Biman Prasad meets Cultural historian in Canada

NFP leader, Professor Biman Prasad, has met with Indo-Fijian author, cultural historian, and community advocate Rizwaan Abaas during an overseas engagement.

Professor Prasad said it was a pleasure to meet Abaas, who is the Director of the Indo-Fijian Cultural Society of Canada and has made significant contributions to documenting, preserving, and interpreting Indo-Fijian history and identity in the Canadian context.

Abaas recently served as Guest Editor of BC History Magazine (Summer 2024 issue), where his Editor’s Note and article Decolonizing the Culture: Reclaiming May 14th explored themes of history, memory, and identity within the Indo-Fijian experience.

He has also authored a chapter in The Social History of South Asians in British Columbia, published by the University of the Fraser Valley’s South Asian Studies Institute, combining scholarly research with personal reflections, including experiences of racial discrimination while growing up in Canada.

Among his public history initiatives is the Surrey Museum exhibition The Indo-Fijians: Surrey’s Pocket of Paradise, which highlights the stories, artifacts, and lived experiences of the Indo-Fijian community in British Columbia.

Professor Prasad said Abaas’s work plays an important role in connecting the Fijian diaspora with Fiji and with each other, while encouraging wider conversations on decolonisation, memory, and how communities honour their ancestors.

He also noted Abaas’s suggestion that future heritage spaces consider using the term “Girmitiya” to centre the experiences of indentured labourers rather than colonial institutions, describing the idea as one worthy of serious consideration.

According to Professor Prasad, such global conversations and cultural connections help strengthen shared history and identity across generations of the Fijian diaspora.