61-69 Abel Smith St
Wellington, New Zealand 6010
office@kiamaufestival.org
COOLIE: THE STORY OF THE GIRMITYAS
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.
Please note there will be a 15 minute Q&A session after the show on Friday the 9th of June, 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.
Freeman is an arresting performer, deeply likable and capable of slipping mercurially from one mood to another.
Creative Credits
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
Dates
08-10 June
8pm
Please note there is a Q & A after the show on the 9th of June
Venue
The Dome
BATS Theatre
1 Kent Tce
Wellington
bats.co.nz
Tickets
The Difference: $40
Full Price: $22
Group 6+: $15
Concession: $18
Student Standby: $7.50
Learn More About the Collective
Miss Leading is a creative producer, poet and electronic musician of pakeha and Indo-Fijian heritage. A live Miss Leading performance is like nothing you have ever seen before. Her solo shows ‘Eat These Words’ and ‘Another Universe’ have sold out at New Zealand and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.
Her unusual performance works have been presented at the New Zealand International Festival of Arts, The Performance Arcade, Basement Theatre and Hidden Door Festival UK. Her co-production Writing Home won the award for “Most Promising Asian Artist” at the Auckland Fringe Festival 2022 and her music has gained critical acclaim from independent music magazines across the UK, Brazil, Germany and the USA.
Miss Leading is also the founder and chair of the Eastern Sound Collective, a network for musicians of Asian ethnic heritage in Wellington, New Zealand that run events, workshops and a podcast series called Eastern Sound Stories.
