My creative work was inspired by my antiracist work in London

My creative work was inspired by the antiracist work that I began in London after resigning from the London Metropolitan Police Service in 1987. While completing my BA degree in Sociology I began assisting Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks (GACARA) and discovered that local government did not have adequate policies and procedures to provide for the needs of the migrant community in Greenwich. This led me to develop comprehensive antiracist policies and procedures for the local council, helped by my election to the council as a councilor.

By early 1990's this work was complete and I began working as a principal anti-racist officer in the London Borough of Newham council. One aspect of this job involved recruiting and training of community volunteers on assisting victims of racially motivated crimes. Crucial component of this training was explanation of the Eurocentric racial ideology.

On the suggestion of a colleague I began working on an educational video on this ideology which eventually led to publication of my novel Silent Cries-A Journey Through Four Continents. With help from a director/actor friend I adapted this novel into a stage play which toured a number of theatres in London during 1995.

My research on the evolution of Eurocentric racism and experience in anti-racist work in London led me to a decision to devote much of my time and efforts in making amends to the racist and derogatory way the western literature and media have been portraying the non-European countries and their peoples since the modern European colonialism and imperialism started post Christopher Columbus. This involved getting to the media well and utilize them to provide an alternative view of the non-European world that have suffered the brunt of European colonialism, imperialism and racism.

After migrating to Australia in late 1995, and while completing a MA in Communication and Cultural Studies, I began working for the Fiji Times, a monthly magazine in Sydney. This experience prompted me to launch my own monthly magazine Starblitz, through which I began expressing some of my views that were dear to me. This included search for my own identity, which in 1994 led me to launch Discover Your Indian Roots project. This project involved research on the Indian indenture system that had brought my own ancestors to Fiji and visiting India to search for my ancestral roots. My MA thesis titled ‘The Colonial Legacy and Coups in Fiji’ focused research in the colonial and indenture history of Fiji.

In 1998 I was commissioned by a filmmaker to write screenplay for an Indo-Fijian film in Sydney. The director of this film also persuaded me to act as male lead in the film. Thus began my film career. Since then I have produced four feature films and eight documentary films, including a Milaap-Discover Your Indian Roots trilogy. In 2006, I decided to shift from print magazine to producing a weekly TV magazine Spice of Life for Sydney’s community television channel TVS. By June 2009 I have produced 160 programs. The central aim of these programs was education through entertainment and community development.

In 2005 I also started a PhD candidature in filmmaking. The thesis, through a 90 minutes documentary drama, explores exile of some 35,000 indentured Indians of Fiji. Presently, since August 2009, I am back in Fiji after 29 years, hired to establish a department of Film and TV at the Fiji Institute of Technology. I hope to continue my creative work that I started in London in Fiji and beyond.  

You can contact me on satish_r@fit.ac.fj