Indigenous Fijian Research Articles

Indigenous Fijian masculinity and tourism as a liminoid experience (Nadi, Fiji)

ABSTRACT In this article, we study Noah’s Gang, a group of 30–60-year-old ‘street boys’ that operated in Nadi, Fiji from 2013 to present. We study a number of their interactions with individual tourists and explain how they provide liminoid experiences for white tourists from the Global North. The hustler lifestyle and the interaction with tourists also provides them with liminoid experiences that are a break from the hierarchical and restrained aspects of village life. Women on the edge of the Gang are peripheral members only and do not offset the overall masculine style. Tourists, like the two described, often come with essentialized stereotypes of Fijians as either hospitable or as powerful savages. Indigenous Fijians also have multiple stereotypes of tourists.

Indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) Recognised Seasonal Employer workers and hazardous substance material: Knowledge, guidelines, and use

Abstract Labour mobility has garnered considerable attention within the realm of international relations, prompting economic powers such as New Zealand to seek answers for workforce shortages. Industries dependent on physical labour, often entailing exposure to hazardous substances, face pronounced challenges in attracting workers. In this article, we will focus on three crucial elements of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996: ensuring the protection of the Person Conducting Business Undertaking (PCBU), safeguarding Indigenous iTaukei workers, and preserving the environment under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. Employing the 3D veivosaki as a culturally sensitive data collection method, the research strategically gained access to iTaukei workers in the South Island of New Zealand (Central Otago and Oamaru, North Otago) where a recent influx of RSE workers has settled. A total of one hundred iTaukei individuals voluntarily participated in the survey – fifty from each location. The research finds that most of the workers do not understand their rights on their access to protective protection equipment. This report presents a detailed exposition of their responses to the survey.

Socioeconomic Resilience of Local Communities in the Face of Climate Change‐Induced Hazards: The Role of Social Capital

ABSTRACTThis study analyses the socioeconomic resilience of local communities in Fiji in the face of climate change‐induced hazards. Drawing upon two comprehensive datasets, we computed the households’ socioeconomic resilience capacity index (SERCI), following the FAO's Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis II (RIMA‐II) methodology. Our findings revealed that the socioeconomic resilience of Fijian households exhibited an improvement from 1996 to 2007, followed by a stagnation period between 2007 and 2014. iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) households demonstrated lower asset‐based socioeconomic resilience compared to other ethnic groups across the two decades we analysed. Nonetheless, accounting for the role of social capital in the socioeconomic resilience capacity of households substantially reduced the gap between the resilience capacity of the different ethnic groups, as iTaukei households demonstrated higher level of social capital than other ethnic groups. Our results underline that in societies such as those in Fiji where social networks play an important role in times of emergencies and disaster, omitting social capital from the analysis of socioeconomic resilience capacity could lead to flawed policies. Our findings call for holistic approaches that account for social as well as economic aspects of resilience to gain a clearer understanding of the socioeconomic resilience capacity of communities prone to the impacts of climate change.

An Indigenous Fijian Perspective: Prioritising Indigenous Fijian values and aspirations in decolonising Early Childhood Education.

As an Indigenous Fijian scholar and PhD candidate from the Faculty of Culture and Society at Auckland University of Technology, my doctoral research study underscores the crucial role of Indigenous Fijian values and aspirations in decolonising Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Fiji. I illuminate how prioritising these values in educating Indigenous Fijian children can contribute to the broader decolonisation of education. The formalisation of ECE in Fiji from 1990 to the late 2000s, while a positive step, has primarily been influenced by Western education systems and ways of thinking. This short article outlines Fijian early childhood education research needs, stressing the urgency and necessity of understanding Indigenous Fijian viewpoints in early childhood development, care, well-being, and education. Introduced is the Indigenous Fijian methodology known as 'veiwasei yaga’, which incorporates Talanoa discussions and the Fijian Vanua Research framework involving Fijian cultural practices and protocols. Shared are the preliminary phases of the study, which include some personal reflections on what decolonising the mind looked like and what indigenous wisdom meant in the early stage of this research.

On the nature of law in the Fiji Islands and the meaning and source of the value of the vanua

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to look at the Indigenous Fijian village system and its mythical link to the first Fijians who arrived in the islands at Vuda Point, Western Viti Levu, to explain the identity of the Indigenous Fijian as ‘villager’, an identity that is paramount over all others. I also compare European and Indigenous understandings of knowledge and of property law. Louis Althusser’s Marxist arguments might suggest that the village is cultural superstructure to the town’s economic base. Prodevelopment logic tries to put forward a view that moral/spiritual attitudes to land are no more valid than modern/pragmatic/economic attitudes. The Indigenous belief that the village system is spiritual tends to inadvertently play into this logic. The answer may lie in Foucault’s call to decenter the subject meaning being extremely flexible, adaptable and tricky so as to avoid easy categorisation and marginalisation. ‘Playing with’ Western categories and treating the town as a foreign country used for casual drinking sessions may well be part of this. This attitude allows for town-power to be subverted and village sanctity to be maintained in something of a win-win situation in the face of marginalisation by corporate logic.

Mental Health of Indigenous Fijian Ex-Soccer Stars and Relation to Race and Class

Mental Health of Indigenous Fijian Ex-Soccer Stars and Relation to Race and Class

The Indigenous Rights Challenge to Common and Equal Citizenship in the ‘New’ Fiji

ABSTRACT For most of its postcolonial history, Fiji’s government was under iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) control, viewed by iTaukei as the guardian of their status and rights. However, iTaukei-headed governments from the military coup in 2006 until the parliament elections in 2022 undertook modernizing reforms that emphasized equality and enjoyed predominantly Indo-Fijian support. Central in the governing political party’s manifesto from the resumption of elections in 2014 was the new constitutional principle of ‘common and equal citizenry’. Electoral competition and parliamentary debate under the 2013 Constitution have been marked by protests against the removal of much of the institutional support for Indigenous group rights that existed in Fiji’s political system until the 2006 coup. The December 2022 elections brought a new government by a coalition of parties led and supported mainly by Indigenous Fijians. Its agenda includes a promise to redress the weakening of Indigenous status and rights under Bainimarama’s rule.

Революционные и квазиреволюционные события XXI в. на Фиджи

This article examines a period that can be broadly characterized as the era of military coups (similar to analogues of revolutions) and military revolutions in the state of Fiji, which began in the late 1980s and continued into the 21st century, receiving the name coup culture both in the media and in academic literature. The main factors of political instability in the region are the conflicts between the indigenous (Melanesian) Fijian and Indo-Fijian populations of the country, which have been caused by various reasons ranging from religious to economic. As a result of the events of the 21st century, a military dictatorship under the leadership of ethnic Fijian leaders was established in the country, and the proportion of the Indo-Fijian population was significantly reduced. In addition, there was a conflict between representatives of the state apparatus and local religious institutions, who were dissatisfied with the actions and policies of the new leadership.

Strategies for success of Indigenous businesses on customary land: case studies of three Itaukei (Indigenous Fijian) enterprises

This article aims to examine crucial elements that provide a platform for the success of Indigenous businesses based on customary land, drawing on case studies from Fiji. A qualitative, ethnographic, three case study approach was conducted, and talanoa (discussion or talking together in groups or between two people) method was used to collect data guided by the Vanua Research Framework. Four significant themes unfolded from the study in terms of essential strategies for the success of the businesses on customary land: following protocols for safe cultural affiliation of the business; practices of people working collectively; making socio-cultural contributions to the community and contributing to employee well-being. The research implies that Indigenous businesses on customary land tend to define success from a cultural viewpoint that differs from how business success is conventionally defined.

Balancing culture and survival: An urban-rural socioeconomic assessment of indigenous Fijian funerals in Fiji

Balancing culture and survival: An urban-rural socioeconomic assessment of indigenous Fijian funerals in Fiji

Spatial use of marine resources in a rural village: A case study from Qoma, Fiji

Understanding the value of fishers’ Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge (ITK) and of fishers’ spatial use of customary fishing grounds is an important contributing factor to marine resource management. This study investigates and documents ITK of marine resources and the associated spatial knowledge of fishing areas in Qoma, a rural fishing village in Fiji. Using a sex-generational lens, our research combines theory and methods from Participatory Geographic Information Systems and ethnography. We document how fishermen and fisherwomen use geographic space in their traditional fishing grounds showing changes in the areas they travel to and fish. Targeted marine resources and knowledge of those resources differ between fishermen and fisherwomen, reflecting the traditional roles of men and women within Indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) culture. Fishermen and fisherwomen of ≥60 years have a richer knowledge of marine resources than younger fishers (men and women), measured by the number of unique species they could identify or describe using local taxonomic classification. Our ethnography findings highlight the importance of maintaining this ITK to preserve marine resources of significance for future generations. Our study concludes with insights into three knowledge gaps; the spatial use of traditional fishing grounds by fishermen and fisherwomen (including a statistical analysis and map), generational differences in fisher knowledge, and the distinctive differences in fishermen’s and fisherwomen’s ITK of fishing. This study also discusses how these three key insights when combined can contribute to improved local fisheries resource management.

Sources of Indigenous Fijian ‘law’: village mores versus town-based criminal laws

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to reflect on oral history interview data provided by an ex-soccer star who played for Fiji and in what is now the Fiji Premier League, and reconcile his criminal past (according to town-based criminal laws) with his current village assistant headman status. The article compares and contrasts two sources of law – customary Indigenous traditions of rights and responsibilities and town-based criminal laws, which have their origins in British colonial-era laws and are now administered and enforced by the neoliberal Bainimarama government. Because the soccer star’s jewellery store robberies were of Fiji Indian-owned stores, it is difficult for them to penetrate into the world of ‘village-space’, other than as a repressed spectre, since non-Indigenous people cannot live in Indigenous villages. For the Indigenous Fijians, ‘town-space’ is a place for employment, education, venturing out and partying, beyond the gaze of village elders, whereas ‘village-space’ is the ordered space of home and community. ‘Quasi-space’ is here defined as space physically in the town, but when Indigenous people are the only ones present, or a clear majority, some aspects of village understandings can dominate in that space at least for certain time periods and with variable intensity.

Perceptions of drinking water access and quality in rural indigenous villages in Fiji

Abstract Poor rural water quality is a health challenge in Fiji. A mixed-methods study in six iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) villages was conducted to understand local perceptions of drinking water access and quality, how this changes drinking water source choices, and impacts of age and gender. Seventy-two household surveys, 30 key informant interviews (KIIs) and 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted. Household surveys revealed 41.7% of community members perceived their water as dirty and 76.4% perceived their water as clean. Two-thirds of households reported that they always or usually had enough water. FGDs and KIIs revealed water access and quality was influenced by population size, seasonality, and rainfall. Perceptions of water quality caused villages to shift to alternative water sources. Alignment of the qualitative and quantitative data identified four themes: sources and infrastructure, access, quality and contamination. There was mixed alignment of perceptions between access and quality between the household surveys, and KIIs and FGDs with partial agreement sources and infrastructure, and quality. Gender was found to influence perceptions of dirty water, contamination, and supply and demand. Perceptions of water quality and access shape decisions and choices for water sources and can be used to inform resilience and inclusive water strategies.

Indigenous enterprise on customary lands: Diverse economies of surplus

This study examines Indigenous Fijian and Papua New Guinean enterprises on customary land. It explores the duality of merging Indigenous and Western principles of entrepreneurship and the ability to balance business and socio‐cultural imperatives. A qualitative, ethnographic‐case study approach is deployed, withtalanoa/tok storiused to collect empirical materials. Two interrelated themes emerged from the study: The need for Indigenous enterprise models to contribute to a more holistic conception of well‐being, and as a result, the requirement to rethink how surplus is distributed beyond mainstream shareholder ownership models. This study reveals a more nuanced approach to distributing surplus based on Indigenous conceptions of kinship. The specific theoretical contribution of this study is an Indigenous conception of surplus distribution that offers a challenge to traditional shareholder models.

Global epidemiology of childhood bone and joint infection: a systematic review.

Childhood bone and joint infection (BJI) is a potentially severe disease that may have permanent sequelae, including growth impairment and limb deformity. It has been characterised in the literature with a focus on Western epidemiology; there are currently no reports detailing global epidemiology and bacteriology. This omits key data from determining temporal trends, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and resource allocation. This review aims to identify studies that characterise the incidence of childhood bone and joint infection or provide detailed bacteriology within their region. A systematic review of the literature was performed from 01/01/1980 to 31/12/2020. Data hasbeen analysed to give incidence of disease per 100,000 children, primary pathogen by country where available, and risk ratio (RR) for disease by ethnicity. This is applicable for areas that experience race-related inequitable burden of disease. Forty-four articles met the inclusion area; of these, seven were population-wide studies, primarily from Europe or the United States, and the remainder were cohort studies. Incidence could be derived from 26 studies compromising over 34, 000 children. Information on bacteriology was available from 39 publications (10, 957 cases). Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus is the most common pathogen in the West. Recently, disease secondary to Kingella kingae and methicillin-resistant S. aureus has increased. Salmonella remains a dominant pathogen in African regions. Increased risk of disease is observed in Aboriginal, New Zealand Māori, Pacific, Indigenous Fijian, and Bedouin children. The current state of the literature detailing incidence of childhood BJI focuses on disease patterns from the West. There is a paucity of high-quality publications in the developing world. Despite these limitations, global trends in burden of disease show race-related inequitable risk of BJI. Temporal and regional variation in bacteriology can be demonstrated. III.

The ridge-to-reef approach on Cicia Island, Fiji

Many Pacific countries and territories embrace an officially recognized ‘ridge-to-reef’ approach to environmental management. This is the case of Fiji, where the Lau Seascape Strategy 2018–2030, led by Conservation International, aims for integrated natural resource management across 335 895 km2. This area includes Cicia Island, which deserves particular attention since, years before the design of the Lau Seascape Strategy, its population developed its own informal ridge-to-reef scheme, involving a combination of certified organic agriculture and locally managed marine closures. Based on 1 month of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper presents this scheme and highlights local perception and conceptualization of its positive effects on both the land and the sea. These reflect the iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) concept of vanua, which intrinsically connects the health of the land, the sea, and their (human and non-human) dwellers, while stressing the importance of addressing land-sea processes and management efforts beyond an ecological perspective, i.e. through an engagement with the iTaukei relational ontology.

The role of women in community resilience to climate change: A case study of an Indigenous Fijian community

The role of women in community resilience to climate change: A case study of an Indigenous Fijian community

International service-learning: possibilities for developing intercultural competence and culturally responsive pedagogies

ABSTRACT Globalisation and human mobility have contributed to increased student diversity in Australian schools and globally. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmesare under pressure to prepare pre-service teachers (PST) who can respond to the educational and cultural needs of diverse student cohorts. International study tours and service-learning programs are conceived as means for developing interculturally competent “classroom-ready” teachers. This paper reports on a New Colombo Plan water safety/swimming programmedesigned and delivered by pre-service teachers in a rural Fijian community. Findings indicate that immersion as “other” was important for building empathy and appreciation of the lived realties of linguistically and culturally diverse Indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian children. Additionally, findings reveal various ways by which PST enacted cultural competence in teaching the water safety/swimming program. Where international service learning is not always be an option, we argue for multiple opportunities for PST to work with children within diverse communities and cultural life-worlds. At stake is the potential of ITE programs to enable the development of pedagogical practices for meeting the cultural and educational needs of all children We believe these calls have relevance for ITE educators and their programs in Australia and the broader Asia-Indo-Pacific region.

Family: Pacific perspectives

Abstract Models that conceptualize family are employed by psychologists, governments, legislators, and policymakers to inform professional practice and formulate public policy. However, extant models are notably Western‐centric in both origin and context. Given the cultural diversity of today's globalized world, it is timely to question whether such models can adequately represent populations within their ambit. This paper takes Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model as one representative way of thinking about family and employs it as the point of contrast with Pacific family arrangements. Particular consideration is given to Indigenous Fijian (iTaukei), Tongan, and Māori perspectives. The model was found to be inadequate for representing Pacific family arrangements. This finding has important implications as it creates a space for new insights and possibilities. To this end, key family‐related metaphors common among Pacific peoples have been incorporated to conceptualize one potential alternative.

Generational retreat: locally driven adaption to coastal hazard risk in two Indigenous communities in Fiji

The relocation and retreat of low-lying coastal communities are expected to increase in anticipation of, and response to, sea-level rise and subsequent coastal hazard risks. As such, there is burgeoning attention in research and policy surrounding relocation that is managed and supported through external sources. Yet there exists limited research into the ways Indigenous communities are autonomously retreating from emerging coastal hazard risk, despite long histories of mobility and inherent adaptive capacities. We contribute to this gap through qualitative data derived from two low-lying coastal iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) communities that are exposed to coastal erosion, storm surges, and flooding events, alongside other socioeconomic pressures. We explore the approach of “generational retreat” which is emerging as a long-term relocation strategy employed by village residents. Generational retreat is a form of mobility whereby households, namely, younger generations, incrementally retreat in response to existing, emerging, and anticipated coastal changes while maintaining connections to place and village life. We show how communities are drawing on local processes and resources to direct autonomous adaptation pathways which are suited to local sociopolitical, cultural, and environmental contexts. We further explore opportunities for governments and external actors in supporting these locally conceived and driven forms of retreat as an adaptive and sustainable response to coastal change.