Скачать или смотреть The Leper Colony, Makogai, Fiji

Uncovering an old Leper Colony, July 2024

‘A clubbed skull or a good shipwreck, there is the death for a missionary… but to die a leper should be more precious still…’ Bishop Julien Vidal of Suva

The island, once feared for its ‘war canoes’, became a leper colony in 1909 starting with 2 nuns and 40 patients. Lepers were imprisoned in their skin, ashamed their flesh retreated as if the whole carcass was rotten. In exile, their feet hardly touched the ground,

Two villages claimed the island, one for the diseased, the other for the others. Shoes worn in the diseased sector were banned from the ‘clean end’.
A five K metalled road connected the two villages. Now the overgrown tapestry of vegetation is impassable for cars. Just as well, there are none left on the island.

The colony was run by a French order of nuns. Heroic priests from France and Spain with huge ambitions prayed for souls. How many were consoled by the promise?

Filimoni Colati, pastor and village elder, a lovely man, introduced himself as Bill, and gave us a tour. Makogai closed in 1969, the remaining patients were transferred to Suva. Around 3,000 patients were effectively treated and repatriated to undergo treatment in their own countries return to their families. The island was quarantined for 10 years, then a marine research station was established.

Arrival
Islands find form as if the sea is sinking. Oranges hues seamlessly transition to sailor-boy blue under contemporary surveillance of the silhouettes.
Our approach into Dalice Bays slow, almost secretive, slips between the crab claws of Tabaka and Mako¬draga.

Departure
I would like to hold the history in my hand, not a poem, and I forget how I said goodbye.

Thanks to John Laidler for the wonderfully appropriate soundtarck and editing.