Venu Menon
Wellington, June 24, 2024
Members of the Indian diaspora in Wellington are being urged to record their family histories and deposit them at the National Library of New Zealand for posterity.
Wellington Indians gathered at the library to hear noted historian Jacqui Leckie speak of the new milestone in her research journey as part of a workshop on Indian heritage held on June 19.
In her book, “Beyond a Century: Indian People in the Capital,” due out in mid-2025, Leckie chronicles the Indian communities who disembarked from vessels that anchored in Wellington as far back as the 1920s.
With over a century having passed since the early Indian arrivals in Wellington, the Indian community had reached a significant vantage point to look back at its own history.
As Wellington Indian Association (WIA) President Manisha Morar, one of the organisers of the workshop, observed:
“We’ve discovered some gems hidden away in the National Library and it’s time we cherished these historical treasures.”
She described the workshop as a “collaborative community event that provides an opportunity to view Indian items in the [National Library’s] collection, learn from curator Dr. Ashwinee Pendharkar about researching Indian family and community histories, and hear from Dr Jackie Leckie about her research on Indian communities in Wellington.”
Morar added:
“With over 100 years since Indian people [first arrived] in Wellington, it is timely that families and communities tell their histories. The workshop is for those of Indian heritage keen to research, write and record these histories.”
National Library curator Ashwinee Pendharkar opened with a vision statement:
“We believe in connections, before collections. When we connect with communities, it is with the desire to build trust and relationships. And we believe that once that happens, communities will entrust their stories and collections to us.”
Historian Jacqui Leckie’s presentation portended her ongoing research would open a Pandora’s box of the Wellington Indian community’s often painful history.
“My aim is to write a book for the centenary in 2025 of the century-old Wellington Indian Association, [titled] “Beyond a Century: Indian People in the Capital,” Leckie told the audience.
She added:
“Not simply an institutional history, this [book] will trace the untold story of the origins and development of Indian people living in Wellington.”
The book will capture “the distinctive places where Indians have worked, lived, and created communities, telling a localised social history of Indians in the capital city.”
Leckie said the book “will reveal links between ethnicity, community, people, places, buildings and objects, and the Wellington heritage of a prominent ethnic community.”
An earlier work, titled “Invisible: New Zealand’s History of Excluding Kiwi-Indians,” which appeared in 2021, shed light on the discrimination faced by early Indian migrants.
“Let’s not forget that in 1927, the Wellington City Council tried to insist that Indian bottle collectors wear an ID strap on their sleeves,” Leckie told the workshop. They ended up wearing badges instead.
Again, in 1926 the “Fruit Marketing Committee wanted the registration of the thumbprints of Asian fruiterers, even if they could read and write their own names in English,” Leckie said.
“Hostility in the early 20th century was directed especially at fruit and vegetable hawkers, because they appeared to be driving Europeans out of business.”
In 1956, the Wellington City Council refused to employ Indian bus drivers. In 1961, there were attempts to exclude Indians from joining the Taxi Owners Union in Wellington, the audience heard.
Leckie rounded up by advising Indian diaspora members, who were keen to trace their ancestors, to explore the Wellington City Council archives, where staff “are incredibly accommodating and welcoming.”
The Wellington Indian community is rediscovering its past more than 100 years after its ancestors first set foot on the shores of New Zealand’s capital city.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
