The impact of the market economy is a significant challenge facing Fijian rural
communities. It is especially challenging for indigenous rural women who are managing
the shift from a subsistence way of living to engagement in money generating activities.
The challenge is more acute amongst disadvantaged populations such as women in rural
communities who lack the resources and the political power to manage these challenges.
The thesis provides a critical ethnographic, action-research study of the daily socioeconomic
experiences of a group of Fijian village women, at this time of significant
change. It provides and in-depth case study of a rural Fijian village located in the upper
reaches of the Sigatoka Valley. The case study focuses on the women�s perspectives
about their daily lived experiences and actions that followed from reflection on these,
drawing out from these implications for indigenous Fijian women�s social progress and
development. Herself, a member of the community, the researcher gathered data by a
combination of participant observation, survey, diaries, focus groups and interviews. The
researcher�s observations and understandings were fed back to the participants in the
form of a workshop with the intention of confirmation and to provide and opportunity for
action based on this reflection. It is argued that the success of managing the influence of
the market economy on the villagers is to create social and political spaces and
opportunities to hear and understand local epistemologies and daily lived experiences,
reflexively.
As an indigenous scholar, the researcher interrogates and deconstructs her own academic
epistemologies and positions as a knowledge broker in order to co-construct new
practices with her people. The research promises to make public Fijian village women�s
knowledge, values, practices and experiences so that they can be understood by local
scholars and local government development officers. Privileging the village women�s
knowledge and bringing it to the core is a significant political act that might form the
basis of proceeding political encounters that women will face in the development process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219560 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Yabaki, Tamarisi, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. School of Education and Community Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Tamarisi Yabaki |
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