Cruise ship in Suva!

On the weekend a cruise ship docked in Suva for a day with the 2000 tourists on board heading off to Gloria Jeans and buying big at the handicraft markets. It made me very appreciative of the Fijian experience that we have been lucky to have through our jobs, our course and the people we have met.A brochure image for a cruise around the Pacific- a tourists' conception of Fiji!

One incident of the day that stands out was when a Fijian man approached a group of us shopping near MHCC and encouraged us to visit a particular Fijian shop. He told us that they were the only Fijian markets where the money goes directly to the Fijians, and not 'to the Indians.' This is quite a blatant example fo racism in Fiji, however I have also noticed many subtle references to this disharmony everywhere. The source of this tension stems from the historical social structure where "the indigenous Fijians provided the land, the Indians the labour and the Europeans the capital and the management (Teaiwa)." The workplace is overwhelmingly Indigenous Fijian— the park manager at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes is Indo- Fijian, however this appears to be very rare in government and head positions from talking to the other students at the Fijian Arts Council. However outside of the work environment, Indo- Fijians are very visible: driving taxis, working at the shops, at the restaurants. The article by Katerina Teaiwa “Popular Kinship” is particularly useful when looking at this issue. I found our tutorial on this reading very helpful as it was a difficult and dense article with many new ideas and concepts! The value of this paper is that it is a such a new and quite creative perspective on studying the Pacific with her central idea being that pacific cultures can be understood and brought together through the lens of popular culture. Katerina argues that by using popular culture as a tool you provide common experiences for a large mass of people who are then able to accept and interact with more diverse groups, thus providing a way of reconciliation and an ability to be involved in the national identity.