Quishile Charan and Esha Pillay are an Indo-Fijian collective that works to share Girmit histories and unearth women’s resistance through stories of indentured labour. The Bad Fiji Gyals push back against any monolithic identity that forces different Girmit descendants, communities and experiences to fit into dominant Indo-Fijian narratives without questioning. They also do not engage in romanticising thier Girmit histories to further marginalise women, queer, trans, gender non-confirming (GNC) and non-binary (NB) ancestors and descendants. Charan is an Indo-Fijian textile maker and writer living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. She uses textile-making to challenge the colonial occupation of knowledge and explores how textile narratives can thread together active forms of love. Pillay is an Indo-Fijian (Madraji) writer living and working in California, US. She focuses on the gendered and caste-based violences of indentured labour and how they intersect with the intergenerational traumas descendants experience today. The Bad Fiji Gyals respect the fight of the Women’s Gang in Fiji and aim to create and build community care and support through craft and story-telling.
