at the Dunedin Fringe Festival. The show's debut in Wellington in 2022 had a sell-out season, so buy your tickets now before they sell out.

Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/ly3vWN1DeWk

"Freeman uses the juxtaposition between her own ethereal vocals and the horror of the past to create an ambience like nothing I have ever experienced. Her music is performed as a superb electronic live show, with Freeman mixing and creating her own sound directly on the stage in front of the audience." - The Post

"A powerful mesmerising and moving theatre experience." - Theatreview

"Freeman is powerful and enticing. She has the patience and conviction of a long-time performer." - Art Murmers

Content warning: PG, contains descriptions of human rights violations.

CREATIVE TEAM:
Writer / Performer / Composer: Nadia Freeman
Director & Script Advisor: Sameena Zehra
Voice Actors: Yogesh Chetty, Zilla Joesph, Shamshad Sen and John Thoman
Sound and Visual Design: Marc Freeman
Supported by: The Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ, the National Library of New Zealand

Venue Access Information Wheelchair accessible