Archaeology and vanua development in Fiji

Abstract

There is a difference between archaeology that involves local communities and archaeology that is commissioned by and for the community. This paper describes the latter within the contemporary Fijian context of political and economic domination by an urban Fijian chiefly class. It shows how community archaeology provides a strategy by which disenfranchised rural communities in Fiji can reclaim the archaeological resource and use it to establish economic independence. Such projects fall within a Fijian definition of vanua development: a harmonious concept of environmental, social and economic well-being that includes an essential respect for tradition. The benefits extend to archaeology itself. The paper analyses how community projects in Fiji can help conserve the archaeological resource, broaden the pool of people with an active stake in Fiji's past, and thereby raise the profile of archaeology in the national imagination. The subtext is a post-colonial one: the past is a contested and socially structured thing. By relinquishing control over archaeology to the local communities, not only have political and economic relations in Fiji been equalized, so has the balance between local and scientific interpretations of history.