Rakiraki ‘a visual paradise’

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Penang Sangam High School students of 1968. Picture: SUPPLIED

When Gary Mitchell came to Rakiraki as a Peace Corps volunteer schoolteacher in 1968, he had no idea he would be capturing the development of the small rural town through photographs.

The Kansas, United States of America native had a Kodak instamatic camera and captured photographs which he has started releasing on his social media page. His photographs date back to 1968.

The images depict Rakiraki’s history in black and white.

“Rakiraki is a visual paradise with its green cane fields, blue ocean, and purple Nakauvadra range,” Mr Mitchell said.

“I chose to take slide transparencies instead of print photos because I wanted to be able to present programs using a slide projector and screen when my Peace Corps experiences were over.”

He said he didn’t realise the photographs historic significance for many years, “I am sharing photos online.

It is exciting to read the feedback and find the connections from children and even grandchildren of these folks I knew over fifty years ago.” While Mr Mitchell was in Rakiraki in the ’60s and early ’70s, Rakiraki to him was “breathless”.

“The place was a visual paradise of shimmering green sugar cane beneath the purple Nakauvadra range.

“The Vaileka town was rustic wooden shops on only one side of the road. A few people on the boardwalk. A small taxi stand.

“No ugly utility poles blocked the views. It was paradise.” Mr Mitchell was teaching English at Penang Sangam High School in an era teachers in Fiji only prepared students for exams rather than inspire them to learn.

“I learned to love teaching and helping students, teaching became my life’s work.” His stay in Rakiraki between 1968 and 1970 was at a time when rural life was hard.

“I learned to love people other than my own and to live at a slower pace and open some eyes to the beauty so many in Fiji take for granted.

I have always loved curry and have learned to cook many dishes. I have developed a love for Bollywood film music and classic raag.”

Mr Mitchell was also a witness to Fiji’s political change that culminated with the independence in 1970.

“The switch from pounds-shillings-pence to the decimal system in 1969, many older folks were very fearful of the change. They thought their money would lose value.

I loved it because it was much easier adding up columns of figures on books purchased for the school library.”

He attended Fiji’s Independence Day celebrations on October 10, 1970.

“I remember a paraplegic musician who sang and played the harmonium by using a stick between his chin and his shoulder to press the keys.”

He took the initiative to set up the first ever library at Penang Sangam High School and the Gary Mitchell Library still exists at the school today.

“Watching the library take shape at Penang Sangam High School from a large empty room on the first floor to a room full of shelving, books, and a card catalogue was and overwhelming experience.

“The generosity of the people back home who donated books and the hard work of my student assistants over the years will never be forgotten.”

His liking for the district was a life-long affair and Mr Mitchell returned to Rakiraki for personal visits long after he had left the Peace Corps.

“In 1980 Rakiraki was electrified. Vaileka was no longer a line of wooden shops, but now solid structures of cinder blocks and concrete on both sides of the paved street. “Penang Sangam High School was now on both sides of the street.

Beautiful new two-storey building housing the library that was no longer in the old library building. I was able to meet with many of my former students and families that I knew.

“In 1993 after the coup, every house looked like it was in a war zone. Barbed wire. Bars on windows. Yards blocked off from neighbouring houses.

“Vaileka town felt less welcoming. Many more taxis and buses and private cars. Fewer and fewer friends remained in Fiji.”

In 2004 churches and temples had sprung up. The schools in the area had larger student populations and looked well kept. More houses and fewer fields.

Downtown Vaileka continued to grow and congest.

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