Listen: Shana Chandra

22 April 2026 First published RNZ

The story of indentured labourers through the Pacific is often told through numbers and dates - when ships left, how many people were on them, how long their contracts were for. But for Shana Chandra, the story is much more personal. All eight of her great-grandparents were Girmitiya - Indian labourers who left their home countries to work in British colonies, in their case, to Fiji. There were gaps in what she knew about their lives, and as a writer and a researcher, she decided to investigate.  The result is Banjara, her debut novel partly based on what she found, which is told through the eyes of two women - over 100 years apart.

Shana will be appearing as part of the Auckland Writers Festival next month. You can find details here.

She spoke with Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon.