THE Vanuatu delegation to the Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival will present a traditional apology to the people of Fiji for blackbirding crimes committed in the 1800s, according to a delegation representative.

The apology will be presented to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo at Albert Park in Suva on Monday. A member of the delegation said the presentation was part of a reconciliation process to heal past hurts over the slavery trade in the islands.

"The chiefs of Vanuatu will present their apology to the Great Council of Chiefs, the President and the people of Fiji because of the blackbirding that took place between our ancestors and the ancestors of Fiji in the 1800's," the representative said.

"We came to participate in the Melanesian Festival of Arts and to also present our reconciliation to the people of Fiji because without reconciliation, we cannot move forward."

Minister for Reconciliation Ratu Meli Saukuru said the Vanuatu delegation had asked when they first arrived if they could present the apology.

Over a 40-year period in the mid-1800s, around 62,000 people were forcibly taken from Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Fiji to work in sugar fields in Queensland, Australia.

Smaller numbers were also taken from Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

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