Fiji Islands

Since the era of national independence in the Pacific Islands, many indigenous leaders have attempted to articulate a 'Pacific Way' aimed at developing island states along lines true to a shared past. Drawing on emblematic regional practices held to foster communalism, dialogue, and consensus, Pacific Way advocates have argued that Oceanic cultures hold the key to their own postcolonial development by drawing on what they share with their neighbours and what distinguishes them from the Western and global. In this article, I describe how some of the most vigorous and sustained attempts to cultivate a Pacific Way-discursively, at least-have arisen in indigenous Christian theology. I ask what the articulation of a Pacific Way accomplishes for the theologians who use such a figure, and what its implications are for understanding development as a practice with an inherently spiritual aspect.

Fiji’s media landscape has been challenged by the consequences of Fiji’s own political struggles (Pareti, 2009; Perrottet & Robie, 2011; Singh, 2010a; S. B. Singh, 2018). While scholars and policy analysts have pointed out the nuances of these consequences, the latest onslaught to Fiji’s media landscape is irresponsible citizen journalism, specifically the morbid use of social media. Social media in Fiji has grown exponentially due to the increasing interconnectivity and proliferation of affordable data and mobile devices. This has enabled greater access and active online interactions, creating a massive potential for responsible and constructive social media use. However, ease of online access has revealed an almost inhumane and morbid form of social media use. This Brief argues that Fiji’s media landscape, already challenged by Fiji’s political struggles, is facing pressure from irresponsible citizen journalism. This is compounded by the quick pace and real time nature of social media. In discussing this argument, the Brief examines a recent fatality that highlights this pressure and its implications on the media and social media in Fiji.

Although the academic research on religion in Fiji and the South Pacific is substantial, there are few examples of studies that connect religion with the larger discourses of Fijian tradition and social life. Even fewer are the ones linking culturally specific notions of gender performances to Christian devotion. By utilizing the theoretical framework of colonial mimicry, I argue that the Christianization of Fiji, particularly its continued impact on the social organization of modern Fijian society, has been reliant upon its collusion with premodern Fijian notions of gender, power and consanguinity. Based on historical enquiries and ethnographic material, I develop the argument that while conversion may be understood as the conscious adoption and mimicking of the western notion of religion as presented by Wesleyan missionaries in the 1800s, the Fijian understanding of their Christianity, the merging between Christian belief and Fijian social protocol and the consequent development of culturally specific articulations of
Christian devotion have produced substantial differences from western theological practice and teaching. A central distinction is the close link between performances of masculinity and Christian devotion found among Fijian Methodists.

This article contains a previously unpublished essay of personal reflections on the relationship between Catholicism and Marxism. The essay includes a critique of the social teaching encyclicals written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II in the 1980s. We will see how John Paul II subtly incorporated some of the key ideas of the liberation theologians into the official body of Roman Catholic social teaching after 1986. This article should help younger researchers who might be interested in but are struggling with Catholic social teaching and/or Marxism in either theoretical and/or practical realms. This is especially important given that some Marxist authors within critical accounting are near or past retirement age and there is a real risk that the understandings of Marxist theory which they had will be lost to the discipline. We also look at some potential research topic areas which a developing country-based researcher could profitably explore using a Marxist perspective with a special focus on Fiji Islands, Indonesia and Singapore.

Political campaigning on social media in Fiji was first witnessed in the 2014 national election. In the Fiji 2018 general election, social media political campaigning had evolved with greater complexity and a wider variety of implications. This research examines and highlights the use of social media by political parties and candidates in the 2018 national elections. This examination provides comparative social media discussions between the two elections; 2014 and 2018. The research uses digital ethnography as a methodology to examine and highlight social media use, by political parties and candidates in Fiji’s 2018 national elections. The research found that FijiFirst, as the ruling government, had significant advantage in Fiji’s social media landscape. However, opposition social media efforts and growing Facebook ‘reactions’ were beginning to challenge FijiFirst's social media dominance.

This report describes a series of excavations performed upon the site of Bātiri, located within the district of Sigatoka, Nadrogā Province, Fiji. The investigation of the site was part of a larger research project that explored the emergence and consequences of competitive and cooperative strategies in Fijian prehistory. Excavation of a single test unit on the site indicates that the fortification was first established ca. AD 1630 and 1875.

Fiji, an island nation located in the South Pacific has three major higher education institutions namely, "The Fiji National University, The University of the South Pacific which is also 'the oldest university' in the country and The University of Fiji". This paper reviews key emerging issues that are being encountered in higher education (HE) in Fiji. The key issues' faced by these universities, is showing a similar trend in higher education internationally which this paper examines. Plagiarism continues to be a global phenomenon which the literature objectively highlights along with problems arising due to heavy workload and negligence of not incorporating inclusive education. The paper explores possible solutions to these issues drawing evidence from the available literature. Further research on individual universities would provide greater data for analysis as well as broader solutions to the issues.

This recent book provides the most current and well-illustrated overview of the art of Fiji. It was written, designed and illustrated by Dr Rod Ewins, who has been documenting Fijian art and culture for over 35 years. Produced in a limited run of 560 copies, it is available from bookshops in Fiji, where it was printed, and from collaborating museum bookshops in Tasmania.

The power struggle between the children of the first and second marriage of the former Vunivalu of Bau played right into the agenda of external parties to weaken the Fijian traditional system when armed soldiers and police interfered with the traditional installation in Bau island on the morning of June 8th, 2018.

This unlawful event has once again raised a continuous concern about a calculated move for ethnic cleansing of the indigenous identity under the mask of the ''united name'' Fijians for all citizens in the current 2013 constitution instead of the previous name, Fiji islanders in the 1997 constitution.

This is a follow-on concern from related incidents including the removal of indigenous Fijians population figures from the latest 2018 Fiji Census Population Report.

This research brief summarises three recent publications that analyse some of the social and political effects of Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji. The research was conducted by a multidisciplinary team with a core of SGDIA researchers (Romitesh Kant, Jope Tarai and Jason Titifanue) but also including researchers from other Schools within USP, including Geography (Renata Varea) and Accounting (Glenn Finau), and international collaborators from The University of Auckland (Prof. Andreas Neef) and La Trobe University (Dr John Cox). Each of the articles was published in
special editions of their respective journals, including two special editions dedicated to disasters (Pacific Journalism Review and a double edition of Anthropological Forum) and one on the theme ‘Possessing Paradise’ (The Contemporary Pacific). Interested readers may like to explore the excellent contributions of the other authors represented in these collections. This research brief concludes with some suggestions for disaster management practitioners.

Establishing a national university has been widely viewed by smaller developing countries as a means of asserting national sovereignty and driving the country’s economic, social, and cultural development.  This has been particularly true in the South Pacific, despite the existence of the regional University of the South Pacific.  Building a national university with the limited financial resources of a small developing country presents numerous challenges.

This paper, using a critical ethnographic methodology, examines the lessons from the first ten years (2010-20) of Fiji National University from the perspective of an insider researcher.  Some challenges are common to new universities created by merging smaller, constituent colleges.  Others are more specific to developing countries, including the dependence on public funding and political patronage.  Some challenges are more distinctively Pasifika, with cultural values of familial loyalty and respect for elders sometimes in conflict with ‘imported’ management practices.  The spectre of neo-colonialism is ever present.

A Personal reflection addressing the increase in number of church splits taking place in Fiji amongst Pentecostal denominations. It is not a historical reflection but rather a biblical view of the Church and why church splits and church divisions should not be encouraged, especially if it is a result of power hunger and unresolved personal issues. The church is the embodiment of Christ on earth, called and purposed to preach the gospel to the lost world. The fragmentations of the church in many ways lessens our testimony.

Rokowaqa's 75,000-word account of Fijian history was published as Ai Tukutuku kei Viti (meaning Stories of Fiji) in 1926. His text contains tales of Fiji's origins, the migrations and wars of the great chiefdoms, and explanations of how the present social order came into being-the chiefly system, orders of hierarchy, and clans' traditional obligations. Rokowaqa had attended the Methodist mission school at Navuloa in the early 1890s (France 1966: 111), and his account of Fijian history has 'a style reminiscent of the Book of Revelation' (Geraghty 1977: 28).

The suggestion that the iTaukei (indigenous Fijians) are a lost tribe of Israel has gained currency among Methodists in the interior of Viti Levu, coexisting with a firm and widely held belief in the ancestors’ emergence from the mystical Nakauvadra hills. For the people of Nabobuco, the Hebrew Bible's depiction of the relationship between Jehovah and the Israelites also contains powerful analogies with contemporary Christian experiences of collective sin and redemption. This paper discusses local genealogies and the use of the Old Testament to posit Nabobuco and Israel's moral equivalence within the Kingdom of God.

Establishing a national university has been widely perceived by smaller developing countries as a means of visibly taking ownership of the country’s economic, social and cultural development.  A national university, funded and directed by the government, can be charged with meeting local labour market needs, addressing social and ethnic inequality, and preserving and celebrating national and cultural identity.  National universities were often established in the early years of post-colonialism, to mark the birth of a newly independent nation – most notably, the National University of Singapore.

In the Pacific, 12 small nation states uniquely cooperated to set up and jointly manage a multi-campus regional university, the University of South Pacific (USP), in 1968.  Loosely modelled on the regional University of the West Indies, USP is funded by its 12 member countries, with donor aid from Australia and New Zealand.  Despite the existence of USP, however, the larger Pacific Island Countries, notably Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Tonga have all subsequently established their own national universities.  The newest, the National University of Vanuatu, was launched at the start of 2020.

Building a credible national university that meets the needs of multiple stakeholders, often with the limited financial resources of small developing country, presents a raft of challenges.  This paper, using a critical ethnographic methodology, examines the lessons from the first ten years (2010-20) of Fiji National University, from the perspective of a researcher who served as vice-chancellor from 2016-20.

Critical self-reflection as a research methodology has inherent weaknesses.  Unlike ethnographic methods which employ first-hand observation of participants, when the researcher is an active participant in events there is a natural tendency for him/her to interpret cause and effect in ways which overemphasise the significance of the actions taken or show the researcher in the best light.  However, when undertaken critically in a reflexive way which acknowledges and articulates the researcher’s own biases, this methodology offers a uniquely deep insight into the challenges of institution-building in a Pacific context.

The paper identifies a number of obstacles to executing the vision of a national university.  Some are common to the creation of new universities by merging smaller, constituent colleges which has taken place in other countries, notably the UK when the polytechnics were established in the 1970s.  These include forging a common organisational culture, upskilling or reskilling academic faculty for their new roles, and strengthening teaching and research without destroying earlier traditions of vocational training and employability.

Others are more specific to developing countries, which include the almost complete dependence on public funding to support operational and capital spending, as well as providing financial support for students.  This creates an acute financial vulnerability to a weakening of the fiscal position, which is exacerbated by the fact that the tax bases in many small island economies are heavily reliant on international tourism.  It also inevitably fosters an unhealthy dynamic between the university’s management and the government, on whose patronage the fortunes of the university’s finances rest.

Finally, it finds that some challenges are more distinctively Pacific, or even Fijian, in nature.  These include the bonds of kinship and respect for elders, which are often unacknowledged but sometimes in conflict with ‘imported’ management practices and even national legislation based on international ‘good practice’.  Ever present is the spectre of neo-colonialism, when the templates for organisational management and the benchmarks for success are uncritically adopted from the dominant Humboldtian model of higher education as a teaching-research nexus.  This threat is magnified by the pressure on newly-established universities to appoint senior academic managers trained outside the region, who unconsciously become a conduit for the transmission of Western academic values.

This article poses the question of what analytical insight can be gained by comparing ritual and cliché, both of which involve evaluations of the significance of repetition. The case study is kava-drinking sessions in indigenous Fiji. Whether purposeful or casual, kava-drinking sessions always follow rules which give them significant form and regularity of the kind some anthropologists consider definitive of ritual practice. Yet many indigenous Fijians criticise present-day kava-drinking sessions for several reasons. One prominent line of criticism is that kava drinking is now a matter of too much repetition-too many people drinking too much too often-and losing the meaningful link to chiefly tradition as a result. Analysing criticism of ritual in terms of cliché clarifies situations in which the iconic force of repetition is treated as an index of excess.

Fiji adalah salah satu negara dari banyaknya negara yang tersusun atas banyaknya pulau yang terbentang di atas bangsa kewilayahannya sendiri. Hal ini bukan selalu berdampak baik, karena dalam beberapa kasus tertentu, ruang dan waktu selalu menjadi masalah utama dalam proses distribusi apapun, termasuk pendidikan. Pendistribusian pendidikan yang tidak efektif mengakibatkan tidak meratanya pendidikan yang tersebar di negara tersebut, hal ini bisa berdampak pada adanya ketimpangan pendidikan. Untuk itu pendidikan terbuka dan jarak jauh dapat menjadi solusi yang bisa dilakukan guna memecahkan permasalahan ruang dan waktu dalam menempuh pendidikan. Khususnya di negara Fiji, pendidikan jarak jauh yang telah dikembangkan banyak sekali misalnya, the University of the South Pacific (USP) yang mengembangkan inovasi teknologi jarak jauh blended media dan e-library untuk pendidikan di perguruan tinggi dan di sejumlah pendidikan dasar hingga menengah juga dilakukan pendidikan jarak jauh berupa e-learning, sedangkan pendidikan terbukanya dilakukan melalui kebijakan pemerintah yang menerapkan sekolah gratis pada pendidikan sekolah dasar.

Dosen Pengampu :
Dr. Hj. Riche Cynthia Johan, S.Pd., M.Si.
[email protected]
Dadi Mulyadi, S.Pd, M.T.
[email protected]

Program Studi Teknologi Pendidikan
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
2019.

A personal reflection paper responding on the Role of Spiritual Leaders during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Fiji. Does the “Pacific way” a term coined by the late Kamisese Mara, former Prime Minster and President of Fiji, whereby Pacific Island leaders are encouraged to dialogue and discuss issues for the benefit of the Pasifika people still relevant? Can the “Vuvale or Talanoa” concept encouraged today by the Government leaders be used by the church to dialogue with authorities concerning the plight of the unvaccinated few. The democratic principle, the majority counts should not be the reason that the minority is unrelated nor neglected.

iv This dissertation examines the idea of "environment" in Waitabu, an indigenous Fijian community on Taveuni Island, and how it influences the community's participation in contemporary development projects. My main argument is that vanua (a Fijian concept often translated as "land" but which also encompasses people, community, and custom) is an important framework through which the community negotiates social and biological changes through time. In other words, it is an "environment" in its totality. I also argue that contrary to common understanding, vanua is a dynamic entity shaped by historical events rather than a set of rigid customary protocols, thus creating different trajectories of engagement with development projects. Two particular cases are analyzed here: 1) the "Waitabu Marine Park" conservation and ecotourism project; 2) the grassroots cash-cropping schemes and subsistence farming in the village.

This paper presents four new strategies for growing the organic agriculture sector. Globally there are 51 million hectares of certified organic agriculture land and a further 39 million hectares of wild culture land. For the past two decades organic agriculture has been growing at 11.9% per annum, thereby doubling the size of the sector every six years. Nevertheless, despite ten decades of advocacy for organics, only 1.1% of the world's agricultural land is certified organic. From the outset, the strategy has been to advance the sector 'one farm at a time'. This strategy has left the organics sector well short of the vision of the pioneers of organics who saw organic farming as a universal solution and a practice suited for all farmers and all agriculture. Successful exemplars of marketing strategies of converting 'one consumer at a time' remain elusive. Recent years have seen the development of new strategies for growth of the organics sector. The strategy of 'one crop at a time' has proved successful for the Dominican Republic which now produces 55% of the world's certified organic bananas. The strategy of 'one state at a time' has seen the state of Sikkim (in India) declare itself as the first Indian organic state. Meanwhile, other Indian states are working towards all-organic status, including Mizoram, Goa, Rajasthan and Meghalaya. The strategy of 'one island at a time' has seen the Pacific islands of Cicia (in Fiji) and Abaiang (in Kiribati) commit to 100% organic farming. The strategy of 'one country at a time' sees Bhutan with the stated goal of being the world's first organic nation. These new strategies rely for success on the tripartite cooperation of government, community and commerce. In the meantime, as these new strategies play out, only 11 countries report that 10% or more of their agriculture land is organic, while 111 countries report that less than 1% of their land is certified organic, which reveals great potential for new growth strategies.

Evangelism is not only about preaching and winning the lost at any cost but the approach towards this God given mandate must be achieved in a humble, thoughtful, evaluative, analytical, and prayerful manner as reflected in Luke 14: 28. A strategy that takes into consideration the broad picture of the significance of the Kingdom of God and the entire Body of Christ working together despite our diversities should be adopted to proclaim the message of the Gospel of Christ.

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.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2022. The God Tinilau (Tagaloa) in a Proto-Polynesian Plot: The New Pictogram has been Decoded. Paper. 2 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The God Tinilau (Tagaloa) in a Proto-Polynesian Plot: The New Pictogram has been Decoded” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on April 16, 2022.

Abstract. The Proto-Polynesian drawing is deciphered. Two signs of the Proto-Polynesian pictography are the clues to several Proto-Polynesian lexical forms.

Keywords: Polynesia, Polynesian, Proto-Polynesian, Fiji, Fijian, rock art, petroglyph, pictography, folklore, Austronesian

This report was developed by IRC-MSCA CAROLINE
research fellow Dr Tommaso Natoli (University
College Cork—School of Law) in the course of his
secondment to the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Disaster
Law Programme. The report represents one of
the outputs of the research project “Leave No One
Behind—Developing Climate-Smart/Disaster Risk
Management Laws that Protect People in Vulnerable
Situations for a Comprehensive Implementation of
the UN Agenda 2030”.

The project builds on the need for more coherence
between climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster
risk reduction (DRR), which is today considered as
part of the holistic approach to global governance
to be accomplished within the framework of the UN
Agenda 2030 and its centrepiece the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The basic connections
between CCA and DRR lie in their partly overlapping
goals, namely the reduction of losses due to
weather and climate-related hazards (including both
slow-onset and sudden events) and the improvement
of community resilience (i.e. their capacity to regain
equilibrium after critical system disruptions).1

The urgency of a greater CCA-DRR alignment has been
increasingly reflected in many relevant resolutions and reports adopted at the international level in the
last few years.2 The Checklist on Law and DRR developed
in 2015 by the IFRC and the UNDP stresses the
need “to foster a more integrated approach to DRR
by taking into account climate change and sustainable
development considerations within the review
of legislation”.3 Along these lines, a recent comparative
assessment of previous literature on the topic
(including scientific and technical analysis, research
projects and institutional reports)4 highlights that the
objective of achieving effective CCA-DRR integration
largely depends on the existence of a favourable
institutional and regulatory framework. However, the
lack of viable normative models and standards, and
empirical research on their impact at national and
sub-national levels, was one of the main findings of
the literature review.5

Given the above, the aim of the present study is
two-fold. On the theoretical level, it will contribute to
the advancement of thinking on achieving a sustainable
alignment of CCA and DRR, by exploring the role
of law and policy-making in Pacific Island Countries
(or PICs, see Box 1).6 In particular, the specific context
of PICs will be considered through the lens of
the intersecting commitments made in 2015 by the
international community, with specific regards to
the binding provisions of the Paris Agreement (in
particular article 7 on climate change adaptation) as
well as to the political endorsement of the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
(with specific regards to its guiding principle 19 (e)
and para. 27). The overall linchpin of the analysis
will be the UN Agenda 2030, that acknowledges “the
essential role of national parliaments through their
enactment of legislation and adoption of budgets and
their role in ensuring accountability for the effective
implementation of our commitments”.7

On a more practical level, this report was developed
as a tool of reference for the institutional and operational
mandate of the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Disaster
Law Programme, i.e. to provide evidence-based
models for law and policy-makers and advocate for
new and more effective normative frameworks that
protect the most vulnerable against major hazards.8
This mandate was reiterated and expanded at the
33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Movement that took place in December
2019. As one of the Conference outcomes, participating
States and RCRC National Societies acknowledged
the need to “ensure an integrated approach to
disaster risk management and adaptation to climate
change” in domestic disaster laws, policies, strategies
and plans (see Box 2).

The complex, multi-faceted and evolving concept
of vulnerability against natural hazards in PICs represents
another recurrent theme of this study.9 The
special protection of vulnerable groups (see Box 4),
and their inclusion in the processes for drafting, adoption
and implementation of law and policy at both
national and sub-national levels, represents one of
the core elements of the following analysis, complementing
each of its sections. Hence, vulnerable
groups will not be considered merely as beneficiaries
of additional normative safeguards and protection,
and their effective inclusion as proactive stakeholders
and contributors to the development of new
law and policies dealing with climate resilience will
be assessed.

This paper, using a critical ethnographic methodology, examines the lessons for the Pacific and institution-building from the first ten years (2010-20) of Fiji National University from the perspective of an insider researcher who served as vice-chancellor (president) during this period.  Using a framework of macro- and micro-level challenges, it highlights the key obstacles to executing the vision of a national university.

Rapid tourism growth over recent decades has brought with it a number of challenges for accommodation providers, and particularly located on small islands. Increasing competition has necessitated the need to secure high customer satisfaction, and to develop techniques that allow such satisfaction to be measured and monitored. Traditional tourist satisfaction research commonly used standard Likert-type scales to assess to what degree tourists were satisfied with certain attributes. However, this method neglects the fact that some of these attributes are of more or less importance to guests than others. The Importance-Performance Analysis (I-P Analysis) measures both the importance of an attribute to the guest, as well as the satisfaction with the same attribute. An I-P survey and analysis was conducted at a backpackers resort on Robinson Crusoe Island, Fiji. Results show that resort management know their target audience and cater well for them. However, results also show that there is room for improvement in some areas, and that other areas appear to get too much attention.

The draft paper as at 24th April which is updated from the draft made for the oral presentation session (5th April 2017 does not contain any references and text errors needed corrections). The paper is still being worked on with more sections being added with some aspect areas clarified in more detail. Others are being reviewed. Due to the closure of the Parliament in the UK early for the snap elections, the text is still unfinished and will be resumed for the new Parliament session with no end date set yet. The document is best viewed by a download to Microsoft Word as web browsers tend to muddle the layout. Please note that the ice sheet mass balance changes occur mainly in nearby Iceland, Jan Mayen and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rather than Greenland itself. (High viscous, low nucleation events pushing very cool, effusive, almost 'solid' lava incursions vertically up like the Mascarene volcanism of Mauritius are rare anomalies from a misaligned hotspot influencing further afield - and therefore far less likely.)

Guitars are amalgamations of different materials, from bones and guts to metals and plastics. Wood, though, has always been the guitar's primary building block. And for many guitar makers and players it is mahogany, in particular, that constitutes one of the most prized elements in a complicated mesh of sounds and meanings. Yet in thinking about guitar culture beyond the musician-instrument encounter, down to the historical and geographical layers that make it possible to produce sounds and meanings in the first place, other stories emerge. Understanding the infrastructural dimensions that define the production, circulation, and consumption of mahogany becomes an urgent area of inquiry in contexts where many inequalities are masked by the fetishisms of musical culture, where the regions in which this wood is cultivated are marked by colonial and neocolonial encounters, and where the trees themselves are threatened by overexploitation and extinction. Swietenia macrophylla is a species of tree that is indigenous to the Americas and conventionally known as Honduran mahogany. It became a desired tropical wood in colonial North America and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, favored as it was by shipbuilders, cabinetmakers, and furniture workers. 1 Such high demand led to the rapid demise of one of the main species of mahogany used for these purposes (Caribbean Swietenia mahagoni), and so the supply chain shifted to a type of Honduran mahogany that grows in a region stretching from southern Mexico to lowland South America. By the late twentieth century, this native mahogany was also in decline as a result of deforestation and illegal harvesting, which landed the tree on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) list. Thus, at the dawn of the twenty-first century there emerged a new player in the timber market: mahogany grown on plantations in Fiji. This mahogany eventually became known as a particular global brand of wood: Fiji Pure Mahogany. Fiji Pure Mahogany thus arose not only as a supply chain substitute but as a deliberate marketing tool and a means of bypassing certain difficulties surrounding the exportation and international trade of endangered species.

Melanesia is becoming a region of many partners , expanding diplomatic options and a new sense of independence. The wider context of the new Melanesian assertiveness is one in which China is a rising power and Indonesia is forging closer links with the western Pacific. The impetus to Fiji's new assertiveness arose from the diplomatic isolation imposed upon it by Australia and New Zealand after the 2006 military coup. Papua New Guinea's new confidence is founded upon its liquefied natural gas boom. Even Solomon Islands is expanding diplomatic connections. Regionally , the change can be seen in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which now counts Indone-sia among its members, and in Fiji's push for its own vision of Pacific regionalism. Australia and New Zealand nevertheless remain the indispensable countries in the region. Austra-lia's commitment to Melanesia remains constant but without the bold initiatives and interventionist enthusiasm of the early RAMSI years.

As debate intensified over Fiji's future as either a secular or a Christian state during the 2012 Constitution Commission drafting-process, a more fundamental point arose: had Fiji ever been a secular state? For Bainimarama's military government, a secular state was a novel and crucial innovation. For their principal opponents, the SDL Party and the Methodist Church, it was an unprecedented threat. Yet for Professor Yash Ghai's Commission, a secular state was simply a continuation of the status quo. If supposedly simple facts about the secularism of Fiji's past constitutions could not be agreed, what chance was there generating consensus on secularism for Fiji's future? This paper sets out to provide some clarity on this debate. Where do we find secularism in Fiji's past constitutions? How has it changed through it history of constitutional reform? Why have these changes taken place? And lastly, why was there such disagreement on this issue?

Background: Yard-long bean is one of the exporting crops of Fiji, with approximately half a ton exported annually. Lack of information on the varietal performance under the field condition walls the ability of farmers to choose a suitable variety for higher production under different growing conditions. Therefore, this study aims to identify a higher-yielding variety of yard-long bean that performs to the maximum under the tropical climate of Fiji. Methods: Three varieties of yard-long bean were selected based on their availability and were planted under three different growing conditions. The data on the chlorophyll content, stem girth, plant height, pod number, pod length and pod weight were collected and analyzed. Result: The experiment results indicate that the JS15P variety of yard long bean had significantly the highest leaf chlorophyll content in Trial 1 and Trial 2; however, no significant differences were observed in Trial 3 among the three varieties. No significant differences were observed in the stem girth among the three varieties. As for the plant height, the JS15P variety had significantly the highest among the other two varieties. The results also indicated that the JS15P variety of yard-long bean had significantly the highest yield in all three trials; therefore, the JS15P variety of yard-long bean is highly recommended to farmers in Fiji or those cultivating crops under tropical climatic conditions.

This Health System Review provides an overview of the health system of
Fiji, one that faces many challenges in order to meet increasing demand for
health care from a highly dispersed but rapidly urbanizing island population
during a time of slow economic growth. Section 1 introduces the country,
its people and the economic and political context. It also briefly describes
the health status of the population, whose improvements have slowed since
1990.

Section 2 summarizes the organization and governance of the health
system, including the underpinning legislation and regulations. The
structure of the health system comprises three levels of care and two main
health programmes - primary and preventive health care services and
curative health care services - as well various statutory bodies, councils
and committees. Primary health care and public health care services are
managed through four geographic divisions. From 1999 to 2003 during
a period of reform, a more decentralized management was introduced
but this has been rolled back since 2008. Public health services are
provided through 16 subdivisional hospitals, 78 Health Centres (managed
by a medical officer or nurse practitioner) and 101 Nursing Stations.
Tertiary services are provided through three divisional hospitals and three
specialized (national) hospitals. A small private sector includes two private
hospitals in Suva, several day clinics and 130 private general practitioners
located mostly in the urban centres. In rural areas, traditional healers are
frequently consulted.

Section 3 describes financing of the health sector in Fiji, including an
overview of the system, levels of spending, sources of financing and
payment mechanisms. Government budget allocations for health have
remained relatively constant despite the increasing demand and cost for
health care. In most years, government allocations to health are 8 and 11% of its total public expenditures or between 2.9% and 3.5% of GDP,
among the lowest of Pacific island countries. Although per capita health
expenditure has grown since 1995, at FJ$165 in 2008 it was towards the
lower end of the range for Pacific island countries; government health
expenditure represented 68% of the total. The share of health expenditure
spent on inpatient care in 2008 was 49.2%. Out-of-pocket expenditure has
risen in association with increased activity in the private health care sector.
Health care is financed predominantly through general taxation, followed
by out-of-pocket expenditure. In 2008, external funding was estimated at
6% of total health expenditure. There are no compulsory social insurance
schemes but spending on health insurance increased from 2005 to 2008.
Public health care is free or at very low cost for all persons in the country.
Very modest user fees are charged for some basic and selected services
and certain groups are exempted. Fees charged by private providers are
not regulated by the government. Given Fiji’s geography, some populations
have greater access to health services than others; transportation cost
is a major barrier for those living in remote areas. Pharmaceuticals are
imported by the government-funded Fiji Pharmaceutical Services . From
there, they are supplied to the government health facilities or purchased
by private pharmacies; wholesale and retail mark-ups are set by the
government.

Physical and human resources available to the health sector are described
in Section 4. The government is responsible for the construction,
management and maintenance of all health infrastructure in the public
sector. Many buildings were built long ago and upgrading has been
inconsistent. Funding from foreign governments has been a significant
component of capital expenditure in the health sector over the past decades
and private health infrastructure is a growing component. Equipment
requirements are determined centrally for each level of the system and
requests are reviewed by a national committee. There is a computerized
patient information system that operates in 16 sites and a human resources
information system tracks health professionals.

The MoH employs 3500 salaried public servants, making up 70% of the
health workforce; the remainder are government wage-earners. The
private sector is a smaller but important employer of health professionals,
including in general practice, hospital and specialized facilities. Small numbers of paid ‘carers’ work informally in the community. There has been
pressure to downsize the workforce to reduce costs, while at the same
time the population and demand for services is growing. The per capita
numbers for doctors, dentists and nurses have remained relatively static
over the past 15 years, while the number of pharmacists has declined
significantly. The majority of Fiji’s doctors are now concentrated in urban
hospitals with a marked shortage in rural areas. Insufficient numbers of
health professionals, including specialists, worsened by emigration, is a
major challenge, despite the creation of new cadres of health workers.
To compensate, the MoH employs foreign doctors, including specialists.
Nurses represent almost two-thirds of the health workforce and provide a
full range of services from PHC to acute care; more than half work in the
three divisional hospitals and two specialist hospitals. This section also
describes the health professional training institutions.

Section 5 describes health services delivery mechanisms, explaining the
various facilities available at each level and the referral system, including
the system for referral to overseas tertiary care.

Principal health care reforms are described in Section 6. Despite the
fact that aspects of the health system were reviewed and reforms
recommended dating back to the 1970s, many of the themes taken up
in earlier reviews remain valid today. Following recommendations of
a 1997 review, a comprehensive five-year reform project was initiated,
in parallel with changes across the whole government, to decentralize
management of the health system and to build management capacity.
Political instability brought the changes to an end and in 2008, and many
of the decentralization reforms were reversed. Nevertheless, despite
the disruptions, a decade of efforts at reform is judged to have produced
beneficial change. Further reform of the health sector is needed. Two areas
are a particular challenge for the future. First, reforms are needed in the
production, distribution and retention of human resources across all groups
of health professionals. Second, long-term reform of the health financing
system is needed to ensure that health funding remains adequate and
sustainable.

Section 7 presents an assessment of the Fiji health system against a
set of internationally recognized criteria and drawing on the information summarized in earlier sections. The strength of the Fiji health system
is judged to be its foundation on a primary health care model. The
model has, however, been affected by urban migration, along with some
dissatisfaction with primary health care services, whose quality has been
put under stress by underfunding. The fact that health services have been
essentially free of charge has exposed the health system to the moral
hazard of overuse. MoH policy relies largely on the projected success of
primary health care, health promotion and disease prevention to achieve
health outcomes and to contain the potential for rising curative care costs.
Evidence suggests, however, that this approach is not yet reversing the
trends in risk factors and chronic disease incidence. Life expectancy has
decreased and injury and trauma increased. Out-of-pocket expenditure
has increased along with poverty. Thus far, too little has been done to
address the issue of human resources for health, including emigration.
Health budgets have remained static, although costs have risen. The MoH
has introduced some modest measures to raise revenue and rationalize
service use. These are the first among many adjustments needed to the
model of free health care that the Fiji health sector is built on. Reform has
been faltering but continues, including a revitalization of primary health
care.

Section 8 concludes that while Fiji achieved a high level of population
health coverage through innovative primary health care initiatives in the
1970s, urbanization, changing lifestyles and other factors have led to the
need for the health system to adapt. This has proven difficult to achieve
in a period of political instability and slow economic growth. The financial
challenge to the health system is compounded by its high dependence on
taxation revenue. The issue of the appropriate degree of decentralization
of decision-making will continue to be a challenge. The migration of
health professionals is an issue the health sector must address. This
will require innovation in terms of career structures, other incentives for
health professionals and greater investment in training. The increase in
non-communicable diseases highlights the need for Fiji to adopt policies
and create environments that encourage healthier lifestyles, while also
responding to the needs for clinical care. In summary, the Fiji health
system faces many challenges that will require it to continuously adapt to
new circumstances in order to ensure that it meets the increasing demands
and needs of the population.

Fiji has a checkered history with democracy. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1970, its politics have been marked by a pattern of coups and constitutional reform. After the first military coup in 1987, three constitutions designed by political elites have attempted to resolve ethnic tensions and foster democratic stability. Underlying Fiji's constitutional reforms is a struggle for supremacy between two very different conceptions of the nation, namely ethnic and civic. While the 1970 and 1997 Constitutions sought a form of multicultural compromise with the realities of Fiji's demographic make-up, demands for continued ethno-political paramountcy by sections of the indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) population led to the overthrow of the democratically-elected governments in 1987 and 2000. In fact, the 1990 Constitution institutionalized the privileged ethno-political status of indigenous Fijians. Subsequently, the coup of 2006 ushered in a period of political reform that has sought to promote a more civic and 'ethnically blind' set of constitutional arrangements. This article investigates the potential for democratic stability provided by the 2013 Constitution. It argues that while the 2013 Constitution and its provisions do shift the discourse away from previous preoccupations with race and ethnicity, the context of the constitution-making process also indicates that the Bainimarama regime was largely intent on maintaining the status quo.

This report describes a series of excavations and investigations performed upon the site of Nadrogā, located in the district of Noikoro, Navosa Province, Fiji. The investigation of this site was part of a larger research project that explored the emergence and consequences of competitive and cooperative strategies in Fijian prehistory. Nadrogā is unusual in that it lacks any evidence of fortification, yet is located atop an alluvial terrace that is easily reached by foot. Nadrogā also contains unique architectural features, including a chief's burial mound, and an extensive stone wall. Excavations at the site indicate that occupation dates to between AD 1650 and 1875.

There are diverse ways of knowing and learning.  Learning is best understood within an individual’s cultural milieu which then informs teaching practice. The spoken word is only one in a myriad ways in which opinions or desires can be expressed.  In some cultures, the “loudest voice” is spoken in “silence. In this paper, “silent/absence” as passive resistance to authority is explored in the context of efforts to implement indigenous ecotourism development in the The Boumā National Heritage Park, Taveuni, Fiji.  Silent/absence implies either silence or silent and physical absence.  Implications of silence for pedagogy are then intimated.

This report describes a series of excavations performed upon the site of Qoroqorovakatini, located in the district of Naqalimare, Nadrogā Province, Fiji. The investigation of this site was part of a larger research project that explored the emergence and consequences of competitive and cooperative strategies in Fijian prehistory.

Early Pentecostal Missionaries did a tremendous job in the establishment of the Pentecostal movement in Fiji but their lack of contextual understanding of traditions and cultural issues has birthed a theological impasse between the Mainline churches and the Pentecostal movement in Fiji.

The concept of "coolitude" provides a creative and discursive framework for remembering and comprehending the dislocation and transformation expressed in the literature, art, music, and other creative work of descendents of indentured workers enmeshed in a global scheme of contract labor. As explicated in the work of Mauritian poet Khal Torabully and elaborated by a range of scholars and artists in the decades since, coolitude discourse has come to inform an array of cultural and creative expression in former sites of indenture and their diasporas across the Global South. Beginning in the 1820s and continuing to 1920, the system of indenture transported millions of workers from South and East Asia-"coolies" in colonial jargon-to far-flung territories across the Global South. As a creative practice, coolitude draws on traumatic memories of the past to inform post-indenture identities, importantly referencing the centrality of creolization and cultural mixing in present-day notions of self and community. As an analytical perspective, a coolitudian approach moreover provides poetic context that informs histories of indenture and post-indenture along creolized trajectories in multicultural, postcolonial societies.

This essay addresses the vexed questions of provenance and authenticity of objects that have been collected and made accessible for study. It calls for an exploration of the way in which these have often been uncritically accepted solely on the basis of notes and comments made by the original collectors. The difficulty is that the authority with which collectors were able to speak varied enormously, and even when the collectors obtained objects personally from the original owners, it cannot be assumed that they understood clearly the names, purposes or provenance of the objects they obtained.

Since emerging in Fiji in 1964, betting on Australian horseracing has become an increasingly common pastime for Fijian men. A recently introduced urban practice, this type of gambling is associated with ‘modern’ social settings and is ideologically situated outside the traditional Fijian paradigm.  It faces widespread condemnation as an economic pursuit, with cash circulated through the betting shops often being labelled ‘bad’ money. Paradoxically, this negative valuation of gambling also appears to be one of the most alluring aspects of it.  As a public arena, the betting shops provide a social space in which Fijian men interact on the basis of overt egalitarianism, disorder, and rowdiness, principles and behavioural patterns largely discouraged within the traditional boundaries of the village. Gambling is subversive because money generated from these pursuits is unsuitable for the village economy and thus becomes available to spend freely on luxury goods, namely alcohol, tobacco, or take-away food, all of which are otherwise largely inaccessible. Gambling on horse racing is consequently gaining increasing social importance for Fijian men who wish to negate the constraints of traditional village life and partake in social and economic activities governed by personal desires and consumption rather than traditional communalism. While commercial betting in Melanesia has largely been ignored by anthropologists, this paper proposes that it is a salient point of study for understanding the complex social dynamics that emerge at the interface of gendered and ethnic identities and tradition and modernity in Fiji.