January 2019

[...]

Fesaitu was 38 when he died. He had a sailing career of more than 20 years, and more than 10 years of that time was on fishing vessels; he had one of the 'Captain' class certificates and wanted to complete his study for Class 3. He'd worked on Gilontas fishing boats, flagged maybe to Vanuatu or Panama.

[...]

At first, when the agent called, they just said he'd passed away. ...The agent told us that: 'Itu fell overboard and drowned' and for someone who had 20 years' experience we didn't believe him; no-one did; no-one would be so stupid to believe that lie; no-one believed him.

[...]

When we opened the body bag, we saw visible bruises so we knew he'd been beaten up to death....

...The government gave us F$50,000 as compensation to his siblings; the funeral expenses were paid by the whole family because the compensation came after the funeral. But there were a lot of things we had to do and pay for; things these days are very expensive. We had to go to Nadi to get the body, and then come back with it, and Rotuman funerals and reguregu (customary gift-giving and hosting at funerals) go on for days.

[...]