Kalougata in the Fijian bible.pdf

This thesis is an interpretative study of early museum collections from Fiji. It combines some art historical, historical and anthropological approaches of museum items, in order to inform exchange relations between Fijians and Euro-Americans (1774-1854). It proposes two ways of considering early museum objects from Fiji. First, it suggests that they can, and to some extent must, be primarily regarded as exchanged objects — i.e. as the results of reciprocal transactions and the agents of a shared history between Fiji, Europe and the U.S.A. Secondly, it argues that museum artefacts can be used as major evidences for the study of early exchange relations between Fijians and Euro-Americans, at least as important as contemporaneous literary and pictorial sources — most of them European or American. Four chapters (2-5) explore and justify the above arguments. Based on historical case studies, the demonstration exemplifies the extent of reciprocity in Fiji-West early transactions, as well as the exchangeability of the objects. Especially, it calls attention to the political agencies, material values and intellectual representations at stake between 1774 and 1854, projected on the objects from both sides of the exchanges. The first section intends to set the reflexion in its intellectual context, by explaining its methodologies and briefly reviewing the literature that helped shape a research protocol. The conclusive chapter examines at possible consequences for research and museum policies today, with regards to current Fijian concerns and interests.

2007

Cultural Dynamics, 2007

In this article I refl ect on Indian and Pacifi c Islander relations in Fiji and New Zealand to ask what Pacifi c studies might offer South Asian diaspora studies and vice versa. For Pacifi c Islanders kinship orders relations between people, land and sea and remains the most powerful discourse of identity throughout Oceania. In Fiji and New Zealand White settler-colonial and indigenous Pacifi c rights and anxieties frame national identities and policies towards migrants. Within these contexts, the girmits in Fiji, and recent Asian and Pacifi c Islander migrants in both countries, must locate themselves with respect to dominant interests. I highlight popular culture, one of the most important tactics for national participation and visibility taken up by migrant groups. The concept of kinship, often limited to blood and social code, central to Pacifi c identities and anthropological studies in the region, is reclaimed to suggest popular, non-hegemonic, and multivalent relations between groups in contrast to the divisive ethnic discourses that have shaped Fijian and Indian relations for over a century. 19(2/3): 193-232.

English World-Wide, 2001

The vocabulary of Fiji English is one of its most distinguishing features. English has a profound influence upon the lives of all Fiji Islanders -it is the principal language of government, the judiciary, education and commerce. This paper examines some of the sources and features of the Fiji English lexis, the most common of which include: borrowings, reborrowings, calques, new coinages, semantic shifts, archaisms, and hybrid compounds. It also outlines some of the lexical affinities with and divergences from other varieties of English.

English World-Wide

The vocabulary of Fiji English is one of its most distinguishing features. English has a profound influence upon the lives of all Fiji Islanders—it is the principal language of government, the judiciary, education and commerce. This paper examines some of the sources and features of the Fiji English lexis, the most common of which include: borrowings, reborrowings, calques, new coinages, semantic shifts, archaisms, and hybrid compounds. It also outlines some of the lexical affinities with and divergences from other varieties of English.

This thesis attempts to provide a conceptual framework for the analysis of the politicisation of ethnicity in Fiji and New Caledonia. Commencing with a discussion of the relevance of various theoretical approaches to ethnic identification in understanding ethnic politicisation, the author selects the instrumentalist approach of Crawford and Lipschutz as possibly the most useful. In critiquing this approach, the author contrasts assertive with defensive politicisation. Defensive politicisation may be defined as politicisation that is driven by perceived marginalisation and hardship; whereas assertive politicisation is rooted in positive entitlements. The author argues that assertive politicisation generally characterises the Fijians in Fiji, whereas defensive politicisation prevails among the Kanaks of New Caledonia; thus the case of New Caledonia seems to conform with Crawford and Lipschutz’s theory while the case of Fiji does not. This central argument is presented through an examination of ethnic politicisation in historical and contemporary Fiji and New Caledonia, as well as the roles played by governing elites in both states. This thesis concludes by cautioning on the relativity of generalised theoretical constructs which may fit one particular case but not another. Identity Ignited: The Politicisation of Ethnicity in Fiji and New Caledonia. Prepared for the degree of Master of Arts in International Affairs. Ottawa: Carleton University, 2004.