Human Flower Project

Selling Ginger after School

Cecelia Mareti Wati, age 14, sells flowers by the road at Wainadoi, a new residential development west of Suva on Viti Levu, in the Fiji Islands. “My dad has been without a job for the past six months and whatever we get from selling flowers, supplements our needs especially our school needs,” she told the Fiji Times. Income inequality in the islands has been increasing. The poorest 10% of Fiji Islanders make 1.8% of the nation’s total income while the richest 10% make 35%. (For comparison’s sake, the richest 10% of U.S. residents earned a whopping 41% of total US income in 2002).

As for these gorgeous flowers, we believe both may be types of ginger. The more bulbous blooms, deep red, look like Torch ginger (Etlingera elatior). Can anyone identify the orangy flowers?

Cecelia and her grandmother sell these beauties for $10 a bunch—that’s Fiji dollars, folks (about $6.65 USD).

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Photo: Fiji Times

Posted by on 05/12 at 07:08 PM

Comments

The orange flowers look like psittacorums, they are a small heliconia.

Posted by on 05/13 at 10:16 PM

Thank you so much, Rick. Had never heard of this flower before.

J

Posted by on 05/14 at 01:59 PM

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