Bruce Connew

Indians first arrived in Fiji as indentured laborers in 1879. Since the Rabuka coup d’etat in 1987, and three subsequent Fiji coups, Indian-Fijians have been emigrating from the country in earnest. Stopover is a haunting suite of photographs by New Zealand artist Bruce Connew from the tiny Indian-Fijian sugar cane settlement of Vatiyaka, taken during seven visits between June 2000 and November 2003, placing an extended family inside the story of migration. Connew’s narrative captions and a story by Brij V. Lal take the reader to the heart of an embattled life

Stopover

Rachel Locker McKee

Deaf people in New Zealand are often little known outside their own culture. People of the Eye brings their world to life in personal histories translated into English with a series of photographs of the deaf community. The storytellers are both old and young, and they reflect both the diversity and commonality of deaf experience; the painful lives of a generation brought up forbidden to use sign language contrasted with the confidence of young people using New Zealand Sign Language as they attend school and assert "deaf pride." The differences between children growing up in deaf families and those who struggle with identity as deaf children in hearing families are illuminating. These are stories of joy and sadness, confusion and resolution, and regret and optimism.

Stories from the Deaf World

People of the Eye

Brij V. Lal

Indians first came to Fiji as indentured labourers in 1879. Since the Rabuka coup d'état in 1987, and three subsequent Fiji coups, Indian-Fijians have been emigrating from the country in earnest. STOPOVER is a haunting suite of Bruce Connew photographs from the tiny Indian-Fijian sugar cane settlement of Vatiyaka, taken during seven visits between June 2000 and November 2003, placing an extended family inside a story of migration. Connew's narrative captions and a short story by Brij V Lal, Professor of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University, take the reader to the heart of an embattled life. STOPOVER will open as an exhibition at Pataka, Porirua, Wellington, on 18th August, 2007.

Bruce Connew leaves his children in the care of a friend and hops a plane to a little reported war he caught a glimpse of on television. In the hill country of East Burma, Connew journeys with Karen refugees, ducks down in trenches from incoming mortar fire and, ultimately, joins forces with a New Zealand mercenary to stage an ambush. Central to all parts of this story is the photographer's recent loss of his wife in a road crash. Death and its random, sudden occurrence is Connew's subject.

Bruce Connew

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