As Fiji marks International Women’s Day, a longtime public servant in Suva is marking a personal milestone: 37 years of continuous service in the civil service while visibly carrying her cultural identity into the heart of government life. Shaleeni Priya Singh, who is easily spotted at Suva’s busy bus stand each weekday draped in a sari, has spent nearly four decades working for the state and says her daily dress is part of preserving the heritage that shaped her.
Singh began her career in the Office of the Auditor‑General in 1989 as an audit assistant, and in 2000 transferred to the Ministry of Finance where she remains today. She is stationed at the pensions office in Ro Lalablavu House, a role in which she describes herself “first and foremost as a public servant.” Her daily duties include assisting government pensioners and members of the public with enquiries, work she says requires patience, dignity and a customer‑oriented approach built up over decades of service.
“This month marks 37 years of my continuous dedication to Fiji’s ever evolving civil service,” Singh said, reflecting on a career that has seen generations of pensioners pass through her office. “It has been very interesting, because there’s always something new to learn.” Her long tenure gives her a steadying presence in a busy public office: familiar faces, institutional memory and a personal commitment to helping people navigate pension matters.
Outside the office, Singh is a wife and mother. She married in 1995 at age 24 and has two daughters born in 1996 and 1999. Her choice to wear a sari every day stems from childhood memories of helping her mother—also a retired civil servant—pleat and pin the garment before she went to work. “I always asked her why she wore saris every day. She told me it was how she was brought up, that women wore saris whenever they went out,” Singh recalled. After marriage she kept the promise she made to herself to wear saris at work, on buses and in the streets of Suva.
Singh’s sartorial consistency has drawn attention and often admiration from passers‑by — bus drivers, taxi drivers and commuters who sometimes stop to say “Aunty, you look beautiful in your sari,” she said. She acknowledges practical concerns people raise about wearing a sari in Fiji’s heat, but sees the garment as carrying a “quiet dignity” that enhances a woman’s presence regardless of age or body type.
Beyond personal aesthetics, Singh frames her clothing as cultural continuity. “When you wear your traditional outfit, it shows your background and it keeps your culture alive,” she said, noting with approval the cultural exchange she observes in Suva where iTaukei women sometimes repurpose sari material into sulu jaba designs. That blending, she believes, strengthens identities rather than diluting them.
As the public service and Suva’s streets have changed over nearly four decades, Singh’s daily sari and steady work at the pensions office stand as a reminder of how personal choices about dress can intersect with civic duty — keeping cultural memory visible in everyday public life while continuing to serve the community.
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