(Vaka)Vanua as Weakness, (Vaka)Vanua as Strength: Reflections on Fijian Sociality in Urban and Migrant Environments

Abstract

ABSTRACTFiji Islander sociality has long been characterised by high levels of diversity as well as interwoven categories of (self-)inclusion and (self-)exclusion and is increasingly shaped by urbanism and transborder mobility. This article focuses on how Fijians in town and abroad constitute self and belonging between vanua, ‘land’, and vakavanua, ‘tradition’, on the one hand, and the urban and migrant life worlds they inhabit, on the other. Being conceptually framed as a discussion piece and drawing on ethnographic research in urban Fiji as well as among the Fiji diaspora in Japan and Australia, this article takes a cross-comparative approach. It sheds light on the ongoing engagement among Fijian professionals with (vaka)vanua despite its relative absence as a tangible factor in their daily lives. Focusing on the dynamic undercurrents of (vaka)vanua and its social and political meanings from the perspective of three different research trajectories and settings, the discussion reveals that being Fijian in today's world engenders new engagements with ‘land’ and ‘tradition’ in manifold and challenging ways.KEYWORDS: FijiFiji diasporasocialityurbanismmobility AcknowledgementsWe would like to express our gratitude to our interlocutors in Fiji, Australia and Japan who are too numerous to be mentioned by name. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 For our discussion on (vaka)vanua we find anthropological approaches towards ‘sociality’ useful. While the popularity of this term has wavered in anthropology (Carrithers Citation1990; Long and Moore Citation2013a; Sillander, Herrmans and Lounela Citation2021; cf. Long and Moore Citation2013b; Long Citation2015 and Sillander Citation2021 for overviews), it has had a thorough grounding in the Anthropology of Oceania and, more particularly, scholarship on Melanesia (Hoëm and Roalkvam Citation2003; Strathern Citation1988). Sociality, in its broadest sense, is ‘the capacity for complex social behaviour’ (Carrithers Citation1990, 189) and ‘fundamentally dynamic and dialectical’ (Sillander Citation2021, 1). We follow Toren, who writes that sociality ‘denote[s] dynamic social processes in which any person is inevitably engaged, rather than a set of rules or customs or structures or even meanings that exists as a system independently of the individual who is to be socialized’ (Citation1996, 61-62, emphasis in original). Elsewhere, Long explains that what humans do and say as part of their agentive capacities illustrates ‘how any given human being can participate with others in the world in multiple ways (some circumscribed, and others less so), and very often in multiple ways at the same time’ (Long Citation2015, 854). This, as Long and Moore explain, is possible because ‘sociality is open to manipulation and transformation on the part of social actors’ (Long and Moore Citation2013b, 3). Discussing the ways Fijian professionals navigate (vaka)vanua in urban and diasporic contexts, we find Toren, Moore and Long’s emphasis on the processual and relational aspects of everything social particularly useful. Focusing on sociality highlights the dynamic, context-bound and historically-constituted ways Fijian (and other) lifeworlds materialize while simultaneously provoking us to engage with societal frictions (Tsing Citation2005) and multiplicities beyond the well-trodden path of exploring bounded societal, cultural and structural containers (Barth Citation2003).2 Although the current Government of Fiji has proposed to designate indigenous Fijians as iTaukei (‘owners’ [of land]) and to employ the term ‘Fijian’ to all Fiji Islanders (Eräsaari Citation2015) regardless of their ethnic background, we use the term ‘Fijian’ throughout our discussion to refer to persons from Fiji and of Fijian descent (both within the country and beyond) who commonly (self-)identify as part of Fiji’s indigenous population.3 This paper originates in an ongoing dialogue between three anthropologists working in Fiji and the Fiji diaspora which in the past has led to various collaborations. Author one conducted research on Fiji’s political landscape in the country’s capital Suva and other urban areas in Fiji in 2007 and again in 2008–2009. Between 2012 and 2013 he pursued fieldwork with Fiji Islanders in Tokyo and Japan’s Kantō region (on which this article draws) and in Greater London and other areas of the United Kingdom between 2013 and 2016 to explore the Fiji diaspora and their political implications as well as other facets of Fiji Islander transborder mobility (such as sport and military migration). Author two has done ethnographic research in Suva in the 1990s, 2000–2001 and 2004 on gender, ethnicity, nation, and state, working predominantly with students and NGO activists who lobbied for a new constitution in the aftermath of the 1987 coups d’état and stood against the hostage taking of the Fijian parliament and ethno-nationalism during the political crises in 2000. Author three has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in western Fiji since 2009, focusing predominantly on social changes occurring as people move between moral village or kinship economies and come into increasing engagement with the market economy. In recent years this has been extended to working with Fiji diaspora communities in Australia and social activists across Oceania.4 Here, we are drawing on an abstract concerning an Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) working session titled ‘Unasked Questions and Missed Opportunities: Cases from Fiji’ which Pigliasco and Tomlinson proposed a few years ago. The first author is indebted to Matt Tomlinson (personal communication, December 17th, 2017) for sharing the abstract and his encouragement to make use of it.5 See, for example, Becker Citation1995; Katz Citation1993; Nabobo-Baba Citation2006; Ravuvu Citation1983; Tomlinson Citation2009 and Tuwere Citation2002 for Fiji and Hulkenberg Citation2015a, Citation2015b; May Citation2020 and Scott Citation2003 for the Fiji diaspora.6 The Oceana Centre was founded in 1997 by one of the Pacific’s most outstanding scholars, Epeli Hau’ofa. The Centre promotes visual and performing arts. Epeli Hau’ofa tried to enact his vision of Oceania as a ‘sea of islands’ (see also Hau’ofa Citation2008). Acknowledging the importance of place in Oceanic philosophies and histories, he also emphasises that people in Oceania have always moved, migrated and mixed across the ocean and between places. Thus, Oceanic culture was never static and essential, but changing and transforming through the process of mixing and mingling.7 In the wake of colonial policies, all land claimed as indigenous Fijian had to be registered in the name of a mataqali (which commonly translates as ‘clan’) in the Vola ni Kawa Bula (VKB). The 1990 constitution written after the 1987 military coups stated that only those registered in the VKB were considered Fijian and eligible for voting on the Fijian roll as well as entitled to affirmative action schemes (Robertson Citation2000, 271). Even so the 1990 constitution was superseded by the 1997 constitution that abolished that rule, the VKB remains in use and serves as a benchmark for land and identity claims.8 In the latest Australian population census (Citation2021) this category is comprised of people self-identifying according to one of 31 specific pre-determined Oceanic ancestries.9 At one point Andrew mentioned that he had never been to Kadavu. Yet, he and his family have meanwhile travelled to Fiji, to introduce his children to his parents and close kin.Additional informationFundingDominik Schieder's research in Japan was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [grant number PE11043]. Sina Emde's research was funded by the Australian National University. Geir Henning Presterudstuen's research was conducted with help of research funds from the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University (previously University of Western Sydney).