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This is me with my sister, family friend, and mum attending my neighbour’s son's wedding. Since we share the same background (Fijian Indian), we were quite close since we were young and since we were neighbours, we often went to their place to play or hangout, so I am thankful for the relationship I have with them.

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Diwali Preparations (Festival of Lights)

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Diwali Preparations (Festival of Lights)

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As part of being Hindu in the past, one of the cultural celebrations we still celebrate to this day (excluding Hindu rituals) is Diwali, the festival of lights. During this time of year, we spend the entire week preparing by making various kinds of sweets and exchanging it with relatives on Diwali and giving them to friends to try and enjoy. The first row includes barfi, ghojia, and gulab jamun whilst the second column includes barfi with different coloured sprinkles, ladoo, and peda which generally all consist of different forms of milks, flours, sugars and butters to make them.

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This is a photo of me on Diwali, 2020. On this day, it is part of our culture to culturally dress up and celebrate with friends and family.

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This is a photo of my aunties and uncles wedding in Fiji in the early 2000s whilst I was very young. Hindu Fijian Indian weddings proceed for a week and in this image, it is currently the wedding day. The wedding day is a large celebration where unlike other cultural and traditional weddings, it usually lasts the whole day. The bride especially, and the groom are known to go all out on their wedding day, as shown with the outfits and jewelleries. While they also put a ring on each other’s ring finger, to tie the knot, the bride and groom are to place a flower garland on each other, tie a knot using a cloth to each other and walk around the sacred fire (saptapadi) seven times to fully declare each other as husband and wife.

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We went to an Indian restaurant called ‘The Grand Palace’ in Wynyard with my dad’s sister’s family, my aunt and other family of mine from Fiji on New Year’s Eve. This moment is a nice memory to look back on because I was eating delicious food similar to my culture with family that I really enjoy being around, and some which I do not get to see often.

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This is my family friends haldi (turmeric) ceremony back in Fiji, 2019 and is one of the processes that takes part pre-wedding. Its purpose is for purification, blessings for prosperity and fertility, and strengthening of familial bonds which takes form in a ritual.

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This is a picture of a Hindu ritual at my aunties house that we attended in 2020. It is common in the Hindu religion to host Hindu rituals and invite relatives over to sit throughout the ritual. It is also done for many celebrations (weddings, birthdays, funerals, etc). Attending these rituals back then was partially the reason for sculpting my identity and making me who I am today although I am now Christian.

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A family picture of my neighbour's family at their wedding.

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This doesn’t just apply to Indo-Fijian culture, it also includes other brown cultures, but it is the norm that when guests come over to your place that you provide some light snacks, the main ones being samosa (pastry with filling), and spring rolls, with the main beverage as chai (masala tea). I always look forward to these moments the most, because I get to eat things I enjoy whilst spending time with people I love.

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Attended one of my other cousins weddings in 2019; this is a picture with a few of my cousins on the wedding day.

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In Indo-Fijian culture (and some other South Asian cultures), we have a tradition that on birthdays we each take turns and feed a spoon of cake to the birthday person. The purpose for this tradition is related to affection, closeness and strengthening of bonds. To be honest, finding out that other people did not do this was a bit of a cultural shock since we are used to doing it on everyone’s birthday.

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We held an international banquet at our church in commemoration of our church’s 53rd anniversary. For this we were bring dishes from our own culture and create our own little workshop by decorating it with our cultural materials. We also dressed up in our cultural clothing as well. I really enjoyed this day not just because I got to spend it with people I cherished, but mainly because I also got to represent our culture through our clothing and presenting our cultural dishes to others. These moments as well as peoples curiosity about our culture made me realise the love I have for my culture and how grateful I am to embrace this culture.

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These are pictures taken one year apart from 2023 multicultural day and 2024 multicultural day in high-school. It is a day in which we all get to wear our cultural attire and celebrate in cultural activities and holding cultural food workshops for others to try. This day made all of us students recognise the diversity we shared in our school and celebrate them together, and I believe doing this has made me show more appreciation for my culture which honed my identity.

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This was also taken on Diwali 2023, which we spent the rest of the night at my cousin's house after greeting all our relatives back home. Since it’s a festival of lights, its part of Diwali tradition to light candles around the house and particularly as shown, play with firecrackers with family and friends.

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This was taken in Fiji, in my dad's hometown where we stayed in the meantime to attend the neighbours wedding and this moment was when we were prepping food for the wedding week. This moment gives me so much nostalgia as this was the last time I went to Fiji (2019) as well as sharing these youthful moments with cousins and relatives makes me reminisce these moments even more.

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This is taken at the same wedding we attended in Fiji 2019, where in this picture contains family members from both the bride and grooms side.

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More pictures from multicultural day in high school (taken in 2022 and 2021).

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Pictures of cultural attires we wore to attend Fijian Indian weddings in 2019 and 2025.

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Whenever Fijians Indians want to go shopping for cultural attire, materials and jewellery, etc. they know that the best of these qualities is stored in Liverpool, the heart of Fijian Indian culture. In this suburb, most shops are owned by Fijian Indians and are filled with stores to shop for cultural clothing and jewellery. Personally, going to these stores are my favourite because I love cultural jewellery and seeing stores filled with what I wear makes me feel I belong and gives comfort. The owners also being of our native tongue makes it so much more comfortable and gives a homier vibe to the store. Through this, it definitely sculpts my cultural identity as a Fijian Indian.

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Based in Liverpool, this suburb has the most Fijian restaurants located. Whilst walking, me and my family found this authentic Fijian Indian restaurant with welcoming owners drinking kava. Being used to these environments from a very young age gave a homier atmosphere to the restaurant. I remember this dish that I had to this day called ‘chop suey’ which is also a Chinese dish but Fijian Indians have taken this dish and made it Fijian style. I remember it was one of the best chop suey I had, which is what made this restaurant so memorable. Enjoying my cultural foods like this is one of the factors which led to shaping my identity.

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These are pictures of my mum tying a rakhi on her distant brother in law on raksha bandhan. Raksha bandhan typically falls on August, therefore, the purpose of raksha bandhan celebrates the everlasting bond between a brother and sister which symbolises love, protection and care, done by the act of the sister tying the rakhi to her brothers hand. This is also followed by exchanging of gifts and feeding sweets to each other. Due to its purpose, this act can also be done by couples, or even close friends.

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In Fijian Indian culture, whenever someone passes away, a funeral is held with a Hindu priest for assistance, which is then followed by a 13-day mourning period. In this period rituals are performed and bhajans (devotional music) are sung which is what is happening in this video. In December 2023, my uncle passed away from a brain haemorrhage, leaving behind a daughter and a son yet to be born. It was a sad time but it was also a time where all family from overseas united after a long time. My uncle from Fiji is the one singing and playing in this video (the deceased’ brother in law).

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More videos on my Uncles Bhajans (devotional music)

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More videos on my Uncles Bhajans (devotional music)

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More videos on my Uncles Bhajan (devotional music)

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More videos on my Uncles Bhajan (devotional music)