Women’s Active Engagement with the Sea Through Fishing in Fiji

ABSTRACTFiji’s iTaukei (Indigenous) women contribute significantly to small-scale coastal fisheries, and are therefore integral to successful fisheries (co-)management, yet their role still remains underestimated. This paper explores an original pathway to highlight iTaukei women’s role in Fiji’s small-scale coastal fisheries; a pathway that, through a ‘dwelling perspective’, emphasises the socialities that are inseparable from this role. It is based on data collected during two distinct fieldwork periods, 2003–2004 and 2016–2018, in a village located on Gau, Fiji’s fifth biggest island, in Lomaiviti Province. An overview of the fishing practices of the iTaukei women living in this village shows that fishing can be seen as both a gender-differentiated and a more-than-human, dynamic field of sociality. Furthermore, we argue that fishing is these women’s main mode of active engagement with their marine environment, conceived as inseparable from land, and all its sentient constituents. This mode of engagement reflects the relational ontology inherent in the iTaukei all-encompassing concept of vanua, which includes a sense of environmental responsibility and stewardship. This mode of engagement and its ‘procurement’ dimension are adjusted over time through ‘friction’ with conservation regulations and ideas that are both internal and external to the fishing community. These conservation regulations and ideas are related to community-based marine resource initiatives, as well as to national fisheries management concerns and measures (including species-specific fishing bans). They give a supplemental dimension to women’s interactions and engagement with the sea and its sentient constituents, far from reducing those to a mere divide between ‘nature’ and society/sociality.KEYWORDS: FijifishingOceaniasmall-scale fisherieswomen AcknowledgementsThis article was co-written as part of the research project ‘A Sea of Connections: Contextualizing Fisheries in the South Pacific Region’ (SOCPacific; https://socpacific.net/), supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (under grant number ANR-17-FRAL-0001-01) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (under grant number 389654580). This work contributes to Future Earth Coasts, a Global Research Project of Future Earth.Our deepest thanks go to Joeli Veitayaki for generously providing us with ongoing support across the oceans, and to the people of Gau Island, Fiji, especially the people of Malawai who so warmly and generously welcomed us, worked with us through day and night, and shared with us their knowledge and critical perspectives.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Ethics Approval and Informed ConsentFor the 2016–2018 research period on which this paper is based, two human ethics applications were successively submitted to, and approved by, the Research Office of the USP, as confirmed by respective clearance letters from the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and International.Prior, free and informed consent (PFIC) was obtained from customary authorities (through a sevusevu, a ceremony of introduction with presentation of kava – Piper methysticum) as well as from all participants (in oral form, as justified in our above-mentioned human ethics applications).Notes1 See, for example, the ‘Call to Action from Small-Scale Fishers’ supported by the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), https://www.cffacape.org/ssf-call-to-action.2 Where all women were iTaukei during our fieldwork periods.3 https://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/4 Kolokolo, siwa bogi, siwa vanua/matu, siwa tutu, siwa nunu, siwa ibainiua.5 Qoli va vanua, qoli nunu, sausau, bala lawa, tataga, yaciyaci, cina.6 Yet, members of the Seventh Day Adventist denomination have their Sabbath on Saturdays, thus rather fish on Fridays for their Saturday meals.7 Sometimes they do not combine fishing and gleaning, but only glean.8 In this calendar, for instance, January is associated with the abundance of spinefoot and rabbit fish (nuqa), shellfish and bivalves (kaikoso), and trochus (vivili), as well as with the spawning of land crabs (lairo) in the sea; June with the abundance of silver biddy (matu) and goldspot herring (daniva), as well as with the beginning of the spawning season of groupers (kawakawa); and July-August with the abundance of octopus (kuita) (Veitayaki Citation2002; Gatty Citation2009).9 e.g. https://www.fiji.travel/things-to-do/sailing10 e.g. https://www.fiji.travel/things-to-do/surfing11 e.g. https://www.fiji.travel/things-to-do/snorkelling12 Described as ‘a must do underwater adventure in Fiji’, https://www.fiji.travel/articles/sustainability-manta-rays13 Promising ‘one of the most exciting, adrenaline filled and memorable experiences of their life’ to experienced divers and shark enthusiasts, https://www.fiji.travel/articles/shark-diving-in-fiji14 Interview with a woman in her late fifties, September 2016.15 Extracts from the free comments proposed by women in the logbook they completed in 2016.16 Extract from the free comment proposed by a woman in the logbook she completed in 2016.17 Translations based on Ronald Gatty’s Fijian-English dictionary (Gatty Citation2009).18 Nearly all iTaukei Fijians are Christians. In Fiji, Christianity remains dominated by the Methodist Church, but many other Christian denominations are present throughout the country, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah Witnesses, and Pentecostal and evangelical movements (such as the Assemblies of God, the New Methodist Church, and various Baptist groups). See for instance: https://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/statistics/social-statistics/religion.19 The same could be said about men fishers.20 These external partners include: ‘the International Ocean Institute-Pacific Islands Operational Centre (IOI-PI), the University of the South Pacific (USP), Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas network, the French Embassy, the National Trust for Fiji, Nature Fiji Mareqeti Viti, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Frontier Fiji, Planetary Coral Reef Foundation, Edulink, Conservation International, Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mie University and the Fiji Government’ (Veitayaki and Holland Citation2018, 129).21 https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Fiji-introduces-sustainable-management-model-for-Sea-CucumberBeche-de-mer-fx548r/; https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Ban-on-harvesting-sea-cucumbers-lifted-for-6-months-from-1st-July---xr5f4822 Extracts from the free comments proposed by women in the logbook they completed in 2016. Here ‘biche-de-mar’ is the name locally given to sea cucumbers, generally referred to as ‘bêche-de-mer’.23 https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/news/kawakawa-ban-resumes-this-month/; https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Kawakawa-and-Donu-ban-from-1st-June-54rfx8/24 ‘J’utilise le terme “contemporanéité” dans le but précis de faire valoir les dynamiques autochtones, c’est-à-dire les synthèses locales orchestrées, depuis l’époque coloniale, entre les ordres sociaux et symboliques des autochtones et ceux de la société dominante ; j’entends aussi ce que ces synthèses impliquent en termes d’appropriation et de rejet, d’imitation, de relecture et d’innovation, ou encore, en termes d’expériences, de récits, de souffrances et de réalisations. Je tiens aussi à distinguer “contemporanéité” et “modernité”, dans la mesure où ce dernier terme est généralement entendu comme synonyme de la culture occidentale moderne’. (Poirier Citation2000, 139).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by DFG [grant number 389654580]; ANR [grant number ANR-17-FRAL-0001-01].