Another memorial marker celebrated on November 11 on the island, the end of indentured labor. A ceremony paying tribute to the 200,000 committed workers was held this Monday morning at the Grande Chaloupe lazaret.
Indians, Africans, Malagasy, Chinese, Rodrigues… It was this Friday, November 11, a day of homage to the ancestors, on the occasion of the day commemorating the end of Indian indentureship recorded in 1882.
As has been the tradition for 21 years now, more than 500 people from various origins gathered at the Grande Chaloupe lazaret, to celebrate rituals in memory of the elders during a multicultural ceremony.
It is also an opportunity to revisit this place of memory, a gateway to Reunion Island for these workers who came from far away and who have contributed to constituting Reunion society for 200 years.
Watch the report from Réunion La 1ère:
The end of the commitment commemorated in the infirmary
How, artists, created for the occasion an “ephemeral memorial work” around wooden legs “symbolizing the relationship with our ancestors to plants”which emerge from a blue sea of sugar cane, “the purpose of the coming of these hired workers” crossing a red flow reminiscent of “perhaps an imaginary firewalk, but also our painful connection to this history.”
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©Reunion the 1st
Marie-Noëlle shows photos of her grandparents, “The four arrived in 1933 from Rodrigues on a contract. At the time there was a shortage of workers in Reunion and my dad’s father wanted his children to have an education”she says. “They arrived disappointed because they had not been warned of the quarantine, and they discovered a very poor Reunion.”
Every year, she makes a point of participating in this ceremony. “It’s always important to be there for me, because my grandparents participated in the construction of Reunion Island.”
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©Reunion the 1st
“It’s super important”estimates this young woman who came with her husband and two children. “The lazaret is a place which still remains in Reunion's heritage as a place of memory. I have been coming every year for more than five years, and I think it is a place which should bring together all of Reunion Islanders” she explains.
And to express a wish: “We need more events like this, where all communities are represented.”
