141 years ago on 14 May, the Leonidas arrived in Fiji - the first ship carrying indentured workers from India. Reflecting back on that day, what significance does that painful history hold for the community navigating challenges of their unique identity as Fiji Indians? Produced by Kadambari Raghukumar

'Girmit Day' is marked on 14 May each year by the Fiji Indian community in New Zealand as a day to reflect on their shared past - the British colonial indenture system in Fiji. It's also a day that celebrates the birth of the community's identity and their uniqueness as a diaspora.

The years between 1879 and 1916 saw over 60,500 people transported on ships to work on plantations in Fiji. On board these ships were men and women from India lured by promises of a better life - one which they were told by recruiters, lay at the end of a short journey. Many were recruited from so far inland in India that they'd never seen an ocean. Most were poor farmers who left drought and hardship hoping to return home to their villages in India after a while.

The first of these ships, The Leonidas, docked in Fiji on 14 May 1879 - the short journey the emigrants were told about turned out to be a long and arduous journey across continents.

Over the following years ships specifically fitted out to carry large numbers of human cargo plied the route regularly. Labourers were taken to the Indian ports of Calcutta and Madras from where ships left. The Indians that went to Fiji were among the several thousands who travelled from British India to work on plantations in the Caribbean, islands in the Indian Ocean, Guyana, South Africa and Malaysia amongst other colonies over a period of about 100 years, starting from 1833 when slavery in the British empire was abolished. The indenture tenure system was to make up for the loss of labour caused by the 1833 abolition.

The Indian workers under contract came to be known as Girmitiya - a Hindi take on the the word 'agreement'. The workers were bond to a five year agreement, the Girmit, which was extendable. On finishing five years, they were permitted to return to India at their own expense, or serve ten years and return at the expense of the British colonial government. Some people returned at their end of the indenture but most stayed back as they either couldn't afford the journey back or lost virtually all ties to their homes and families in India and stayed on.

Life on the plantations was cruel - mistreatment was rife and living conditions were harsh. First-hand accounts both oral and written, as well as songs called 'bidesiya' in Fiji Hindi composed in those years lament the loss of their homeland, displacement, deceit and the harshness of life as workers on the plantations…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details